FILM · 1985 · USA
Commando
32 archived facts 3 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (32)
- #001
An Army adviser showed Arnold Schwarzenegger the move for silently killing Henriques.
- #002
Arnold Schwarzenegger and Rae Dawn Chong filmed a love scene, but it was deemed unconvincing and was cut from the film.
- #003
The Sherman Oaks Galleria is the same shopping mall used in Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), which also starred Arnold Schwarzenegger. It was also used for Innerspace (1987). Since both films were completed, the mall has been redesigned.
- #004
Arnold Schwarzenegger performed many of his own stunts because the producers found it difficult to find a double for the former bodybuilder. The actor suffered a dislocated shoulder and received numerous stitches during filming.
- #005
This is director Mark L. Lester's favorite film.
- #006
Arnold Schwarzenegger and Vernon Wells have remained close friends since the making of the film.
- #007
The mansion used in the final confrontation between Matrix and Arius is the former Harold Lloyd estate in Beverly Hills. It was the same mansion seen in the final confrontation between Axel Foley and Victor Maitland in Beverly Hills Cop (1984).
- #008
Arius is said to be a deposed dictator from the country of Val Verde. Val Verde was a fictional Latin American country that Hollywood used in the 1980s and early 1990s to depict a Spanish-speaking nation similar to Cuba or Nicaragua without running into diplomatic problems. It was also referenced in Predator (1987), Die Hard 2 (1990) and the made-for-TV film Deadly Enemies (Pilot) (1988).
- #009
The surplus store where Matrix picks up all his weapons during the "shopping" trip was Surplus City in Sun Valley, California. A set added to the building allowed for the hidden room where the machine guns and other weapons were kept. In the 1960s the company had the largest collection of military surplus Jeeps and Mighty Mites offered for sale in the United States.
- #010
Arnold Schwarzenegger was taken to the hospital three times during filming because he performed most of his own stunts.
- #011
During filming, Arnold Schwarzenegger ran three to five miles a day and, of course, pumped iron for an hour.
- #012
Vernon Wells was not the original cast member set to play Bennett. He auditioned for the role and lost it to Wings Hauser. However, on the first day of filming, director Mark L. Lester fired Hauser and hired Wells. That is also why Bennett's clothes look so tight, because Wells was bigger than Hauser and the production had no time to make a new costume. Over the years a rumor emerged that Wells had auditioned for the role of Matrix, but this is false.
- #013
There are 54 stunt performers listed in the credits, 17 more than the actual cast members.
- #014
Even with blanks in his gun, Dan Hedaya was afraid to fire it.
- #015
The watch Arnold Schwarzenegger wore was the Seiko H558-5000, an analog/digital model 45 mm in diameter that is still referred to simply as "The Arnie." He also wore this watch in Predator (1987).
- #016
After filming a scene, Arnold Schwarzenegger told Mark L. Lester never to give Vernon Wells a real knife.
- #017
After firing the rocket launcher, Cindy says she learned how to use it because she "read the instructions." Although the line is meant as a joke, if you look closely at the earlier scene where she and Matrix stock up at Surplus City, the weapon's instruction manual really is in the shopping cart as Cindy takes it out of the store. In addition, much military equipment (especially LAWS rockets and other portable missile launchers) has instructions printed directly on the items.
- #018
Arnold Schwarzenegger stabbed himself and had to get stitches.
- #019
Mark L. Lester called the film "The quintessential eighties action film" and "Granddaddy."
- #020
The telephone booth Arnold Schwarzenegger lifts was a lightweight prop made of balsa wood. This was enough to lift a real telephone booth, even though at the time he could bench press over 450 pounds.
- #021
The scene in which Matrix stands on the landing gear of a plane speeding down the runway was shot by building the plane's wheel section and attaching it hydraulically to the side of a camera truck.
- #022
The film was released the same year as the similarly themed Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985), starring Sylvester Stallone. Although Stallone's film was a much bigger hit and cultural phenomenon, both films performed well at the box office. The release of competing Stallone and Schwarzenegger films in the same year fueled the long-running "Stallone vs. Schwarzenegger" rivalry in the media.
- #023
Arnold Schwarzenegger was paid $2,000,000 for this film.
- #024
The cut on Arnold Schwarzenegger's forehead at the beginning of the film was real.
- #025
Matrix's introduction as he emerges from the forest, with close-ups of his boots, chest, biceps and so on, was shot and edited in a style similar to Leni Riefenstahl's Nazi propaganda films. According to director Mark L. Lester, this was done to represent the idea of the world's invincible man emerging from the forest.
- #026
Winona Ryder, Shannen Doherty, Elisabeth Shue, Drew Barrymore, Jennifer Connelly and Patricia Arquette all auditioned for the role of Jenny.
- #027
According to Steven E. De Souza, Arnold Schwarzenegger told him, "I like this picture. I'm not a caveman. I'm a normal human being before I get shot and killed."
- #028
Alyssa Milano began working on the film after finishing the first season of the television series Who's the Boss? (1984).
- #029
In an interview, Vernon Wells stated that he had never heard Arnold Schwarzenegger's name before the making of the film.
- #030
Initially, studio executives did not want Arnold Schwarzenegger to speak at all in the film.
- #031
Immediately after Matrix plants the claymore mines, he is seen firing a knife into a guard's stomach. The knife he uses is a Russian ballistic knife that uses a spring to launch the blade out of the handle.
- #032
Nick Nolte was the first choice for John Matrix, but Arnold Schwarzenegger was cast instead.
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