Commando, Part 26
[00:43:20–00:45:04]
Synopsis
A door opens in a darkened room, and the dictator, Bennett, and Jenny walk in. The dictator flicks on a light switch. It’s a room with fancy décor and a fireplace. Bennet tells Jenny to stay put, and the adults leave the room, locking the door behind them. Jenny crosses her arms and rubs them to warm up, then puts her back against a wall and sinks to the floor in despair, crying.
Back in Los Angeles, the yellow convertible parks at the Sunspot motel. (The key that Matrix grabbed from Sully earlier had this motel’s name on it.) Matrix takes another look at his watch—7:57:27—and gets out of the car, hopping over the driver’s side door. The flight attendant gets out, too. Matrix asks her, “What are you doing?” She responds, “Helping you get her back.” Together they walk toward the motel. They arrive at room number 5, and Matrix uses the key to open the door. He checks the closet and the bathroom—no one’s there. They begin searching the room, going through an open luggage case and a chest of drawers.
Analysis
We’re getting a better sense of the dictator’s compound in this segment—inside are fancy paneled walls, fireplaces, decorative columns, paintings on the walls, marble busts on pedestals, and other icons of luxury. This suggests that he may not be the champion of the people he suggests he is. It also might hint that when Matrix eventually arrives to rescue his daughter, the resulting firefight will be extraordinarily expensive.
There’s a subtle moment between the dictator and Bennett here. After locking the door to the room where Jenny is being held, the dictator turns slowly toward Bennett. Bennett looks back at him, turns his shoulders, and walks away. Bennett shakes his head slightly as he leaves, as if to say, “This is not going to end well.” He understands and respects Matrix’s abilities, and he knows that the dictator does not.
Matrix checks the timer on his wristwatch again here, and we’re around 7:57—that means it’s been about an hour and forty minutes since Matrix asked the flight attendant to follow Sully into the mall restaurant. The timing seems to check out pretty well. When Matrix subsequently hops out of the yellow Porsche, the driver’s side damage from its earlier rollover has reappeared after going missing earlier. Notably, we see that on the back of the car, the “S” in the word Porsche is missing. It was there immediately after the rollover, so evidently it fell off sometime between then and now.
The neon lighting at the Sunspot motel adds a nice splash of color to the dark, nighttime scene. Wide shots capture the neon across the motel’s whole façade, medium views show it prominently, and even close-ups are framed in a way that brings the glowing greens and reds into view. (These colors also recall the bright hues seen at the mall earlier.) It feels like a way to add a little more levity to temper the film’s dark subject matter—even in dim nighttime scenes, Commando remains a fun, light experience. These color choices extend to the interiors at the motel, too, with greens and reds shining through a glass-brick wall at the back of the room, bathing the room in subtly colored light.
