Commando
Somewhere, somehow, someone's going to pay.
Commando (1985)
Production
Budget
$10 000 000
Revenue
$57 491 000
Director
Scenario
Steven E. de Souza
Author
Composer
Producer
Actors
Arnold Schwarzenegger
John Matrix
Rae Dawn Chong
Cindy
Dan Hedaya
Arius
Vernon Wells
Bennett
James Olson
Major General Franklin Kirby
David Patrick Kelly
Sully
Alyssa Milano
Jenny Matrix
Bill Duke
Cooke
Short description
Retired Special Forces colonel John Matrix lives quietly in a remote mountain home with his young daughter, Jenny, under an assumed identity. His past catches up with him when a deposed South American dictator, Arius, has the girl abducted in order to force Matrix to carry out a political assassination. When Matrix refuses to cooperate, he is taken prisoner, but escapes and sets out to reach his daughter before it is too late, working his way through Arius's hired killers and a private army with help from a flight attendant, Cindy, and an old military friend.
Commando was released in October 1985 and marked a step in the filmography of director Mark L. Lester, who had previously directed pictures including Steel Arena, Roller Boogie, Class of 1984 and Firestarter. Steven E. de Souza wrote the screenplay, and Joel Silver produced. Arnold Schwarzenegger leads the cast as Matrix, alongside Rae Dawn Chong, Dan Hedaya, Vernon Wells, James Olson and David Patrick Kelly. The production cost about 10 million dollars and took roughly 58 million dollars worldwide.
The film runs 90 minutes across the action, adventure and thriller genres, with a credited cast of 47 and a crew of 189. On IMDb it holds 6.7 out of 10 from around 187,000 votes, and on TMDB the rating is likewise 6.7 from more than 3,200 votes. A film critics' rating of 6 out of 10 from 38 reviews places professional assessments broadly in line with how audiences have received it.
What's left behind the scenes
- One terminal of Los Angeles International Airport was completely closed for filming.
- Actors Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bill Duke, and producer Joel Silver, collaborated again on the film "Predator" (1987).
- The director's cut of the film reveals that Jenny's mother died in childbirth.
- The song playing at the end is "We Fight for Love" (sometimes also referred to as "Somewhere, Somehow, Someone's Gotta Pay") by The Power Station.
- After Sally's Porsche flips onto its side, John flips the car back to its normal position — dents and scratches are visible, and then, when he and Cindy drive away, the car is already whole.
- Raye Don Chong recounts how she was cast as Cindy: "The role was written for an actress of European appearance. In the first audition, Arnold and I had to play a strange scene where he pulled a dildo out of my purse. I know that other actresses found this scene difficult, as Cindy was supposed to shrug and say: 'I get lonely on the road.' I found this line awkward and banal, so when my turn came, I screamed: 'It's not mine!' That's how I got the role."
- Filming took place from April 22 to June 6, 1985. There were a total of 45 shooting days.
- Neo wears a genuine load-bearing vest used by the US Air Force's airborne units. The vest was manufactured by Group 5, a Texas-based combat gear company that does not sell its products to civilians.
- According to Alyssa Milano, Arnold Schwarzenegger acted like a concerned father towards her on set, and "even helped with algebra homework".
- The house where the final shootout between Matrix and Arius takes place is the same house used for the concluding shootout between Foley and Maitland in 'Beverly Hills Cop'.
- After bursting out of the garden shed and taking down the soldiers, John grabs a machine gun and opens fire, holding it in his right hand. In the next shot (where the torso is shown in close-up), the machine gun is already in his left.
- Director Mark L. Lester initially wanted to cast Raúl Julia for the role of Arius, but producer Joel Silver insisted on choosing Dan Hedaya.
- Screenwriter Jeff Loeb originally wrote the script with Gene Simmons as Matrix, but Simmons turned down the offer early in the project's development. Loeb then rewrote the script for Nick Nolte.
- The director wanted Arnold Schwarzenegger to genuinely hold David Patrick Kelly by the leg over the cliff without any assistance, to which Arnie replied, “Are you out of your mind?” After that, a crane was used to film the scene.
- Director Mark L. Lester never met the original screenwriters, Jeff Loeb and Matthew Wiseman, personally, as Steven E. de Souza had already taken their place when he took the director's chair.
