| The Expendables | |
| Creator: | David Callaham |
| Origin: | The Expendables (2010) |
| Owner: | Lionsgate |
| Years: | 2010–present |
The Expendables is an American ensemble action thriller franchise conceived by David Callaham, spanning a film series, the first three ones cowritten by Sylvester Stallone, and additional media. The films star an ensemble cast, notably Stallone and Jason Statham, and are produced by Avi Lerner and Kevin King-Templeton. The film series, an acknowledgement of former blockbuster action films made in the 1980s and 1990s, also pays homage to action stars of former decades, and the more recent stars in action. The series consists of the films The Expendables (2010), The Expendables 2 (2012), The Expendables 3 (2014), Expend4bles (2023), and an ongoing comic book series, The Expendables Go to Hell (2021). Though criticism with regard to plot and dialogue between characters has been expressed, critics praised the use of comic relief in between action.
| Film | U.S. release date | Director(s) | Screenwriter(s) | Story by | Producer(s) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Expendables | Sylvester Stallone | David Callaham & Sylvester Stallone | David Callaham | Avi Lerner, John Thompson & Kevin King-Templeton | ||
| The Expendables 2 | Simon West | Richard Wenk & Sylvester Stallone | Ken Kaufman, David Agosto & Richard Wenk | Avi Lerner, Les Weldon, Danny Lerner & Kevin King-Templeton | ||
| The Expendables 3 | Patrick Hughes | Katrin Benedikt, Sylvester Stallone & Creighton Rothenberger | Sylvester Stallone | Avi Lerner, Les Weldon, Danny Lerner, John Thompson & Kevin King-Templeton | ||
| Expend4bles | Scott Waugh | Max Adams, Kurt Wimmer & Tad Daggerhart | Kurt Wimmer, Spenser Cohen & Tad Daggerhart | Les Weldon, Yariv Lerner, Jason Statham & Kevin King-Templeton |
See main article: The Expendables (2010 film). The Expendables, a group of elite mercenaries who carry out all sorts of missions, ranging from assassination to rescue, are deployed to a South American island, Vilena, to overthrow a Latin American dictator, General Garza, who is interfering with the plans of a group of "people" led by a man known only as Mr. Church. However, the team leader, Barney Ross, soon realizes that Garza is merely a puppet being controlled by a ruthless rogue CIA officer, James Monroe, who is Mr. Church's real target.
See main article: The Expendables 2. A while after the first film, the Expendables accept another mission from Mr. Church to make up for losses caused by the mission in Vilena, but they end up in a conflict with a rival mercenary group, the Sangs, and their newest and youngest member is murdered by their leader, Jean Vilain. Ross swears vengeance on Vilain for his protegé's death and starts to track him down, in the process learning that Vilain threatens the world with five tons of weapons grade plutonium he intends to excavate from an abandoned Soviet mine and sell to the highest bidder.
See main article: The Expendables 3. The Expendables come face to face with the team's co-founder Conrad Stonebanks. Ross was forced to kill Stonebanks after he became a ruthless arms trader, but Stonebanks survived and has now made it his mission to destroy The Expendables. Ross resorts to recruiting a new and younger generation of Expendables to help the team overcome his old adversary.
See main article: Expend4bles. The Expendables are assigned a mission to thwart the plans of terrorist groups led by Suarto Rahmat and Ocelot as they possesses nuclear weapons with plans to provoke World War III in order to receive profits from igniting the war.
In May 2012, it was announced that a television spin-off of the film series had entered development at Lionsgate.[1] In March 2015, it was confirmed that the franchise would expand, with a television event series in active development. The project would be a joint-production between CBS Television Studios, Lionsgate Television, Shane Brennan Prods., and Rogue Marble Productions. Shane Brennan has signed on as creator, producer and showrunner; as well as serving as co-writer with Greg Coolidge and Kirk Ward. Stallone would serve as executive producer alongside Avi Lerner, Kevin King, Grant Anderson, and Brennan. The plot of the series was announced to feature a new team of Expendables, composed of 'iconic television stars', who are on a mission to stop the dangerous activities of terrorist organizations.[2]
Originally scheduled to air on Fox network, beginning in June 2016 the series was being shopped around to other networks and streaming services.[3] In November 2021, President of Millennium Films Jeffrey Greenstein, confirmed that the studio is once again actively developing a television series for the franchise.[4] In November 2022, Greenstein reiterated that development for a television series is ongoing, with plans to expand each of the studio's franchises into additional media.[5]
See main article: List of The Expendables characters.
