☰
Rotten Tomatoes
Cancel Movies Tv shows RT App News Showtimes

The Substitute 4: Failure Is Not an Option

Play trailer Poster for The Substitute 4: Failure Is Not an Option R 2000 1h 32m Action Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
17% Tomatometer 6 Reviews 33% Popcornmeter 1,000+ Ratings
In order to uncover a white supremacist group at a Southern military academy, former commando Karl Thomasson joins the faculty of the school. As Thomasson determines which cadets are involved in the racist organization, he falls for Jenny, who also works at the academy. When Thomasson realizes that the school's violent racist streak extends to its administration, the tough teacher is forced to take action.
Watch on Fandango at Home Stream Now

Where to Watch

The Substitute 4: Failure Is Not an Option

Critics Reviews

View More (6)
Frank Swietek One Guy's Opinion Rated: 1/5 Oct 28, 2004 Full Review David Nusair Reel Film Reviews Definitely worth a rental if you're in the mood for some decent hand-to-hand combat... Rated: 2.5/4 Nov 9, 2002 Full Review Scott Weinberg eFilmCritic.com Rated: 1/5 Jul 26, 2002 Full Review Walter Chaw Film Freak Central Everhart is admirably uninhibited about taking her shirt off yet unintentionally disquieting in not only her stunningly wooden elocution, but the dimensions of her cranium Rated: 1.5/4 Oct 28, 2001 Full Review Patrick Marcigliano Apollo Guide Rated: 45/100 Jul 19, 2001 Full Review Christopher Null Filmcritic.com wholly ridiculous, and its silly tagline invites far too many obvious jokes at its expense Rated: 2/5 Apr 8, 2001 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View More (24)
alan g Enough already stop with tHess. Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 08/12/25 Full Review Phillip H These movies are just fun action films. No thrills like modern day films. Just a fun action movie. The whole series was great Rated 5 out of 5 stars 08/03/25 Full Review Bill C While a definitely better experience than the third movie in this series, it fell apart in the last third. The beginning of the movie showed promise (even if it would have made a much better hour-long episode for a "21 Jump Street" offering), and it actually kept the doubts at bay for a bit. Somewhere after the halfway point, it was as if the editor decided it was running too long and cut massive chunks of the movie which caused ridiculous gaps and huge leaps in the already-thin plot. Honestly, the only actor in the movie that did a solid job throughout was Patrick Kilpatrick who played, well, the same character as he's always played. Again, better than #3, not nearly as good as #1, and a bit worse than #2. If you're *reeeeeeeally* bored and hungover, it's not a bad movie to ignore while playing on your phone. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 06/29/24 Full Review Audience Member These movies are hated by alot of people, but they are not THAT bad. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/24/23 Full Review Audience Member First, allow me to say I am a big Treat Williams fan and I did like the Substitute film series. However, this film should have never been made. The first one borders on the cult classic level, the second one rode the wave of success but was not as good as the first, and the third one reached way too much. This fourth version was just not good at all. Sure, it helped that Williams played the role of Karl Thomasson well and this did not cost too much money to produce, but give me a break. The only good thing about this film was the taking down of Neo-Nazi skinheads and Angie Everhart, although I have never seen any teacher look like her before. Not very good but fast paced, which is one of the few things good with this film. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 01/30/23 Full Review Audience Member THE SUBSTITUTE 4: FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION (2000) Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 02/14/23 Full Review Read all reviews
The Substitute 4: Failure Is Not an Option

My Rating

Read More Read Less POST RATING WRITE A REVIEW EDIT REVIEW

Cast & Crew

View All

Robert Radler

Director

Treat Williams

Karl Thomasson

Angie Everhart

Jenny

Tim Abell

Devlin

Scott Miles

Buckner

Bill Nunn

Luther

More Like This

View All
The Punisher 30% 63% The Punisher Watchlist The Last Stand 61% 53% The Last Stand Watchlist The Raid: Redemption 87% 87% The Raid: Redemption Watchlist Machete Kills 29% 35% Machete Kills Watchlist Changing the Game 83% 78% Changing the Game Watchlist Discover more movies and TV shows. View More
View All

The Substitute 4: Failure Is Not an Option

The Substitute 4: Failure Is Not an Option (2000) The Substitute 4: Failure Is Not an Option (2000) View more photos

Movie Info

Synopsis In order to uncover a white supremacist group at a Southern military academy, former commando Karl Thomasson joins the faculty of the school. As Thomasson determines which cadets are involved in the racist organization, he falls for Jenny, who also works at the academy. When Thomasson realizes that the school's violent racist streak extends to its administration, the tough teacher is forced to take action.
Director
Robert Radler
Producer
Robert Radler
Screenwriter
Dan Gurskis
Production Co
Artisan Entertainment
Rating
R
Genre
Action
Original Language
English
Release Date (Streaming)
Sep 1, 2012
Runtime
1h 32m
Most Popular at Home Now