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The Expendables 3 is a 2014 action film directed by Patrick Hughes and is a sequel to the 2012 film, The Expendables 2 and it is the third installment of the trilogy. This is the second film in the franchise to have an unrated director's cut (the first film had a similar re-release) and was released exclusively November 25, 2014 on Blu-Ray. While the theatrical cut was originally rated PG-13, very little of the Unrated version is any different other than three additional F-bombs being added and some questionable background cuts that aren't much different in their brutal nature nor is any gore re-added.

Despite fans of the franchise complaining about the CGI blood, they also ended up complaining about the lack of any blood (save for the final fight between Conrad Stonebanks and Barney Ross).

Production

In March 2012, Couture stated that a third installment of The Expendables could enter production in late 2012, following the release of The Expendables 2.[94] In April 2012, Steven Seagal said that he had been offered a role in a third film.[95] Producer Avi Lerner also stated that the producers were intending to bring back the series' current stars, attempting to have Rourke reprise his role, had already approached Clint Eastwood about a role, and had plans to pursue Harrison Ford and to approach Wesley Snipes following his release from prison.[96] Stallone said: "We are thinking about different concepts – the third one is the hardest. The second is the natural progression. The third, that’s when the air gets rare. We’re thinking ambitiously about it... You now have to give audiences something they don’t expect at all – maybe even going into a different genre. Stallone confirmed on April 2013 that indie filmmaker Patrick Hughes would direct the second sequel. On May 22, Stallone confirmed he needed a "Young Sigourney Weaver" and after passing on Milla Jovovich, started eying other MMA talent Ronda Rousey.

On October 22, Stallone announced via Twitter that the film had been fully completed and applauded castmembers Grammer, Snipes, Banderas and Ford. The Expendables 3 Movie has been leaked recently hence, it will affect at its box office collection. You'll get more about EX3 at The Expendables 3 Movie Website.

Plot

An armored train is taking a fugitive to the Denzali prison. Hot on their trail are The Expendables, flying in a chopper piloted by leader Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone). The gang has set up a wire a few miles down. Lee Christmas (Jason Statham), Gunner Jensen (Dolph Lundgren), and Toll Road (Randy Couture) start shooting at the guards, who fire back. The three of them hop on the roof and start fighting with the guards, when Christmas goes inside the train and retrieves the prisoner, a man they call Doctor Death (Wesley Snipes). Christmas frees him and tries to get him out, but Doc stops to stare at a portrait of a general. They get to the roof of the train again, but Doc has other plans. He runs to the front of the train, killing every guard in his path, and he steers the train directly into the prison, killing the general and blowing up the whole place.

Doc happens to be a former Expendable, as he tells Gunner and Road. He killed a whole mess of people, but he was imprisoned for tax evasion (an allusion to Snipes's legal problems). Gunner hands him his knife so that Doc can shave himself. He then walks to the cockpit to talk to Barney. Even though Doc is eager to go home, Barney informs him that he and the team need to locate an arms dealer named Victor Menz, who is unloading a shipment of bombs. To persuade Doc to join, Barney hands him a bag of knives, which all belong to him. Doc is pleased.

The Expendables arrive in Somalia, meeting up with Hale Caesar (Terry Crews). Together, they sneak through the docks to find their target, shooting at the thugs they come across. They spot a chopper coming down, and out steps a man named Conrad Stonebanks (Mel Gibson). Barney and Doc are shocked to see him, as he was believed to have been dead, and they begin to open fire without warning. Stonebanks and the thugs fire back, leading to a chase through the docks and a warehouse. Road, Caesar, and Gunner shoot at the thugs, who chase them with bigger firearms, including a grenade launcher. The team manages to evade the pirates, but Stonebanks gets away on his chopper, flying over the warehouse. Stonebanks aims his rifle at Barney, but then moves to Caesar, shooting him in the leg and then in the back. He then drops a bomb down on them, forcing the team to jump into the river as the bomb goes off.

The team tries to tend to Caesar's wounds, but can't do much for him. They take him to the hospital, where Barney leaves him with his lucky ring. The rest of the guys go to a bar, where Barney decides he has to leave his friends behind so that they don't get hurt. He leaves the bar, with Christmas running off to convince him otherwise, but Barney's mind is made up.

