The Expendables (franchise): Difference between revisions

* [[Actor Allusion]]: Lots:

** Ross notes that [[Arnold Schwarzenegger]]'s character wants to be president, referencing Schwarzenegger's political career and the old buzz about him running for president.

** "Give this job to my friend here, [[Rambo|he]] [[Predator|loves playing in the jungle]], right?" Said to Bruce Willis, who also had a [[Tears of the Sun|battle-in-the-jungle film of his own.]]

*** Then followed by this quip: "What's his problem?" "He wants to be president".

** Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone are regarded as the best in their field; two musclebound action heroes and leading men who seem to be stuck in a friendly rivalry with each other; it's a mystery to everyone why they don't just work together. That's just their characters in the movie of course. In the real world that was only true in the eighties.

** 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin has his climactic fight showing nothing but wrestling moves, fighting UFC legend, Randy Couture.

* [[The Dragon]]: Paine.

* [[Dramatic Necklace Removal]]: Done by Munroe to Sandra.

** Not so much Dueling as [[Battle Royale With Cheese]]. And [[Large Ham|ham]].

* [[The Dulcinea Effect]]: Part of Ross' motivation. He seems to realize that it doesn't make much sense.

* [[Jump Cut]]: Every fight scene is saturated with these. A shot will rarely be held for over three seconds, and tracking shots use [[Jittercam]].

* [[Karma Houdini]]: {{spoiler|Gunnar.}}

* [[Knife Nut]]:

** Tool as well, with whom Christmas has throwing knife competitions.

** Implied with Hale Caesar, if his application of the shaving razor is any indication.

** Is Mauser as a last name merely a cliched stock reference... [[Actor Allusion|or a portmanteau of]] [[Total Recall|'Mars' and 'Hauser'?]]

** James Munroe could well be a reference to James Monroe, the U.S. president most known for formulating the "Monroe Doctrine", which served as a justification for U.S. meddling in Latin American affairs.

* [[Might Makes Right]]

* [[More Dakka]]: About 60% of the film is pure dakka. Hale's AA-12 makes up 59.9% percent of that dakka.

* [[Mythology Gag]]: "Give the job to my friend here. [[Rambo|He loves playing in the jungle.]]" said by [[Predator|Arnold]] to [[Bruce Willis (Creator)]], who made his own jungle action flick in ''[[Tears of the Sun]].''

** Arnie may have unpleasant memories of his [[Predator|last time in jungle]].

* [[Never Heard That One Before]]: Tool clearly gets a kick out of taunting Lee by mentioning "Christmas time".

* [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero]]: Sandra stops Garza from killing Munroe. And {{spoiler|two seconds later, Munroe proceeds to kill Garza.}}

* [[The Not Love Interest]]: Sandra to Ross. There seems to be some chemistry, but nothing ever comes of it - his primary reason for saving her is that she's a resistance leader.

* [[Not So Different]]: Munroe attempts to make Ross believe that they are both mercenaries who are "dead inside."

* [[Offscreen Teleportation]]: Played to the hilt from the very first scene. When Gunnar attempts to lynch the pirate [[It Amused Me|for the lulz]], Yang suddenly appears next to him after silently traversing his way between the cargo hold fifty feet below to the deck of the ship in under three seconds and engages him in a short CQC fight. Seconds later when Yang is at Gunnar's mercy, Barney follows suit, making the same trip just as silently and almost as quickly.

* [[Oh Crap]]:

** After the alarm is raised at the Garza's palace, the guys run into the ''entire'' army, and are forced to take cover and detonate the charges.

* [[One-Scene Wonder]]: Trench and Church, played by [[Arnold Schwarzenegger]] and [[Bruce Willis (Creator)]]. Also, Mickey Rourke, who has about 5 minutes of screen time yet gives arguably the best performance of the film.

* [[One-Man Army]]: "Four and a half men" but close enough.

** Mr. Church devised his own nickname on the spot and suggests that Barney Ross (and possibly his entire team) is just an alias.

** Toll Road? Hale Caesar? Yin Yang? If those aren't aliases this might as well be called "[[Johnny Cash|A Boy Named Sue]]: [[The Movie]]"

** A review shown in the trailer outright calls it the manliest movie ever made.

** ''[[The Dirty Dozen]]'' + ''[[The Magnificent Seven]]'' X Every [[The Eighties|80s Action Movie]] ever made = The Expendables.

* [[Real Men Wear Pink]]: Tool's obsession with "decorating" pretty much anything, whether it's Lee's head with a tattoo or a guitar he plans to smash once it's completed.

* [[Rebellious Princess]]: Sandra, General Garza's daughter.

* [[Smug Snake]]: Eric Roberts is, shall we say, not straying far from his comfort zone here.

* [[Snowy Screen of Death]]: The footage of the custom office's CCTV when Barney shoots the camera.

* [[Stealth Expert]]: All the Expendables, as seen in the first and final fight, despite Barney running around with ''a high beam torch'' waving all over the place. Averted by Toll in the final fight, who just beats the shit out of all the guys he runs into.

* [[Strictly Formula]]: If you have seen ''any action movie ever'', you already know how the plot goes. Then again, you're proabably not watching it for the story anyway.

* [[Unorthodox Reload]]: Subverted, Barney reloads his M1911 ''extremely'' fast, but with sufficient practice, it ''is'' possible to reload a gun that quickly.

* [[Vitriolic Best Buds]]: Inverted: Barney and Trench hate each other's guts, but talk as if they were old buddies.

** Ultimately averted by the end of the movie, finally going in to kick ass because an innocent woman's going to get murdered if Barney doesn't save her.

** Initally played straight for the rest of the team, since a $5 million paycheck made goo-goo eyes at them.