The Expendables is a 2010 action film directed by and starring Sylvester Stallone. The film is intended to be an homage to the blockbuster action films of the 1980's and early 1990's. Following the success of the film, a sequel, The Expendables 2, was released on August 17, 2012, with most of the original cast reprising their roles.
Plot
A group of elite mercenaries known as the Expendables, are deployed to Somalia, to halt local pirates from executing some hostages. The team consists of Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone), former SAS soldier Lee Christmas (Jason Statham), martial artist Yin Yang (Jet Li), sniper Gunner Jensen (Dolph Lundgren), weapons specialist Hale Caesar (Terry Crews) and demolitions expert Toll Road (Randy Couture). Ross pays the original agreement of $3 million to secure the release of the hostages. However, the leader demands $5 million, and Jensen instigates a firefight, causing casualties for the pirates. With moral disagreements over hanging a pirate, Yang and Jensen have a brief fight, only for Ross to intervene. In the aftermath, Ross reluctantly releases Jensen from the Expendables due to psychological problems.
Ross then goes to a church, where he and his rival, Trent Mauser (Arnold Schwarzenegger) meet "Mr. Church" (Bruce Willis), who offers them a mission in Vilena, South America, to overthrow a local dictator, General Garza (David Zayas). Busy with other things, Mauser gives the contract to Ross. Ross and Christmas do initial reconnaissance after meeting with their contact, Sandra (Gisele Itié), only for the mission to go awry. Sandra is revealed to be Garza's daughter. Ross then decides to abort, and causes casualties among the army as they escape, but feels guilt for leaving Sandra behind. Meanwhile, Jensen approaches Garza and allies ex-CIA agent James Munroe (Eric Roberts), and henchmen Dan Paine (Steve Austin) and The Brit (Gary Daniels) to identify his former comrades. During vital points in the film, it is revealed that Munroe controls the actions of Garza, in exchange for Garza's wealth.
Ross, Yang and Christmas find information about Munroe, and hypothesizes that "Church" is part of the CIA. He thinks that Church hired them to kill Garza, since the CIA could not. Jensen and a number of Munroe's men tail Ross and Yang, instigating a shoot-out during a car chase. Just as the pursuit ends in an abandoned warehouse, Yang and Jensen fight each other a second time. Jensen eventually gets the upper hand and attempts to impale Yang on a pipe, only for Ross to shoot him. Believing that he is going to die from his gunshot wound, Jensen gives the layout of Garza's palace to Ross.
The Expendables then infiltrate Garza's compound, with Ross bent on rescuing Sandra while Christmas, Yang, Caesar, and Road plant explosive charges throughout the site. When Garza has a change of heart, Munroe kills him. Ross briefly rescues Sandra, only for Sandra to be re-captured by Munroe. The entire team fights and shoots their way through scores of Garza's henchmen. Ross and Caesar manage to destroy the helicopter Munroe was to escape on, and Christmas, Yang and Road, kill Paine and Brit. Ross and Christmas catch up to Munroe and manage to kill him, saving Sandra. Instead of taking the payment of $5 million, Ross gives it to Sandra in order to restore the country.
The film ends with the team celebrating their victory at the bar of former teammate Tool (Mickey Rourke), with the reformed Jensen and Yang having reconciled with each other and Lee and Tool challenging each other to a game of knife throwing. Before his final throw, Lee recites a poem about his respect for Tool, who he claims cannot beat him in knife throwing as he walks outside of the bar before turning to make his throw, which lands perfectly in the middle of the screen, implying that it landed at the center of the board. They then ride off on their motorcycles.
Cast
- Sylvester Stallone as Barney Ross - Stallone sustained 14 injuries making this movie including breaking a tooth, rupturing his ankle and getting a hairline fracture in his neck that required the surgical insertion of a metal plate. He also had bronchitis and shingles during the shoot.
- Jason Statham as Lee Christmas - Statham starred in Death Race, a remake of Death Race 2000 which featured a young Sylvester Stallone in one of his first starring roles.