Barney goes to Las Vegas to meet with an old friend, Bonaparte (Kelsey Grammer) with the intention of recruiting new, younger team members for The Expendables. Bonaparte agrees after learning that Stonebanks is alive. Their first stop is in Wyoming, where they meet Thorn (Glen Powell), who has good hacking skills. He is introduced when he is seen climbing rocks, and then jumps off with his parachute. Barney and Bonaparte then head to New York and go to a nightclub and meet the hostess, Luna (Ronda Rousey). Barney witnesses her in action when she beats the crap out of a few guys causing trouble. The next guy is named Galgo (Antonio Banderas), who faked his resume to get in. Bonaparte rejects him after hearing that his last team let him go, despite Galgo pleading and insisting he has exceptional combat and weapons skills. Barney and Bonaparte continue at an air base in California, meeting Mars (Victor Ortiz). He's good with weapons, and Barney instantly likes him. The last guy on their list is found fighting in Mexico. His name is John Smilee (Kellan Lutz). He's got a hothead attitude and doesn't care to listen to what Barney has to offer him, but then decides to join. Barney gathers the new recruits and shows them off to his old friends before departing with them to get Stonebanks. The old team sees the young guys (and lady) as amateurs.

Drummer informs Barney that the CIA wants Stonebanks alive for him to be tried in court at The Hague. With Trench, Barney flies with the young recruits to locate Stonebanks. Smilee asks Barney why they're hunting Stonebanks down. Barney hands him a folder that depicts the number of war crimes and atrocities committed by Stonebanks. The team drops down in Romania and spends time spying on Stonebanks during his trips to make art purchases, learning that he is planning to make a deal with another arms trader.

Thorn comes up with a carefully orchestrated plan in which the team would take out security and surveillance before getting Stonebanks, which is a better plan than what Barney would have come up with. The team infiltrates a warehouse where the trade is going down. They shoot through any thug standing in their way before they capture Stonebanks. They take him away in a van, where he admits to being rather surprised at the new team's work. It is revealed that Stonebanks was a co-founder of The Expendables with Barney, but he went bad after deciding he wasn't satisfied with the jobs he and Barney took on, deciding to make better money by doing dirty deeds. Stonebanks eggs Barney on to try and kill him, knowing he won't do it. Outside, his thugs come down from a helicopter and shoot a grenade at the van, causing it to crash and throwing everybody out of the van. Barney gets up and reaches for a gun to kill Stonebanks, but one of the thugs fires another grenade, throwing Barney off the bridge and down into the ravine. The thugs almost execute the rest of the team, but Stonebanks wants them alive.

Barney meets up with Trench and is shown a video sent by Stonebanks of Thorn, Mars, Luna, and Smilee all captured. He taunts Barney, knowing he will try to come and get them back. As Barney plots his rescue mission, he is found by Galgo, who somehow managed to locate him. Barney allows him to come along, and is then joined by Christmas, Road, Doc, and Gunner, since they are the only ones crazy enough to follow him into this mess. On their trip, Barney learns from Galgo that his team did not drop him, but they were killed on their last mission.

The team finds the building where the recruits are being kept. They find them and cut them loose easily, but as Conrad had anticipated this, he wires the whole place with C4 explosives to go off in 45 seconds. Thorn uses a battery-powered device to bug the signal, stopping the clock at 9 seconds. They head out to find Stonebanks, but Gunner and Road continue to antagonize the recruits. Barney tells them to shut up because this type of conflict is exactly what Stonebanks is expecting. They resolve to work together and fight back.

And so, another round of ass-kicking and gunfights occurs. From outside the building, Trench shoots from a helicopter with Drummer flying it, along with returning Expendable Yin Yang (Jet Li) shooting at the thugs as well. Smilee beats up some thugs and takes their motorcycle. Luna fights off and shoots thugs, impressing Galgo, who starts flirting with her. Even Galgo himself proves his worth by shooting thugs. Everybody else has their hand in killing every last man in the place. The Expendables and recruits make it out to the chopper (complete with Trench shouting the famous "GET TO DA CHOPPA" line). And then, it all comes down to Barney and Stonebanks, facing off for the last time. The two engage in hand-to-hand combat, before Barney manages to shoot Stonebanks dead for good.

