Commando, Part 35
[00:58:56–01:00:40]
Synopsis
Jenny, still sitting in captivity, looks at the locked door. Meanwhile, back in L.A., Cindy and Matrix round a corner in the Cadillac, park, and grab all their Surplus City gear as they get out of the car. Nearby, some armed goons in a jeep drive up and stop at a checkpoint manned by a third goon; they appear to be at some kind of dockyard. As the jeep drives off, Matrix sneaks up behind the checkpoint goon, bashes his head into the wooden beams of the dock structure, and drags his limp body out of sight. Cindy: “Did anybody ever tell you you have a lot of hostility?” Matrix doesn’t answer, instead saying, “Come on, let’s move.”
They spot the seaplane and begin moving along the dock toward it. Cindy says, “Ooh, I hope I can fly this plane.” Just as they reach the plane, the sound of an approaching jeep makes Matrix turn his head. Goons are nearby. “Oh, shit,” Matrix says, and he begins hurriedly loading his gear into the plane. Cindy looks at the plane and begins to panic. “Oh no,” she says. “What’s wrong?” Matrix asks her. “This isn’t a plane. This is a canoe with wings!” Matrix: “Well, then get in and start paddling!”
She hops in, and yelling can be heard from the direction of the jeep—Matrix and Cindy have been spotted. The goons in the jeep open fire. Matrix ducks inside to yell to Cindy, who is taking her seat in the cockpit: “Start the engine, hurry up!” Then Matrix emerges from the passenger door with an Uzi and starts shooting back. Inside the plane, Cindy’s trying to start it up: “Oh my god, this plane is older than I am!” Matrix and the goons continue to exchange fire. Cindy taps the gauges in frustration: “Look, there’s no LED read-out! I only trained on a Cessna!” Matrix, while shooting: “Hurry up!” Cindy says, “I’m trying!”, but the propeller won’t spin up. Matrix comes into the plane, bangs on the instrument panel, and says, “Come on, you piece of shit!”
Analysis
Matrix’s elimination of the checkpoint guard features some subtly kinetic camera work that moves the film along efficiently while also accentuating the brutality of the takedown. As the two goons in the jeep begin driving away from the checkpoint, the camera shifts over to the left, keeping Matrix mostly hidden from view behind the guard as he sneaks up. Then we cut to a medium close-up when Matrix actually grabs him. Neither Matrix nor the filmmakers wait for the jeep to fully drive away before commencing with the attack—in fact, for a few frames both the departing jeep and Matrix are visible in the same shot. We’re wasting no time in propelling Matrix ahead on his quest.
When Matrix slams the guard’s head into the dock structure (which, in a small but effective bit of stunt coordination, uses a smart camera angle to make the hits look brutal while still being safe for the stunt performer), the camera slightly pans to follow the action, moving to the right as the goon’s head is slammed into the pier and moving back to the left as Matrix pulls him back for another hit. It’s a subtle but effective choice that adds a little more punch to the action.
The sound design of Matrix and Cindy’s approach to the plane gives us a little breathing room before the next action sequence starts. For this entire scene so far, there’s been no music—just a bed of environmental audio from the dockyard. There’s a little noise when Matrix dispatches the guard, and after that Matrix and Cindy whisper their dialogue as they head toward the plane. It’s unusually quiet and serene as they walk, and the calmly shimmering lights reflected on the water heighten the effect. The quiet also makes it easy for Matrix and the viewer to hear the enemy jeep when it approaches. As the sound of the jeep gets louder and louder, Matrix and Cindy’s voices rise, too. When the goons notice them, start yelling, and open fire, we return to a state of loud action.
Even in this tense getaway scene, there’s room for Commando’s trademark humor. Cindy adds levity with her joke about the plane being a canoe with wings, and then Matrix capitalizes on it with his hilarious suggestion that she start paddling. Some tension is also cut by the fact that none of the hundreds of rounds fired during this segment seem to have any consequence whatsoever—there are no bullet holes in the plane, despite it being shot at by continuous automatic rifle fire by thirty-plus seconds. As a result, it doesn’t really feel like Matrix is in danger at all when he leans out of the plane to shoot back. Of course, his bullets don’t seem to have any effect either—but the constant sound of gunfire does serve to add urgency to Cindy’s efforts to start the plane. (Of note here is the commendable effort of the goon driving the jeep to shoot Matrix with one hand holding his automatic rifle and the other on the wheel; maybe the wild inaccuracy of the shots isn’t that surprising after all.)
