Commando, Part 15
[00:24:16–00:26:00]
Synopsis
Matrix is hanging onto the plane’s front landing gear, his sport coat flapping in the wind, as the jet accelerates down the runway. The plane begins to climb. As it reaches a hundred or so feet off the ground, Matrix lets go. He splashes down in a marshy area past the runway, wades back to dry land, and removes his wet sport coat. He sets a timer on his watch for 11 hours, counting down to the time he’ll be expected to arrive in Val Verde.
Matrix runs back to the airport, dodging planes on the runways. Ducking behind a shed, he waits as a crash rescue truck approaches. Then he hops onto its bumper, catching a ride to the terminal. He runs down some stairs and scales a fence—it seems like he’s trying to track down Sully, who is his only good lead right now.
Back inside the airport, Sully is speaking into a payphone. He says that the bird has flown. On the other end of the line we see the dictator at a marina; he tells Sully to go to the “drop-off point.” Bennett walks into frame, bringing Jenny with him.
Analysis
I mentioned the convincing effects in my analysis of the previous segment, and they continue to hold up here. As Matrix hangs onto the plane’s landing gear, there are cuts between a variety of shots that are done in different ways; we never linger on one particular shot long enough to really see through the illusion. There are POV shots of the runway racing toward the viewer. There’s a wide shot of a plane with something on the front landing gear—I have to imagine it’s a dummy, though I don’t know for sure. There are close-ups of Schwarzenegger, obtained by suspending a landing-gear mockup from a truck, as I learned from the director’s commentary. As Mark Lester explains in that commentary track, the rig was actually on hydraulics and could lift off the ground, making the shot where the landing gear rises from the tarmac look great. The seams are visible slightly in the moment when Matrix actually jumps from the landing gear, but the cuts are quick enough that it still looks solid. We see a dummy fall from the landing gear, then cut to a quick, very distant shot where the silhouette of Matrix is actually animated. Finally, we get a shot in the marshy area where the stuntman falls maybe 10 or 15 feet from above the frame into the water. Overall, I have to say that this sequence still looks pretty impressive, especially considering it was made before widespread CGI.
We get an extreme close-up on Matrix’s watch as he sets the 11-hour timer. And then as the timer begins counting down, we get a fairly loud beep with each second (presumably this is just to help draw the viewer’s attention to the fact that the timer is counting down, because having a watch that actually beeped that loudly every second would be extraordinarily annoying.) The emphasis on the time gives us some background suspense—now that we know there’s a countdown timer ticking, Matrix’s quest to get his daughter back gains an extra sense of urgency.
Matrix’s dash across the airport back to the terminal looks really cool; there are jetliners taxiing and taking off behind him. I’m sure some perspective tricks are making the planes look cooler than they really are, but since this was made in 1985, it’s clear that the planes are actually there—they weren’t digitally added in later, as they certainly would be today.
Schwarzenegger does a little bit of his own stunt work here. A continuous shot and a close-up on his face make it clear that he really ran up behind the crash rescue truck and hopped onto the back. When Matrix hops off the truck, though, there’s a conspicuous shot where it’s very clearly the stunt double doing it. It’s got to be hard to double for Schwarzenegger’s famous physique; the stunt double’s frame is noticeably slighter. But then right after that, it’s Schwarzenegger himself running down some stairs and hopping a locked gate. It’s always good to see the big star take on at least a bit of the action.
Arnold:
Not Arnold:
In the airport, as Sully talks on the payphone, we also see actress Rae Dawn Chong for the first time; she’s using the phone next to his. We don’t meet her as of this segment, but she’ll be playing a key role in the film soon. This segment includes just a brief moment at the marina, but it’s a great moment—we see that the would-be dictator is using a delightful portable phone, circa 1985. It’s essentially a little lunchbox with an antenna sticking out of one end and a corded phone wired to the other.
