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"Expend4bles"
In "Expend4bles", a new generation joins the world’s top action stars for an adrenaline-fueled adventure. Lee Christmas (Jason Statham) and Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone) are back, leading the irreverent and indestructible team of elite mercenaries who laugh in the face of death. They're again joined by Gunner (Dolph Lundgren) and Toll Road (Randy Couture). Armed with every weapon they can get their hands on and the skills to use them, The Expendables are the world’s last line of defense and the team that gets called when all other options are off the table. The core team is buttressed by some new blood with equally unique styles and tactics, but with the same Expendables-style attitude.
They're a tight-knit team who run missions for various and ultra-secretive agencies. The leader of the pack, Barney Ross, has been with The Expendables since its inception. Barney, is iron-willed, a master tactician, and supreme badass. He’s also a loyal friend to his comrade-in-arms, Lee Christmas. Before embarking on the team’s next mission, Barney’s bond with Christmas comes to the fore at a biker bar, where Barney and Christmas are seeking the return of the former’s cherished ring, which Barney lost, in a thumb-wrestling contest. When the duo’s fast-talking, joke-infused banter fails to yield results, Barney and Christmas do what they do best: take on the entire bar in a wild melee. Barney and Christmas are closer than brothers. As Barney heads into battle, you’ll never find him without his lucky skeleton ring. Barney’s number two, until he passes the torch in this new installment, is Lee Christmas, a hot-headed, knife-wielding merc who’s always by Barney’s side. Christmas is rough around the edges, but The Expendables are always there to support him.
If you double-cross Christmas, you’ll probably end up with a knife between your eyes. Gunner Jensen, a hulking giant, is, like all The Expendables, dedicated to the team’s success. A former chemical engineer, Gunner combines brains, when he chooses to use them, and brawn. This time, he’s trying to stop drinking, and is hung up on a woman he’s met only on the internet. Gunner has more than his share of idiosyncrasies and issues, be it substance abuse or concentration. But he’s been sober for several months and is doing the AA program. He’s also dating on the internet and love may be affecting his skills. There’s always something comedic going on with him, so he’s a bit of a comic relief for the team. Gunner is the only Expendable that isn’t trying to be tough; he doesn’t really care about that. He’s truly an agent of chaos. The fourth founding member of The Expendables is Toll Road, a skilled demolitions expert who’s also proficient in grappling. Due to the latter, Toll Road sports a prominent cauliflower ear, which his teammates, including the new crop, enjoy making fun of.
Newly 'Expendable' are Marsh (Garcia), a suit-and-tie CIA bigwig who assigns the team to its most dangerous mission; Easy Day (50 Cent), a former Marine who had once worked closely with Barney; Gina (Megan Fox), a hired gun and Christmas’s hot-tempered ex; and the hot-blooded, fast-talking Galan (Jacob Scipio), who’s the son of a former Expendable stalwart. They're the shadows and the smoke. They are the ghosts that hide in the night. It’s all about the camaraderie and chemistry. These guys can’t navigate through life, in general; they are only successful when they are together, saving the world. Their individual dysfunction makes them relatable; instead of being indestructible warriors, they feel pain and loss. That’s where we find Lee Christmas as the story opens. He’s having a volatile break-up with his girlfriend, Gina. In addition to being a skilled warrior, Christmas is known for his way with the ladies. But he’s met his match with Gina, a fellow mercenary with whom he’s experiencing a tumultuous, and very loud, breakup. And the team mission that follows is marked by a monumental error in judgment, not long after Christmas takes the reins from Barney as team leader.
But as The Expendables come together for their new mission, Barney is still very much in charge, greeting his longtime team members, welcoming the newcomers, and setting the table for the daunting and life-changing challenges to come. It all seems like business as usual for Barney and the team, but as the mission unfolds, and Barney remains in the pilot’s seat of their plane while his men battle the enemy on the ground, everything is about to change. The Expendables new mission finds them once again aboard their iconic turboprop plane, the Antanov, headed to a secret base adjacent to Libya’s nuclear weapon program. They’re on the hunt for a pitiless arms dealer, Rahmat (Iko Uwais), and his private army, which has stolen detonators to a nuclear device that could start World War III. Rahmat is a former military officer who’s now spearheading a deadly arms deal that could trigger nuclear war. He has some very dangerous clients. When Christmas goes off mission to help a comrade, Rahmat makes a narrow escape, taking the detonators with him. It’s a rare but total mission failure for The Expendables. As the team regroups, they set off on their most fateful journey to stop Rahmat and uncover the high-level operative he’s serving.
The Expendables is synonymous with great fighters and martial artists, it's in the franchise’s DNA. To carry that flame forward and keep it alive, we continue to pay tribute to the great fighters in cinema. Expendables crosses over generations. You've these iconic 80’s, 90’s, 2000’s action movie stars who are still clanging and banging with the best of them to this day. But you also have a new generation passing through, so we're honoring the new, the old we should say, but inviting the new into it. While next-level, explosive action provides the thrills, the film maintains the ante of the action in different areas, including hand-to-hand combat in more of a Hong Kong style than we’ve seen in the previous Expendables films. The film wants to create a much more visceral feel, which is what the Expendables films are all about. "Expend4bles" is a film to enjoy for its characters, thrills, heart, and laughs. That is the film’s triple-threat.
Written by Gregory Mann