The battery on the device drops to 0%, causing all the explosives to start going off. Barney races to the roof to catch the chopper, as the whole building starts blowing up beneath him. With mere seconds left, Barney hops off the roof and grabs onto the rope, and everyone cheers him on.

Later on, Caesar has made a full recovery and rejoins his friends at a bar. The four recruits are made official members of The Expendables, along with Galgo, who is ecstatic. Luna goes over to kiss Barney on the cheek for caring for them, and Smilee has a bit of banter going on with Barney, suggesting he may become the next leader. Barney tells him to keep dreaming. Christmas and Doc throw knives at the dartboard to see who's better. They both hit the bullseye, but Doc's knife falls off. The four recruits then go up onstage and sing karaoke to Neil Young's "Old Man". Barney watches them, which Christmas says looks like a "proud demented father." He jokes that it's a compliment.

Spoilers:

In the beginning of the film on a plane, one of them asks their new member how come he was in prison, he said, "Tax evasion". Stop at 17:15.[2]

Script Leak: [3]

INT. ABANDONED MILITARY BASE.The huge airline hangar is filled with burnt wreckage, old communist computers and paramilitary corpses, none of which belong to THE EXPENDABLES. There’s STATHAM, cockney knife genius. LUNDGREN, the sniper, his gaze as icy as a Jönköping eve. The SEVEN-FOOT-TALL MMA DUDE [nationality TBD] cleans his gore-flecked Gatling gun. Meanwhile, their weathered leader STALLONE regards his bro-turned-rival SCHWARZENEGGER across a table made out of empty plutonium canisters.

SCHWARZENEGGER
So those “peace activists” were working with the Grenadian sleeper agents all along.

STALLONE
That’s right. And they set up all of us to take the fall—of bullets.

SCHWARZENEGGER
What are you going to do? Alert the government?

STALLONE
So they can kill us instead? I ain’t no fan of these crazy revolutionaries, but the CIA… also bad.

SCHWARZENEGGER
You must think you’re some kinda Rambo.

STALLONE
If you’re not in on our little mission, then hasta la vista, baby.

SCHWARZENEGGER
A real Tango and/or Cash.

An irritated STALLONE rises to grab SCHWARZENEGGER by the collar.

STALLONE
I don’t know why you came jingling all the way in here, but—

STATHAM
(Britishly)
Oi, mates! Let’s not be a bunch of wankers about this.

FRASIER appears from a cargo plane, holding wine.

FRASIER
Carafe of Beaujolais, gentlemen?

SCHWARZENEGGER
Is that… uh…

FRASIER
An exquisite vintage? Certainly.

STALLONE
He’s an old friend.

SCHWARZENEGGER
What’s his specialty?

FRASIER
Aside from amateur translations of Dante, you mean?

SCHWARZENEGGER
You ever taken down a helicopter with one of those?

FRASIER
Oh no, I’m far too effete for all this bristling weaponry, being haughty psychiatrist Frasier Crane.

FRASIER
(CONT’D)
(idly massaging a rifle barrel)
Have you fellows ever considered that this whole gun thing might be a sublimated form of male insecurity?

A fallen paramilitary soldier suddenly staggers to his feet and lunges for a grenade, but STATHAM skillfully dribbles a combat knife into his gut.

SEVEN-FOOT-TALL MMA DUDE
Nice.

FRASIER
That was rather bracing.

STALLONE
It’s getting too dangerous around here, Frase. We need to reactivate you again. Is the Doctor in?

FRASIER
(agitated)
Ah, please, don’t—I know certain talents of mine may prove useful to the Expendables soon, but please don’t say that word…

STALLONE
“Maris.”

FRASIER shuts his eyes in some distress. When they reopen, it’s with the bedside manner of Death personified.

FRASIER
(darkly)
That was a grave thing you did just now, friend. There must be much slaughter ahead of us. Many subjects for my lithe and pitiless surgery.