- Arnold Schwarzenegger and Vernon Wells remained close friends after working on the film. Martial arts expert and fight choreographer Michael M. Vendrell worked on the film with Arnold Schwarzenegger and, by the end of filming, assessed the actor's combat skills as equivalent to a second-dan black belt.
- For the final battle, Matrix sets off with a Valmet M78 machine gun, an Uzi submachine gun, a Remington 870 combat shotgun, and a Desert Eagle self-loading pistol. During the battle, he also gets his hands on an M60E3 belt-fed machine gun and an M16A1 rifle.
- The scrape visible on Arnold Schwarzenegger's forehead at the beginning of the film was real.
- Actor Bill Paxton worked as the radar operator.
- After appearing in the film with Arnold Schwarzenegger, Alyssa Milano was nicknamed "Conan" by her friends.
- In the plot, Arius (Dan Hedaya) plays the overthrown dictator Valverde. Valverde is a fictional country in South or Central America used by Hollywood filmmakers to depict a Spanish-speaking country similar to Cuba or Nicaragua, in order to avoid diplomatic misunderstandings. Valverde is also mentioned in "Predator" (1987), "Die Hard 2" (1990), and the pilot episode of the series "Supercarrier" (1988).
- The end credits list 54 stunt performers, 17 more than the cast.
- Dan Hedaya was afraid to fire a gun, even when using blanks.
- Arnold Schwarzenegger received $1.5 million for his role in the film.
- The motel was built 'from scratch' specifically for the film on the side of a highway along the Pacific coast.
- Ray Don Chong's reaction to the motel fight was filmed separately and was completely improvised by the actress.
- This is one of two films featuring a scene where Arnold Schwarzenegger's character is "knocked out" with the butt of a rifle to the face, filmed from his point of view. The second film is "The Running Man" (1987).
- A US military consultant present on set demonstrated to Arnold Schwarzenegger a technique for silently killing Enriques in the airplane seat.
- The old terminal building at Long Beach Airport was used for filming the airport scenes in Valverde.
- Director Mark L. Lester called his film "the quintessence of all 80s action films" and "the grandfather" of the action genre.
- Despite the fact that Arnold Schwarzenegger could bench press over 200 kg, the phone booth was still made of balsa wood.
- Chelsea Field's debut role was a small part as a flight attendant. The actress later starred as Tylla in "Masters of the Universe" (1987) alongside Dolph Lundgren and played Joe Hallenbeck's (Bruce Willis') wife in "Last Boy Scout" (1991).
- Four actors from this film also appeared in "Action Jackson" (1988): Bill Duke, Bob Minor, Branscombe Richmond, and Charles Meshack.
- Principal photography of the film began on April 22, 1985.
- Of all the properties on the California coast, only the Hearst Castle National Historic Landmark granted permission for the film crew to build, and then blow up, a military camp on its grounds.
- Many actresses auditioned for the lead female role, including Sharon Stone, with whom Arnie later starred in 'Total Recall' (1990), and Brigitte Nielsen – the actor’s co-star in 'Red Sonja' (1985).
- Arnold Schwarzenegger and Rae Dawn Chong filmed a love scene, but it was so unconvincing that it had to be cut.
- The idea of Matrix escaping from the plane came to screenwriter Stephen E. de Souza when he saw a flight attendant using an elevator.
- During the film, the protagonist manages to change his watch from digital to mechanical with hands, and in the scene arriving on the island by boat, he changes his underwear from gray to black in a second.
- The film became such a hit in Japan that the head of one Japanese record label offered Alyssa Milano a contract for five albums, for some reason assuming that the actress could sing. She found this offer so unusual that she agreed, and all five albums went ‘platinum’.
- The spacious Sherman Oaks Galleria supermarket, where Schwarzenegger's hero flew like Tarzan, was later used in another of his films – “Terminator 2”.
- This is director Mark L. Lester's favorite film of all his work.
- Initially, studio executives didn't want Arnold Schwarzenegger to speak at all in this film.
- According to Vernon Wells, who played Bennett, Schwarzenegger constantly played pranks on him. "Sometimes when I tried to talk to him, he just ignored me, sometimes he started speaking with a very strong accent, so I didn't understand a single word. And once he and his friends pulled all the supports out from under the back of my trailer, and when I sat down on the sofa, the trailer just flipped over."
- Another actor was originally cast as Bennett, although Vernon Wells also auditioned. However, on the very first day, director Mark L. Lester fired that actor and gave the role to Wells. This is why the clothes fit Bennett so tightly: Wells was larger than the original actor, and the costume designers didn't have time to find him new clothes. Over the years, a rumor arose that Wells originally auditioned for the role of Matrix, but this proved false.
