The Marine
John Triton is a veteran marine operative who is discharged from the Iraq War, despite his best wishes to remain. He returns to his wife, who after a great big welcome home, suggests they take a vacation. Their paths cross with Rome, a diamond thief, and his cronies who are on the run from a previous heist. They steal Triton's ride and, of course, his wife. Triton must save his wife as he chases Rome through the South Carolina environment.
Claimed by WWE Films to be its most successful film yet. A sequel was released on DVD starring Ted DiBiase Jr. in 2009. A third movie will be made in 2012 starring The Miz.
Tropes used in The Marine include:
- Bald of Evil: Morgan. Also the two drug dealers in the woods.
- Black Dude Dies First: Lampshaded and averted. He dies third.
- Boring Invincible Hero: It's John Cena as the starring role. What more needs to be said?
- Bottomless Magazines
- Car Chase
- The Danza: John Cena as John Triton.
- Dark Action Girl: Angela.
- Die Hard on an X: The sequel is a "Die Hard on a hotel".
- Guns Akimbo: Bennett during the diamond heist.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Triton snaps Rome's neck with the same chain he is attacking him with.
- Implacable Man: John, a rare heroic version.
- Improvised Weapon: Rome attacks Triton with a sledgehammer and a chainsaw during their climactic fight. Triton defends himself from the latter with a big wrench.
- Large Ham: Robert Patrick is clearly having a ball playing Rome, and is clearly not taking the movie as seriously as Cena is.
- Never Smile At a Crocodile: After Rome shoot Vescera, alligators appear to eat his body.
- Noodle Incident: Morgan and rock candy.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: The opening sequence has Triton freeing some comrades from captivity; when it is seemed like they are surrounded by enemies with no way out, one of them asks Triton, "How do we get around them?", Triton drops, "We don't; We go through them." He fires his gun at the camera...and the movie fast-forwards to after the incident.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right: Despite being told to stay put until reinforcement, Triton opt to go ahead to deal with the extremists in order to rescue the hostages.
- Sensible Heroes, Skimpy Villains: Triton's down-to-earth wife Kate wears a denim jacket, white tank top, and jeans. Bad Girl Angela wears a leather getup with a leopard top. And, if memory serves, heels. In a swamp chase. Compare.
- Shout-Out: During a chase scene, after the top of Triton's car is sliced off, one of Rome's henchmen comments that Triton is like The Terminator. Rome (Played by Robert Patrick, who played the T-1000 whose truck gets its top sliced off during a chase scene in Terminator 2) glances at him through the mirror.
- Unrated Edition: Such a labeled DVD case exists. However, the differences between it and the rated one are near-undetectable.
- What Could Have Been: The role of John Triton as played by John Cena was originally intended for Stone Cold Steve Austin.
- Wrestler in All of Us: Being a WWE film, you can expect a few wrestling moves in the fight scenes. The most egregious of which is Triton chokeslamming a mook to his death; both the camera angle and the fact that the mook smashes through a wooden dock disguise the fact that Cena is not as large as the wrestlers who usually do this move.
- Oddly, Cena doesn't use this move while actually wrestling.