STALLONE
You know it.

FRASIER
The Agency consigned me to Seattle with quite the cover story. My maimed father, our dutiful housekeeper, the radio show, that mischievous little dog. When you reawoke me I had to eliminate them all, of course.

FRASIER
(CONT’D)
I took no glee or joy in it. They were dispassionate professionals, and would have done the same to me.

STALLONE
(apologetically)
The dog had a remote-controlled bomb inside of it.

FRASIER
Though I will allow that I lingered beyond reason with the one who called himself Niles. Beyond reason, but not beyond purpose. Have you never wondered how many quivering organs could be removed from a living human?

STATHAM purses his lips delicately.

STALLONE
(as if reviving from a stupor)
We can’t let those anthrax spores reach St. George’s, the capital of Grenada.

SCHWARZENEGGER
Are we playing the heroes now?

STALLONE
As long as it’s a paid performance.

SCHWARZENEGGER
Well, remember to get to the chopper. When we raid the airstrip out there, I mean.

STALLONE
Yippie-ki-yay.

LUNDGREN readies his sniper rifle, gazing into the sight as coolly as gravlax spread, or an Ingmar Bergman tableau. While the other EXPENDABLES get into position, FRASIER puts on a cardigan the shade of bitter dirt and sickening nights and a hole in Creation. He has no visible weapons. STALLONE gives them all a signal before opening the hangar door.

EXT. AIRSTRIP - DAY

Several hundred feet away, a dozen GRENADIAN MARXIST TERRORISTS are loading canisters onto a military cargo plane. There are many ominous-looking skull symbols on them. When the EXPENDABLES appear, they begin gesticulating wildly. Somebody’s head explodes in extreme SLOW MOTION.

STALLONE
Let’s show these boys the original chemical weapon: lead.

STALLONE picks off beret-wearing gunmen with his enormous assault rifle. SCHWARZENEGGER has somehow acquired a rocket launcher. STATHAM expertly tosses his nail clipper through a man’s jugular. The SEVEN-FOOT-TALL MMA DUDE is running through entire people.

SEVEN-FOOT-TALL MMA DUDE
Woo!

FRASIER pauses while beating the nearest enemy soldier to death with an antique alarm clock.

FRASIER
At the risk of betraying my Freudian leanings, is there not beauty in annihilation?

INT. HELICOPTER GUNSHIP

Suddenly the GRENADIAN COMMANDER pops up to grab the controls of this nearby GUNSHIP, preparing to take off and mow down the exposed EXPENDABLES. Then, as if from a fold in the shadows, FRASIER appears behind him.

FRASIER
All flesh sings, if one knows how to listen to it. Yours is begging for the knife. “And there is hunger in the desert, and missiles in the sky, and every soul is interwoven before the wrong or right.”

The GRENADIAN COMMANDER is unable to react before FRASIER kills him horribly.

EXT. AIRSTRIP - DAY

STALLONE idly kicks at a recovered canister of weaponized smallpox while brushing brain matter off his bulletproof vest.

STALLONE
(gruntingly)
Looks like the Expendables are going on a Caribbean vacation. All expenses covered.

SCHWARZENEGGER
That’s good, because the last time I was there I told some friends that I’d be back.

STATHAM
Back in Blighty, we’d call this a typical Boxing Day, the post-Christmas holiday shared by several Commonwealth nations.

FRASIER rejoins the rest of the team, holding a meticulously reassembled human spinal column.

FRASIER
I believe I’ve found a replacement for poor departed Eddie. Can’t you just picture him trotting into Cafe Nervosa, presaging the fate of all life?

SEVEN-FOOT-TALL MMA DUDE
You know, that’s an interesting image. I was writing my dissertation on the use of memento mori in medieval European art, focusing on major plague outbreaks near Florence, but I had to abandon it after we got hired to track down that rogue arms dealer…

Distantly, the sound of explosions.