- To film the large-scale battle scene in the finale, many stunt performers played multiple roles. To avoid continuity errors, they were redressed and their appearance was changed with mustaches and wigs.
- Alyssa Milano began filming the movie after completing work on the first season of 'Who's the Boss?' (1984).
- This is the second film after "Conan the Barbarian" (1982) in which Arnold Schwarzenegger applies paint to his body.
- This is the second of three films in which Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bill Paxton appeared together. The other two are 'The Terminator' (1984) and 'True Lies' (1994).
- Filming took 45 days.
- During the filming of the scene where Matrix (Arnold Schwarzenegger) with his daughter (Alyssa Milano) in his arms takes cover from the fire of bandits and runs into his house, Arnie tripped and fell on the actress, breaking her rib.
- In some older copies of the film, a cable suspending John Matrix by his foot is visible during the moment he holds Sally over the chasm. In later edits, including those for DVD and Blu-ray, the edge of the screen with the cable was partially cropped, and the remaining part of the cable was retouched.
- During filming, Arnold Schwarzenegger ran three to five miles daily and, of course, spent an hour "pumping iron".
- The miniature red car belonging to the character Ray Don Chong is a Sunbeam Alpine sports car that was manufactured in the United Kingdom in the 1960s.
- The scene of Matrix emerging from the forest with close-ups of his boots, chest, biceps, etc., was shot and edited in the style of fascist propaganda films by Leni Riefenstahl. According to director Mark L. Lester, he wanted to convey the idea of an invincible man of the earth appearing from the forest, a kind of 'unstoppable force of nature'.
- In 1986, Steven E. de Souza wrote a sequel, reworked by Frank Darabont, with John McTiernan in mind for the director's chair. The script was based on Roderick Thorpe's novel "Nothing Lasts Forever" (1979). Schwarzenegger was not interested in returning to the role of Matrix, after which the script was rewritten and became the basis for "Die Hard" (1988).
- Number of deaths: 109 (102 of whom die at the hands of Schwarzenegger's hero).
- At the beginning of the film, Bennett climbs into a boat in the harbor, and one of the fishermen greets him: “What’s new, Vez?” That was the nickname of the iconic character Vernon Wells in the film “Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior” (1981).
- When Arnold Schwarzenegger heard the pitch from screenwriter Steven E. de Souza, he said: "I like this role. Here I am not a robot from the future, not a caveman from the past. I wear ordinary clothes and have a family. It's a role that John Wayne could have played. I agree to star in the film."
- Arious's death almost duplicates the death of Tony Montana in the film “Scarface” (1983).
- Arnold agreed to play the lead role, stating that it was the first script since the success of "The Terminator" where he wasn't offered to play a robot again.
- Arnold insisted on performing all the stunts himself, without a stunt double, even in the famous scene where he had to hang onto the landing gear of a plane while traveling at 65 miles per hour. The cost? A dislocated shoulder and several stitches on his hand and elbow.
- Vernon Wells was a very charming and pleasant guy off-camera, which made his transformation into the degenerate Bennett all the more surprising. Once, after filming a knife fight scene, Schwarzenegger said the following: 'Cut. And keep Bennett away from me.'
- The script had more plausibility: a dictator lives on a private island and has about ten bodyguards. However, during filming, director Mark L. Lester watched “Rambo: First Blood Part II” (1985) and saw how many people were killed in it. He said: “We need to outdo ‘Rambo’. We need to kill more people.” The number of extras playing ‘cannon fodder’ increased to 150 after that.
- According to the director, in one African country, children are shown “Commando” to psychologically prepare them for battle.
- In the barn scene after Matrix cuts off a soldier's arm, he was originally supposed to hit his victim with the severed limb and ask, “Need a hand?” (literally, “Do you need a hand?”). However, this scene was never filmed, as it was considered excessively violent. Nevertheless, in 2007, a director's cut of the film was released, which included several seconds of original footage in which Matrix casually throws the severed arm at the wounded soldier.
- Arnold Schwarzenegger insisted on performing all the stunts himself, as he said it was impossible to find a stunt double with a similar physique. Even for filming a close-up of the Matrix's hand sheathing a knife, Arnie insisted on using his "unique" hand. As a result, the actor cut his hand and was taken to the hospital.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
