Schwarzenegger Week: Commando

And thus starts the Week of Schwarzenegger!!!  Hmm, I should have smoke and explosions when I speak like that.  Oh well.  Today's film evolves a military coup, kidnapping, a few dozen or so deaths, some property damage in multiple locations and some memorable one-liners.  Some familiar faces will be added to your Schwarzenegger roster as reoccurring actors in whatever project he had in mind and some need for disbelief how one man could cause this level of carnage.  Director Mark L. Lester (Class of 1984, Firestarter, Armed and Dangerous, Showdown in Little Tokyo, Double Take and White Rush)  would like you to take this wild ride of puns and pain. This is Commando.

HE CUTS DOWN TREES!!! HE SKIPS AND JUMPS!!! 

Gen. Kirby: Leave anything for us?
John Matrix: Just spoilers.








The first 4 minutes of our movie opens with multiple homicides with different techniques and methods.  Former Delta Force Colonel John Matrix (Arnold Schwarzenegger of The Terminator, Red Sonja, Raw Deal, Predator, The Running Man, Red Heat, Total Recall and Terminator 2: Judgement Day) gets a heads up flyby (which given I think the general was under surveillance) by his former superior General Kirby (character actor James Olson of moon Zero Two, The Andromeda Strain, Maude, The Streets of San Francisco, Wonder Woman, The Bionic Woman and Lou Grant) that members of his unit of commandos have been systematically wiped out due to some mercenary outfit.  To what end?  Kirby doesn't know... yet but in the meantime he assigns a watch detail of two whole men to watch Matrix's back and flutters away.

I miss my Road Warrior assless chaps.  Oh well.

A slight sound and Matrix drops to the ground as the elite bad ass bodyguards are cut up pretty bad.  Matrix makes it to his tool shed for weapons with the mercs lead by a former member of his unit, Bennett (Vernon Wells of Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, Weird Science, Fortress, Nam Angels, Space Truckers and Misfit Patrol) grab and kidnap his daughter Jenny (Alyssa Milano of Who's the Boss, Embrace of the Vampire, Fear, Melrose Place, Charmed, Romantically Challenged and Mistresses) at the orders of osted warlord Arius (Dan Hedaya of The Adventures of Buckaroo Across the 8th Dimension, Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law, The Addams Family, Cheers, Maverick and To Die For) that Matrix help overthrow is demanding he take out his replacement and put him back into power.

He is given 11 hours maximum to fly and make it to South America and put a bullet in Arius's successor.  Dispatching his guard/escort, Matrix makes his way off the plane heads back to find his daughter.  This plan works due to no cell or car phones.  Snagging an off-duty flight attendant Cindy (Rae Dawn Chong of Fear City, The Color Purple, Soul Man, Time Runner, Melrose Place, Highlander and Poltergeist: The Legacy) to captivate one of Arius' men so he can flog the info out of him.  Will he get to his daughter in time?  Will the contacts in South America give his position away?

And now that annoying fun fact thing I do.   The shopping mall in these sequences of Arnold bounding and be huge is Sherman Oaks Galleria and is also later used in Terminator 2: Judgement Day.  54 stunt performers had to be brought into production which is 17 more people than the screen cast.  
Nick Nolte was the original choice for John Matrix but Schwarzenegger was cast instead.   Raul Julia was intended for Arius but producer Joel Silver (The Warriors, 48 Hrs., Jumpin' Jack Flash, Lethal Weapon, Predator, Action Jackson, Die Hard and Road House) wanted Dan Hedaya for the part.

NRA spokesman had this to say...