| Character | Films | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Expendables | The Expendables 2 | The Expendables 3 | Expend4bles | ||
| 2010 | 2012 | 2014 | 2023 | ||
| Lee Christmas | Jason Statham | ||||
| Gunner Jensen | Dolph Lundgren | ||||
| Toll Road | Randy Couture | ||||
| Barney Ross | Sylvester Stallone | ||||
| Yin Yang | Jet Li | ||||
| Hale Caesar | Terry Crews | ||||
| Trent "Trench" Mauser | Arnold Schwarzenegger | ||||
| Lacy | Charisma Carpenter | ||||
| Mr. Church | Bruce Willis | ||||
| Tool | Mickey Rourke | ||||
| Sandra Garza | Giselle Itié | ||||
| James Munroe | Eric Roberts | ||||
| The Brit | Gary Daniels | ||||
| Daniel "Dan" Paine | Steve Austin | ||||
| Booker "The Lone Wolf" | Chuck Norris | ||||
| Billy "The Kid" Timmons | Liam Hemsworth | ||||
| Maggie Chan | Yu Nan | ||||
| Hector | Scott Adkins | ||||
| Jean Vilain | Jean-Claude Van Damme | ||||
| Conrad Stonebanks | Mel Gibson | ||||
| Max Drummer | Harrison Ford | ||||
| Bonaparte | Kelsey Grammer | ||||
| Galgo | Antonio Banderas | ||||
| Doctor "Doc" Death | Wesley Snipes | ||||
| John Smilee | Kellan Lutz | ||||
| Luna Maya | Ronda Rousey | ||||
| Thorn | Glen Powell | ||||
| Mars | Victor Ortiz | ||||
| Goran Vata | Robert Davi | ||||
| Easy Day | Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson III | ||||
| Gina | Megan Fox | ||||
| Decha | Tony Jaa | ||||
| Galan | Jacob Scipio | ||||
| Lash | Levy Tran | ||||
| Suarto Rahmat | Iko Uwais | ||||
| Marsh/Ocelot | Andy García | ||||
| Film | Crew/Detail | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Composer | Cinematographer | Editor(s) | Production companies | Distributing company | Running time | ||
| The Expendables | Brian Tyler | Jeffrey Kimball | Paul Harb Ken Blackwell | Nu Image Nimar Studios Millennium Films Wide Picture Studios Splendid Film Studios Rogue Marble Productions Nu Image Entertainment GmbH | Lionsgate | 103 min | |
| The Expendables 2 | Shelly Johnson | Todd E. Miller | Lionsgate Millennium Films Le Vision Pictures Nu Image Productions Splendid Film Studios | 103 min | |||
| The Expendables 3 | Peter Menzies Jr. | Paul Harb Sean Albertson | Lionsgate Davis Films Ex3 Productions Millennium Films Nu Image Productions Nu Boyana Film Studios | 126 min | |||
| Expend4bles | Guillaume Roussel | Tim Maurice-Jones | Michael J. Duthie | Lionsgate Grobman Films Templeton Media Millennium Films Nu Boyana Studios Media Capital Technologies | 103 min | ||
| Film | Release date | Box office gross | Budget | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| North America | Other territories | Worldwide | |||||
| The Expendables | August 13, 2010 | $103,068,524 | $171,401,870 | $274,470,394 | $80–82 million | [6] [7] | |
| The Expendables 2 | August 17, 2012 | $85,028,192 | $229,947,763 | $314,975,955 | $100 million | [8] | |
| The Expendables 3 | August 15, 2014 | $39,322,544 | $175,335,033 | $214,657,577 | $90–100 million | [9] [10] | |
| Expend4bles | September 22, 2023 | $16,710,153 | $34,423,450 | $51,133,603 | $100 million | [11] | |
| Total | $ | $ | $ | $370–382 million | |||
| Film | Rotten Tomatoes | Metacritic | CinemaScore[12] | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Expendables | 42% (211 reviews)[13] | 45 (35 reviews)[14] | B+ | |
| The Expendables 2 | 67% (135 reviews)[15] | 51 (28 reviews)[16] | A− | |
| The Expendables 3 | 31% (178 reviews)[17] | 35 (36 reviews)[18] | A− | |
| Expend4bles | 14% (125 reviews)[19] | 30 (33 reviews)[20] | B– |
The Expendables received mixed reviews from critics. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes the film has a 42% approval rating based on reviews from 210 critics, with an average rating of 5.3/10. The website's consensus states: "It makes good on the old-school action it promises, but given all the talent on display, The Expendables should hit harder." On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from critics, the film has received a mean score of 45, based on 35 reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave it an average grade of B+.[21]
The Expendables 2 received mixed reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes the film has a 67% approval rating from 134 critics, with an average rating of 5.9/10. The website's consensus states: "Taut, violent, and suitably self-deprecating, The Expendables 2 gives classic action fans everything they can reasonably expect from a star-studded shoot-'em-up — for better and for worse." Metacritic gave it a score of 51 out of 100, based on reviews from 28 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. CinemaScore polls reported that moviegoers gave the film an average grade of A− on an A+ to F scale.[22] [23]
The Expendables 3 received negative reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 31% rating based on 178 reviews with an average rating of 4.9/10. The site's consensus reads: "Like its predecessors, The Expendables 3 offers a modicum of all-star thrills for old-school action thriller aficionados — but given all the talent assembled, it should have been a lot more fun". On Metacritic, the film has a score of 35 out of 100 based on reviews from 35 critics.
Expend4bles was panned by critics, with much criticism aimed at its lackluster CGI.