Cast

  • Ivan Kostadinov as Krug
  • Sarai Givaty as Camilla[4]
  • Natalie Burn as Kristina Stonebanks[5]
  • J.J. Perry - stunt coordinator/fight choreographer
  • Yana Viktorova - Assistant fight coordinator/stunt assistant
  • Dian Hristov - stunt coordinator and Dolph Lundgren's stunt double
  • Walter Garcia - assistant stunt coordinator
  • Boyan Anev - stunt performer
  • Brad Martin - supverising stunt coordinator
  • Thomas Canestraro - stunt performer
  • Ivailo Dimitrov - stunt performer
  • Genadiy Ganchev - stunt performer
  • Zahari Grozdanov - stunt performer
  • Ivan Iliev - stunt performer
  • Yavor Kirilov - stunt performer
  • Georgi Manchev - stunt performer
  • Stilyan Mavrov - stunt performer
  • Trayan Milenov-Troy - stunt performer
  • Ivan Neshev - stunt performer
  • Velizar Peev - stunt performer
  • Krasimir Simeonov - stunt performer
  • Sylvester Sindane - stunt performer
  • Vencislav Stojanov - stunt performer
  • Mens-Sana Tamakloe - stunt performer
  • Matthew Van Leeve - stunt performer
  • Kaloian Vodenicharov - stunt performer
  • Vasil Yordanov - stunt performer
  • Radoslav Parvanov - stunt performer and Sylvester Stallone's stunt double
  • Reg Milne - key stunt rigger
  • Ronnie Paul - Russian arm precision driver
  • Georgi Stanislavov - Mel Gibson's stunt double
  • Elitsa Razheva - Ronda Rousey's stunt double
  • Danko Jordanov - stunt double for both Arnold Schwarzenegger and Kellan Lutz
  • Jace Jeanes - Jason Statham's stunt double
  • Martin Ivanov - Jason Statham's car driving double
  • Radoslav Ignatov - Glen Powell's stunt double

  • 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 3 Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

    Sequel

    In late 2013, Randy Couture confirmed that, although The Expendables 3 had not yet been released, there were already plans for a fourth installment.[54] This was confirmed in March 2014 by former James Bond actor Pierce Brosnan, who stated that he had agreed with Avi Lerner to star in a future The Expendables sequel.[55] Hulk Hogan claimed on his Twitter account that he will be in the fourth film. Also, You can read about the Expendables 4 Rumors at TheExpendables3MovieS.com The Expendables 3 blog.

    Speculation

    • DEBUNKED:Jason Statham said "You may see history made in the next Expendables", which may mean that the film will feature flashbacks of how the Expendables were made.[6]
    • DEBUNKED: Back in November 2013, Sylvester Stallone hinted retiring from action movies and the franchise, which may mean that the film will be the final installment, due to Barney paying his debt with Church, and Barney possibly thinking of something to honor Billy "The Kid" Timmons after his death in the prequel.[7]
    • DEBUNKED: Stonebanks may have plans to terminate the group by the order of the senators and congressman into involving the A.I.P.A.C. lobby group giving the order to C.I.A. and F.B.I. into terminating the group by fraud and interest, and by doing that, they may have Church, Booker and Maggie to be killed for making it look like they were responsible for their deaths even possibility being too powerful to control the mercenaries.
    • DEBUNKED: The flashback may feature Barney, Tool, Booker, Trench, Bonparte, Rapido, Vogner and Stonebanks with CGI animation to look young.
    • CONFIRMED: Christmas and Surgeon will have a knife rivalry.[8]
    • DEBUNKED: There may be a romantic connection between Smilee and Luna.
    • DEBUNKED: Smilee may be born "John "Smilee" Ross", possibly hinting that he may be Barney's son or grandson.
    • DEBUNKED: Barney may had become the way he was, possibly because of Stonebanks betraying the Expendables, by killing Barney's wife.
    • CONFIRMED: The final battle will take place at the Xotea Apalm.
    • DEBUNKED: It is possible that in 1985, which may be the year Conrad Stonebanks may have been killed by Barney, the founding Expendables were tasked to protect the head of Xotea Apalm in Bulgaria, but Stonebanks quickly betrayed and killed the head, and put the blame on Doc, which led him to be in prison, that made Barney retaliate by pushing him into the computers, blowing up the place, which closed it down for 30 years (1985-2014).

