Daily Dialogue — May 10, 2018

“You’re a funny guy, Sully, I like you. That’s why I’m going to kill you last.”

— Commando (1985), screenplay by Steven E. de Souza, story by Jeph Loeb & Matthew Weisman and Steven E. de Souza

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Action Hero Wisecracks.

Trivia: In 1986, a sequel was written by Steven E. de Souza, and revised by Frank Darabont, with an eye to having John McTiernan direct. The script was based on the book ‘Nothing Lasts Forever’ (1979) by Roderick Thorp, but Schwarzenegger wasn’t interested in reprising the role. The script was then reworked with a new central character, eventually played by Bruce Willis, and became Die Hard (1988). The plot of the abandoned sequel would had seen Matrix being hired by a big corporation to oversee their security to protect their executives from being kidnapped. To stop people breaking into their building and to make sure their computers are secure. So he sets it up and hires the most dangerous people to be guards in the building and then lo and behold — he discovers the people he’s working for are in the illegal arms business and the big corporation is a simply a front. The end of the movie would see Jenny and Cindy, who is now a lawyer, trapped in the building and Matrix now has to defeat all the people he hired — all the meanest, toughest guards — as well as the security systems, the guard dogs, everything.

NOTE: Now that you’ve slogged through this trivia taken from IMDb, I contacted Steve E. de Souza who said it’s a complete myth. Die Hard originated from the Thorp novel, not Commando 2.

Dialogue On Dialogue: The movie Commando is awash with Action Hero Wisecracks including: “Let off some steam, Bennett,” “I eat Green Berets for breakfast. And right now, I’m very hungry,” “Don’t disturb my friend, he’s dead tired,” and “I lied”.