Commando, Part 28
[00:46:48–00:48:32]
Synopsis
Matrix responds to Cooke’s threat: “I eat Green Berets for breakfast. And right now I’m very hungry!” Cooke throws a punch, and Matrix parries it. Then Matrix delivers a punch and a series of kicks. The flight attendant, watching in the background, exclaims, “I can’t believe this macho bullshit!”
Cooke falls to the floor, where he picks up his gun and fires it. Matrix flips over the bed for cover, and the shot misses. Then Matrix somersaults forward, kicking Cooke with both feet into the door to the adjoining motel room. The force of the kick knocks the door out of its frame, and Cooke falls into the next room, startling a man and woman who are naked in bed.
Matrix follows Cooke into the room, walking toward him as Cooke raises his gun and gets to his feet. Cooke says, “Fuck you, asshole,” and pulls the trigger. The revolver clicks fruitlessly. Matrix retorts, “Fuck you, asshole,” and punches Cooke in the face. Then he flips Cooke over the bed. The flight attendant, still watching the brawl, says, “These guys eat too much red meat.”
Then Matrix grabs Cooke by the crotch, picks him up, and hurls him into some hotel décor. He throws Cooke against a wall, punches him in the stomach, and then delivers an uppercut that sends Cooke flying back into the original motel room. Cooke flies through the air and lands on an upturned wooden spike—presumably debris created during the melee. He moans briefly, and Matrix asks, “Where is she?” Cooke goes glassy-eyed and dies.
Matrix digs through Cooke’s pockets. There’s nothing useful in the dead hitman’s wallet, but Matrix does find the keys to the Cadillac. Along with the flight attendant, he leaves the motel room. Out in the parking lot, he IDs Cooke’s car and says, “Let’s search it.” He uses the key to open the trunk. Meanwhile, the flight attendant checks the glove compartment.
Analysis
This is a fantastic segment, packing in several of the features that elevate Commando over most other action films. First, we have the wonderful meta aspect of the movie, with the flight attendant commenting on the absurd, over-the-top machismo of the confrontation between Matrix and Cooke. By itself, their exchange about Green Berets is funny, cool, and a great prelude to a fight scene. But the flight attendant’s exclamation pulls us back to earth a bit, reminding the audience how goofy this stuff would seem to an observer in real life and reinforcing one of the movie’s central strengths—the fact that Commando knows what it is. This continues after the next verbal exchange between Matrix and Cooke, in which Matrix putting an emphasis on the word you turns Cooke’s insult into its own comeback. Once again, this works well on its own, but the flight attendant’s reaction makes it even better.
(And Schwarzenegger’s delivery of the “Fuck you, asshole” line is excellent, with just a slight emphasis on the “you” and a slight eyebrow raise.)
Another quintessential feature of Commando on display in this segment is the use of striking side characters and moments that are unnecessary but very memorable. There’s no story reason for them—they simply make the movie more interesting and entertaining. Here we have the couple in the motel room, who have no role whatsoever in the fight other than to shriek and cower while it’s happening. They represent the only nudity in the movie, almost as if the filmmakers are saying, “We have an R rating anyway, so why not?” Even the set dressing suggests a richer backstory than the movie has time or interest to get into—I noticed for the first time on this viewing that there’s actually very clearly a camera pointed toward the bed in their room. Again, these people have no relevance to the action, and the main characters don’t once speak to them or so much as acknowledge their existence. They’re just here to add some flavor.
Once I saw Cooke try to fire his revolver without any bullets in it, I knew I had to go back and count his shots to see how closely the filmmakers paid attention to this. Happily, they got it right—he fired three shots in the previous segment, and three in this one, so by the time he tries to shoot Matrix for the last time, he’s already expended the ammo in his six-shooter. Interestingly, one of his shots, fired off as he’s tumbling backwards through the motel door, has no visual indication onscreen. There’s no muzzle flash visible, and unlike with most of the other shots, we don’t see its effect on the walls or objects within the motel. This leads me to believe that perhaps the filmmakers counted the shots in editing and realized they were one short, so they simply added another one by incorporating a sound effect here. If that’s the case, it’s well done—we hear not just the normal gunshot noise, but, because it’s fired wildly toward the ceiling, also a classic ricochet sound effect. Matrix has clearly done the counting too, as he walks calmly toward Cooke while being held at gunpoint.
Cooke’s death scene features a nice bit of editing. When Matrix uppercuts him into the air, we don’t see him hit the floor. Instead, we cut straight to the flight attendant, who is looking on with a horrified, sickened look. At the same time we get the audio of what’s happening to Cooke, hearing him take labored, unnatural, frightening-sounding breaths. We can start to piece together what must have happened to him, but it’s not until Matrix enters the room that we see—out of focus in the foreground—that Cooke has been impaled. It’s a dramatic end for a character that’s been with us since the very beginning of the movie, and the reveal of the death’s grisly nature is effective.