  • 35 things from First Collider:
    • The production shot from August 19, 2013 through the end of October. It was a 56 day shoot.
    • The production has 1st and 2nd units filming all the time.
    • Stallone revealed he was going to try and get Jack Nicholson to make an appearance, but “we just got there a little too late cause actually he had said he might be interested in it.” Can you imagine Nicholson in The Expendables 4?
    • Stallone says the opening scene, “is the extraction of Wesley (Snipes) from the most heavily-fortified, armor-plated train via helicopter, and it’s real. So you’re going to see something that’s not CGI and is pretty extraordinary. So that’s just your opening, and we go from there to Somalia and it’s epic, it’s huge. That’s where Mel Gibson makes his entrance.”
    • Dan Bradley is the second unit director. He directed second unit on the Bourne movies, Green Zone, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, Spider-Man 2 and 3, and many other films.
    • Gibson and Stallone have an epic fight scene towards the end of the movie.
    • Harrison Ford plays a high level officer that supervises Bruce Willis’ character. They referred to his character as a “super spook,” and he flies a helicopter.
    • Kelsey Grammer plays an agent that represents mercenaries.
    • The film takes place in Mogadishu, Somalia and then in fictional third world countries.
    • 200 people are working on the CGI in Bulgaria at a studio facility.
    • The CGI team did 1400-1700 or so shots in The Expendables 2 but they’re expecting over 2000 VFX shots in the third film.
    • Stallone is very particular about what the explosions and injuries should look like when done via VFX. He’s very exact about the blood and wounds.
    • The film has a very long shot that involves a big battle scene with a long camera pan. From the pre-viz that we got to see, the sequence should be around 2 minutes without a cut.
    • As you might imagine with a huge cast, not everyone worked the entire production. Jet Li worked only a few days. Terry Crews worked a week and he almost couldn’t do the film due to his TV series, Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Schwarzenegger worked a little more than a week. On the first film Schwarzenegger worked half a day, and in the second he was on set for four days.
    • Wesley Snipes character, Doc, is a knife guy and is at odds with Statham’s character, even though they’re on the same team.
    • There is definitely a scene featuring Schwarzenegger and Ford. I’m not sure what happens in the scene, but this will be the first time the two of them will be on screen together.
    • The soundstage the production was filming at was built in the 1950s. Avi Lerner and Nu Image bought the studio in 2006 and since that time has been used for films such as 300: Rise of an Empire, Hercules 3D, The Expendables 2, The Black Dahlia, and many more.
    • All the fight scenes have been done with pre-viz so the actors can see how it will play out, and the team made sure to use each actors’ strengths to help craft each scene.
    • Fight coordinator/stunt coordinator J.J. Perry says the action scenes in Expendables 3 are taking the first two films and “adding hot sauce and mixing them in a blender.”
    • Perry said that when Wesley Snipes came in to see how his fight scene would play out, he added some moves and had a lot of ideas on how to tweak it.
    • One of the stunt guys we spoke to says Expendables 3 has the most action he’s done for one movie, and he’s been involved in over 100 films.
    • The film uses weapons like an A12 semi-automatic shotgun, an HK 416 (which was last seen in Zero Dark Thirty), and so many other weapons I couldn’t keep track of them.
    • Antonio Banderas said he wanted to be in the film but wouldn’t play a villain. At first Stallone said he had to think about it, but he came back to him and said, “please read this and feel free to just tell me what you think about the character and if you wanna change things.” So Banderas read it, made some changes (including the character name), and Stallone accepted all of it. That’s when he signed on.
    • Banderas plays a mercenary. He said, “He’s a guy who has been with a uniform in the Spanish army for a long time, in places of combat like Kosovo and Afghanistan and places like that. But something happened to him, that you will see in the movie, that takes him out of that. And so, he becomes a solitary man. Knowing the existence of the Expendables, he’s trying to approach them, by any means, but he never got the possibility. In fact, when Stallone’s character breaks up with the rest of the group, there’s the possibility to actually approach him, but he’s rejected. But, he doesn’t stop there. He keeps going and going and going and going and going, until he’s finally in the group. He shows his skills and suddenly they say, ‘We’re gonna give you an opportunity.’ That’s the way that he gets into the group. He wins his way inside the group by the actions that he does in the movie.” The film has a very long shot that involves a big battle scene with a long camera pan. From the pre-viz that we got to see, the sequence should be around 2 minutes without a cut.
