Commando, Part 7
[00:10:24–00:12:08]
Synopsis
After Jenny’s “Got a warrant?” quip, John gently asks her to leave, and she goes. Kirby and John begin to talk business. Kirby: “John, we’ve got a problem. Someone’s killing your men.” John: “You gave them new identities.” Kirby: “There must have been a leak.” He then names the men who have been killed (Lawson, Forrestal, Bennett) and lists who among John’s many enemies could be responsible (the Syrians, the South Americans, the Russians, a terrorist group). Then he warns John that he could be next.
John laments that he was going to start a normal life with his daughter, here in the wilderness. Kirby says he’s heading back to civilization to coordinate with federal agents to protect John and find the assassins. He leaves the two uniformed guys who came with him (Jackson and Harris, he says) to protect John in the meantime. John asks if they’re good. Kirby says they are—“but not as good as you were.” Kirby flies off in the chopper.
Before the chopper’s drone has fully faded away, gunfire rings out from the tree line. It’s one of the bad guys from the docks, now equipped with an automatic rifle. We soon see two other gunmen in the forest, too. One of the soldiers is felled instantly. John scoops up Jenny and dashes toward the house. The other soldier is hit and goes down. Just inside the cabin, John dives to the floor for cover.
Analysis
This portion opens with a little more exposition, as Kirby finishes explaining the situation to John. We learn that John led some kind of team while he was in the service, and his comrades are getting killed; these must be the three men killed in the film’s opening sequence. The exposition is carried out in some long continuous shots—perhaps giving the audience a chance to breathe before the action kicks off. The shot in which Kirby gives the bulk of this info lasts from 10:34 to 11:02, nearly 30 seconds. We’ll know for sure as we go along, but this has got to be one of the longest shots in the film, if not the longest.
We continue to see why John is such a feared commando. When Kirby says that the soldiers he’s leaving are good, then smiles, pats John on the shoulder, and says, “Not as good as you were,” John isn’t amused. He maintains a stone-faced expression. Some might chalk this up to Schwarzenegger’s acting skills, but I think it does an effective job demonstrating that, based on the information Kirby has given him, John recognizes the gravity of the situation and is already calculating in his head what he’ll need to do to keep himself and his daughter safe. To underscore that, the very next shot is a close-up on Jenny, who is waiting on the porch, worried about the prospect of her dad going away again.
There’s more nice sound design with the chopper here, with the roar of the propellers gradually fading out as the general departs. Under the continuing drone, John tells Jenny he won’t be leaving her. John looks up at the helicopter as it flies out into the distance and grows quieter and quieter. But before the chopper is fully gone, the camera begins panning left, moving steadily over the trees near the cabin. We’re getting John’s point of view here—from the first moment the general leaves, he’s already on high alert. The chopper fades lower in the mix, and ambient birdsong becomes dominant on the soundtrack. Then, there’s a quick cut to John, whose eyes bulge as he notices something among the trees. It becomes clear that his state of readiness was warranted as a gunman pops out from the brush.
Now we jump into a quick, chaotic series of shots that makes the sudden violence all the more jarring. The rapid-fire editing is reminiscent of the garbage-truck shooting from the beginning of the movie, and it’s a big contrast from the deliberately paced exposition from earlier in this segment. In rapid succession we see the following thirteen images:
John notices something among the trees
A shot over the gunman’s shoulder as he raises his rifle
A shot from in front of the same gunman, taking aim and firing
A shot of the first soldier getting hit
Back to the over-the-shoulder shot
A shot from in front of a second gunman firing
A shot of John carrying Jenny toward the house, ceramic pots shattering around him
A shot from in front of a third gunman firing
Another shot of John carrying Jenny, and the second soldier getting hit
A shot showing the same action from the reverse angle
A shot from in front of the first gunman, still firing
A shot of John reaching the house, and the second soldier falling to the ground
A shot of John diving to the floor inside the house
Those shots play out between 12:01 and 12:08—that’s about a half-second per cut. And the only audio here is the maelstrom of gunfire, ricochets, and objects shattering all around our characters; there’s no music underneath. The fact that John picked up on the danger and got to safety before even the trained soldiers realized what was going on demonstrates his abilities. The sequence also builds up tension effectively—with three gunmen training their sights on the house, how could anyone (even a commando) get out alive?