Comic-Con: Action-Packed EXPENDABLES Panel

Day two of our San Diego Comic- Con adventure was packed with movie panels. For about nine hours today our Fanboyz team listened in on some exciting film discussions. As hour seven reared its ugly head, a shot of adrenaline coursed through our veins in the form of The Expendables . Action icon Sylvester Stallone, along with Dolph Lundgren, Terry Crews, Steve Austin and Randy Couture made up the guest list for this epic panel. Say what you want about Stallone’s career, but it was a rush to be in the same room as Rocky. We got to see some great footage from the film including, probably, the most violent clip that Comic- Con has ever allowed on screen. The scene was a brutal fight in which we saw soldiers getting their bones broken, stabbed and shot.

Some great tid-bits of information that we got from Rambo himself was how much of the stunts that the actors performed themselves. Stallone actually broke his neck in a fight scene with “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. There was another clip that showed Jason Statham on the tip of a plane flying towards the ground at about 200 miles per hour that Stallone claims was real. He told us that they had to shoot it behind the production companies back because they could not insure Statham to do such a stunt. We also heard it first hand that Jean Claude Van-Damme, Steven Segal and Chuck Norris were approached for a role, but were unable to make the schedule work out.

As is the case with these panels, people from the audience get to direct questions to the stars. This is usually the worst part of the panel process, but then all of a sudden Bruce Willis comes on stage. Willis has a small role in the film where he actually shares screen time with Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger. He didn’t stay on stage for too long and steal focus from the rest of the cast, but he did thank Stallone for putting this project together.

I really enjoyed the footage that we were shown and it really made me think of my childhood and the first time I ever saw real action movies. The film looks like an ambitious attempt to bring the action genre back to its roots. It is definitely a good blend of old meets new in terms of action stars and promises to deliver a huge blow.