- Jet Li as Yin Yang - The character was originally called Kong Kao. This is Li's third film with Jason Statham. They previously starred in The One and War.
- Dolph Lundgren as Gunner Jensen - This is Lundgren's second film with Stallone, the first being Rocky IV, in which they box against each other. Lundgren said this film is "an old-school, kick-ass action movie where people are fighting with knives and shooting at each other."
- Mickey Rourke as Tool - Rourke did this film as a favor to Stallone, who offered him a major role in the 2000 film Get Carter because Rourke was in a career slump.
- David Zayas as General Garza - This character is based on Manuel Noriega, the former military dictator of Panama who had a corrupt relationship with the CIA and drugs.
- Steve Austin as Dan Paine - Austin almost lost his leg during shooting due to an explosion that went off next to his foot. What saved him was that the bag he was holding took the bulk of the blast.
- Bruce Willis as Mr. Church - Willis improvised the line "You guys aren't gonna start sucking each other's dicks are ya?" in the scene with Stallone and Schwarzenegger.
- Arnold Schwarzenegger as Trent Mauser - This was his first film in six years. He last appeared in Disney's 2004 film Around the World in 80 Days. Schwarzenegger did his cameo for free.
- Terry Crews as Hale Caesar - Wesley Snipes was offered this role but couldn't accept because, due to his tax problems, he wasn't allowed to leave the United States without the court's approval. The role was taken by Forest Whitaker and rewritten for him, but he was forced to leave the film due to a scheduling conflict. The role was then offered to rapper 50 Cent who turned the role down to focus on his music career. It was then that Crews got the part.
- Eric Roberts as James Munroe -Ben Kingsley, Robert De Niro and Al Pacino were considered for this role.
- Randy Couture as Toll Road
- Gary Daniels as The Brit
- Giselle Itié as Sandra
- Charisma Carpenter as Lacy
Music
The Score of the movie was composed by Brian Tyler. Many other pop songs were used in the movie and the trailer.
- Main article: The Expendables Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
- Main article: Music n the Expendables franchise
Appearances
- Barney Ross
- Lee Christmas
- Yin Yang
- Gunner Jensen
- Hale Ceasar
- Toll Road
- Tool (First appearance)
- Mr. Church (First appearance)
- Trent Mouse (First appearance)
- James Munroe (First appearance)
- General Garza (First appearance)
- Dan Paine (First appearance)
Cold Steel Espada - Tool's knife
- Grumman HU-16 Albatross - The Expendables' boat/plane
- 1955 Ford F-100 - Barney Ross's truck
- Ducati Desmosedici RR - Lee Christmas's motorcycle
Trivia
- Plans for the sequel were already planned 7 months before the debut in the theaters.
- Steven Seagal was asked to play a cameo but turned it down due to negative connections with producer Avi Lerner.
- Producer Avi Lerner decided to cut the film down to two versions, a PG-13-rated version and an R-rated version, both of which will be screen tested to see which one will be officially released. Lerner had considered cutting down the violence because of the success of recent PG-13 action films like Live Free or Die Hard and The Dark Knight. Lerner has claimed that Sylvester Stallone's previous film Rambo could have been even more successful, had it not contained such extreme violence and gore.
- The initial budget for the film was $60 million but increased to $70-$80 million.
- The silver badge on General Garza's right breast is actually a United States Army Combat Action Badge. It is awarded to non-infantry soldiers who have actually engaged an enemy force in combat, and worn on the left breast. Since it would be nearly impossible for a foreign general to earn a CAB legitimately, the costume department most likely simply picked out a random military badge.
- In Germany both Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger share the same voice actor (Thomas Danneberg). This, the first movie with both stars on screen, required Danneberg to do the voices for both actors. While keeping Stallone's voice raspy and low, Schwarzenegger's was dubbed lighter, but it's the same voice.
- This could have been Brittany Murphy's final film before she passed away. However Sylvester Stallone cut her character from the script before anything was filmed.
Gallery
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Film Gallery
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Behind the Scenes Gallery
Trailers
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