Commando (1985)

The Scene: The Commando Killing Spree

Why I Love This Scene: I don’t know how I saw Commando back in 85 or 86. My folks, as you may recall from other posts of mine, were somewhat very laid-back when it came to the flicks they let me watch as a kid. When I saw Commando, I was maybe 7 or 8 years old. It’s probably the most R-rated movie I ever saw at that time. It has dozens of people killed viciously in cold blood, with one fella being impaled on a table leg and another dropped into a ravine! It also has some T&A and tons of foul language. How in the hell did I manage to get clearance to see this?! And it’s not like they assumed it was just some little violent make-believe “G.I. Joe”-type flick about a loving father trying to rescue his young daughter while they drank coffee in another room, they watched it WITH me! Amazing times indeed.

But anyway, it’s still one helluva action flick and it’s definitely up there as one of Ahnuld’s best as well as one of the best action flicks along with Die Hard. It has a great score by the late James Horner and memorable performances by Rae Dawn Chong, Alyssa Milano, the inimitable David Patrick Kelly and of course a fantastic villainous role by Vernon Wells. It’s a shame movies aren’t made this way anymore but the 80s gave us great unremorseful, un-PC and colorful violent movies.

I remember when I was younger that my brother and I used to watch the ending of Commando when Ahnuld single-handingly infiltrates the villain’s home base and one by one takes out a whole squadron of armed minions and only suffers a little scratch on his tummy. We used to watch that scene over and over and pretend that every shot that Ahnuld made towards the camera would kill us and we would die in extreme and silly ways and laugh our asses off. 

I had no idea that they made action figures for this! Dammit!