Commando, Part 3
[00:03:28–00:05:12]
Synopsis
The man who hopped into the boat continues on into an adjacent one. We get a quick shot of a goatee-wearing man observing him. We haven’t seen this guy before, but he seems anticipatory. The man in the boat notices him. Then he notices the assassin from the car dealership, still in his suit, standing on the dock. It appears the man in the boat recognizes the two suspicious men. He turns away, moves into the pilothouse, and begins steering the boat out of the docks. Back on the shore, the car dealership guy is now holding what appears to be a large remote control. He extends a long antenna, keeping his eye on the departing boat. He hits a button, and the boat explodes, presumably killing the man on board—though we don’t see a body.
Music fires up right as the explosion goes off. We cut to a wholly different place with an establishing shot of forested mountains. A few close-up shots follow in quick succession: heavy boots, the blade of a chainsaw, a muscular bicep. Then we get our first shot of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s face, and we see that he’s carrying a huge log along a forest path. We soon see where he’s walking to—a luxurious cabin. Cut to him splitting logs. After an axe-heft he pauses to looks around, as if suspicious of intruders. Then he continues his work.
Analysis
This boat sequence seems to conclude the movie’s opening series of three assassinations—first the man in the driveway, then the car salesman, and now the boatman. And in all three cases, Bill Duke’s yet-unnamed character was present. But notably, we saw close-ups on the dead bodies only in the first two killings. We see the boat explosion from a distance. Following movie and TV logic, it’s probably safe to assume the boatman isn’t dead—or at least, it’s not safe to assume he is.
That difference from the first two murders is also highlighted by another factor. The boatman seems to recognize the two men at the dock, or at least recognizes that they’re up to no good. The men at the driveway and car dealership seemed to have no indication anything was amiss until they were killed.
The music that starts with the explosion is our first introduction to Commando’;s score. The synth-heavy track feels like a clear indicator that we’re in the 1980s, but there’s more to it than that. It soon develops more traditional action-film orchestration, and then adds some liberal steel drums, which for me is really the “special sauce” of the film’s soundtrack. There’s not necessarily a clear reason for why the steel drum is so prominent in the score, but I love the unique flavor it provides.
The series of close-ups that introduce us to Schwarzenegger heavily focus on his muscles, which probably makes sense if you’re going to hire him for your action movie. He’s wearing a white tank top, making his bulging biceps all the more apparent. And he’s walking around carrying a big log and a chainsaw—the very first time we see him in the film, he’s performing feats of strength. The film is building up the character as a physically imposing, impossibly strong presence.
That continues when we transition to the wood-splitting sequence. When we cut to this segment, the film first focuses on his arm muscles, before panning upward to see his face. Then, when he pauses to look around, we get a hint of his alertness and perhaps training. His eyes dart around briefly before he returns to his task. Then, in a nice bit of performance, the slightest smile crosses his face, suggesting that perhaps he knows who is nearby.