    • Victor Ortiz said he’s recruited in the film by Stallone and Grammer. When they find him he’s in a military camp where he’s one of the elite military soldiers.
    • Ortiz says his character is named Mars and he’s a weaponry specialist. He also said his character is between a nice guy and a bully.
    • Kellan Lutz plays John Smilee, the leader of the younger Expendables. The reason for the nickname is his character never smiles.
    • Lutz says at the beginning of the film, the younger guys are a bit cocky and no one really likes the older Expendables. I’m guessing that changes by the end.
    • Lutz says he was part of an action scene where Schwarzenegger said his classic line “Get to the chopper.”
    • One of his action scenes features Lutz’s character riding a motorcycle going over tanks and being shot at by very large weapons.
    • Lutz said when Gibson showed up on set “His arms were the size of my head. I was like, ‘Holy crap.’ He looked big and I remember Sly came to set. He was like, ‘Man, now I gotta double days or two-a-days hitting the gym because I can’t have Mel be bigger than me.’ It was really good, they weren’t competitive and I know Sly was just, you know, there’s some humor there. Sly got big and Mel was big. Everyone just wanted to look top of their game.”
    • Patrick Hughes was filming a lingerie commercial on Bombay beach when he found out Stallone wanted to meet with him about directing The Expendables 3. His first meeting was supposed to be thirty minutes and it ended up being two and a half hours.
    • Hughes wants all the action scenes to be different. He said, “I was saying to Sly let’s make every single action set piece distinct and dynamic and its not just guys blazing guns the whole movie. That we really sort of mix it up and have a variety of landscapes and textures and aesthetics and really making it dynamic. There’s a lot of big action, there’s a lot of big action set pieces, and every single action set piece is completely different from the other.”
    • Hughes told me a great story about how Stallone got Gibson to be in the film. He said, “It came together very quickly. I remember I was working with Sly. We were discussing who we could get to play the villain and I remember I was in his office he walked in one day and said, ‘Hey what do you think of Mel Gibson?’ I’m like dude, ‘Mel Gibson. Come on Mad Max vs. Rambo, bring it on.’ And he goes, ‘Yeah, you’re right.’ And then he just turns around, picks up his phone and just calls Mel straight up. I think obviously Sly’s had a huge enormous, phenomenal career and he’s able to do that. It was pretty crazy.”
    • One of the things that made Hughes happy to shoot in Bulgaria was the variety of location. He said, “I’ve shot every country in the world five times over in the last fifteen years, and shooting in Bulgaria reminds me a lot of shooting in a place like New Zealand. When you shoot in a place like New Zealand, it’s why a lot of movies film there and why a lot of movies come to Bulgaria, is you’ve got a variety of locations that are really close together. One thing I really pursued on this film, I pushed from the start when sitting with Sly, I was like, ‘Let’s not just end up with a whole movie that’s green screens and studios and that sort of stuff. Let’s go out on location. We’re going to have a chopper attacking a train, lets just get a freaking chopper and buy a train and let’s do it for real.’ It’s really economical shooting here, because when you move locations you tend to lose a lot of time, sometimes you lose up to a half a day just moving location. So a place like Bulgaria, within fifteen minutes of the studio you’re at snow capped mountains, you’re in a city, you’re in the forest, you’re in a rural area, you’re in farmland, you’re in industrial zones, and you’ve got all these different textures and aesthetics and landscapes that are all within fifteen minutes. That was the one thing, I came out here, I was location scouting six months before we shot and looking for all those variety of locations. We’re were down on the coast, we shot down there for ten days to begin with and we used the Port Varna which we dressed as Mogadishu. Just the scale of the place, it’s just phenomenal.”
    • The cast went to Cannes and Comic-Con to promote the film.[9]

  • Videos

    Galleries

    Press Conference - Cannes, France

    References

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