Commando, Part 5
[00:06:56–00:08:40]
Synopsis
The opening credits montage continues, with the father and daughter playing in a swimming pool. Next we’re indoors at the fancy cabin as they’re preparing some lunch. The father notices a cut-out paper heart on the fridge that says “I Love You Dad.” He turns around to give her a hug and a kiss, and we get his first line of dialogue in the film—“I love you too.” The daughter has made some sandwiches and brings them to the table. As they sit down to eat, the Schwarzenegger character is flipping through a magazine and makes some teasing remarks about pop music. He bites into the sandwich, makes a face, and asks what’s in it. The daughter: “You don’t wanna know.”
Suddenly he looks up from his food, as if listening intently. First quietly and then steadily growing louder, the air-chopping sound of a helicopter breaks through the silence of the mountain retreat. The Schwarzenegger character rises from his seat and walks over to the window overlooking the scenic forest. Now we see the helicopter, which is heading straight for the cabin.
Analysis
The credits montage continues to build up the relationship between the father and daughter—it seems clear that this is going to become a central theme of the movie. The fact that his first line is telling her that he loves her solidifies this. At this point, it seems a fair bet that any commando-ing on his part will be in the form of rescue or revenge.
Now, with regard to the “You don’t wanna know” sandwich—let’s see what we can see. There is an open jar of a white condiment. Mayo is the most likely option, of course, but there’s an outside chance it could be marshmallow fluff; the label is not clearly visible. We get a brief shot of the daughter lifting up the sandwiches, and there appears to be some form of deli meat on them. When we cut to her setting the plates down on the table, the deli meat isn’t visible; instead, there appears to be something else—shredded lettuce?—hanging off the sides. Notably, she takes a bite of the sandwich and doesn’t flinch or recoil, so presumably it’s not a bad-tasting sando on its own merits. I suspect that when he chomps it and asks what’s in it, it’s a reaction more of surprise than disgust.
Our best evidence yet comes at 8:14, when the Schwarzenegger character folds open the ’wich a bit to see what’s inside. It’s still pretty indeterminate, though. To my eye, it looks something like spinach dip, some kind of viscous white spread with green flecks. Taking all of the above evidence, I might guess this is a sandwich with mayo, deli meat, and lettuce—except that it seems unlikely such a sandwich would have elicited the surprised response. Ultimately there are no clear answers here, which is probably intentional; it’s up to the viewer here to use his or her imagination as to whatever kind of weird “whatever-ingredients-we-have” sandwich the daughter has created.
The opening credits come to an end with the director credit, for Mark L. Lester, just as the father is pouring juice for the meal. The music fades out, and the daughter announces “Here come the sandwiches!” Now we’re fully past the movie’s introductory material—now we’re really getting into the story.
“What’s in this?”
“You don’t wanna know.”
The Schwarzenegger character’s pop-culture opinions are a fun bit here. He’s reading an issue of Creem magazine (presumably belonging to his daughter) and makes the following trenchant observation: “Why don’t they just call him Girl George? It would cut down all the confusion I think.” So, he’s evidently not the most progressive guy when it comes to his music taste or his understanding of gender roles. But we do get the sense that he’s trying to engage with his daughter’s interests, if a bit teasingly. Her retort—“Oh dad, that’s so old”—shows that even his attempt at contemporary pop culture humor is dated. His next line, said slyly after setting the magazine down, is great: “Now when I was a boy, and rock and roll came to East Germany, the Communists said it was subversive… maybe they were right.” So, he’s continuing to make fun of modern youth culture here (while also providing a tidy explanation for his thick Austrian accent).
Now we get an echo of the earlier scene with his hyper-awareness while chopping wood. Mid-bite on the mystery sandwich, he looks up from the table, noticing the approaching helicopter before either his daughter or the viewer do. A nicely composed shot shows the Schwarzenegger character and his daughter from behind as they watch the helicopter zoom toward the cabin, framed by the enormous picture window in their dining room.
