Commando, Part 39
[01:05:52–01:07:36]
Synopsis
Cindy repeats the message back to Matrix as she hands him armaments: “Commando. Kirby. Code red. Coordinates. Got it.” Matrix says, “Don’t break radio silence until they see me.” Cindy asks, “How will I know?” Matrix: “Because all fucking hell is gonna break loose.” Cindy says, “Be careful, Matrix. Good luck.” Matrix responds, “Thanks.” He begins rowing toward the shore.
We cut to a building labeled “Aeropuerto Val Verde”—the Val Verde Airport. There are people outside selling goods, preparing food, and walking around with luggage. A few armed guards mill around, too. A car pulls up and a few men get out. They head toward the airport building.
Elsewhere, Matrix is arriving at the shore. Once it gets shallow enough to walk, he climbs out and starts pulling the rubber boat behind him up onto the beach. He looks out along the island’s shoreline and sees no sign of people nearby. Matrix unloads his gear from the raft and begins getting ready for the assault. He laces his boots, zips up his combat vest, attaches shotgun shells and grenades to the vest, sheaths a knife, loads a big pistol, draws camouflage paint onto his arms and face, racks a shotgun, and reaches for his rocket launcher.
Analysis
There’s been a lot of buildup to the showdown that we know this movie must end with. We’ve seen Matrix’s heightened awareness and superhuman strength. We’ve seen that he’s respected and feared by both allies (Kirby) and enemies (Bennett). We’ve seen him take extreme measures in his effort to get his daughter back safely, jumping from jetliners, swinging across mall atria, and burgling military surplus stores. Now, in this sequence, the film ratchets up these expectations even higher. First, Matrix forewarns Cindy that “all fucking hell is gonna break loose” when he begins his assault on Arius’s compound. Then, we get perhaps the finest gearing-up sequence ever committed to film.
In the twelve seconds from 1:07:24 to the end of this segment at 1:07:36, there are 18 unique shots showing Matrix preparing himself for the attack. Each shot emphasizes a single action, giving the sequence a relentless staccato feel. The bootlaces are pulled taut. The combat vest’s hefty zipper is zipped. Clips on the vest are snapped. A knife is plunged into its sheath. A magazine is slammed into a huge Desert Eagle pistol. A shotgun is noisily racked. This sequence is amazing. It gets the viewer hyped up for what promises to be an enormous action set-piece to come. This is in part, I think, because this is the first time we’ve seen Matrix fully in his element. Up until now he’s mainly been acting as a civilian, facing off against his enemies in urban environments with merely his fists and his wits. But now he has a full complement of military gear—only now do we get to see what he must have been like when he was a commando.
One of the great things about Commando is that it’s interested in action and humor and has time for little else. Where some other films might try to make the relationship between Cindy and Matrix romantic, Commando doesn’t slow down for that. As Matrix gets ready to row toward the shore, a lesser film might have had a forced romantic speech or a kiss before he left. Here, Cindy says, “Be careful, Matrix. Good luck.” Matrix responds with a subdued but heartfelt “Thanks” and rows away. In short, the movie does an amazing job of remaining focused on its core competencies.
We get just a brief glimpse of the Val Verde airport, but in this short sequence the production design team does really nice work creating a sense of place. Presumably this is just a regular building and street somewhere in the LA area, but the airport sign, a big collection of extras going about their lives, chickens in cages, a goat walking by, and the ominous presence of armed guards make it feel remarkably like a real location—especially considering that it gets just a few moments of screen time. And I notice for the first time on this viewing that there are even propaganda posters in the background, including one that appears to show Arius’s head with a big red X over it.
