Lamas stars as a police detective tasked with finding a stolen sword said to have once belonged to Alexander the Great, while coming to grips with the fact that he may well be the reincarnation of said ancient monarch.

Andrew Garrett is a tormented police detective, known in his precinct for clairvoyant abilities, which tend to reawaken in the presence of corpses, although his colleagues are unsure what to make of them.

Meanwhile, historian Julie Wilkins discovers that a crate, which awaited her at a storage warehouse, has been plundered in a botched heist that left a guard dead.

[3] It marked the first feature film leading role of actress Claire Stansfield, as well as her first intimate scene, for which she praised co-star Lorenzo Lamas' professionalism.

[4] Robert Seale, a theater professor at Toronto's York University with a specialization in dramatic sword fighting, recruited the fencers and choreographed the swashbuckling action.

[13] A market study by U.S. trade publication Video Store Magazine was quoted as reporting that The Swordsman generated a 68,4 percent return on investment for rental outlets.

The paper also criticized Stansfield, "who can neither act nor react convincingly", but praised Michael Copeland (misidentified in the review as Nicholas Pasco) as Lamas' psychiatrist.

[16] TV Guide was on the fence, writing that the film was "not a disaster" and its "premise may be clever, but its execution is right off the action flick assembly line."