John Cena made his big screen debut with The Marine, but this stealth Arnold Schwarzenegger remake almost killed his movie career before it began. Like Dwayne Johnson before him, John Cena felt destined to become a movie star right from the start of his WWE career.

Nowadays, he’s the star of Heads of State, Peacemaker and the Fast & Furious franchise, but John Cena’s movie career once looked very uncertain. He was essentially pushed into making his 2006 debut The Marine, an explosion-laden chase movie where he plays retired marine John Triton, who must rescue his kidnapped wife from diamond thieves.

Cena was cast after Stone Cold Steve Austin and Randy Orton both dropped out, and given Cena’s natural charisma as a wrestler, handing him an action vehicle felt inevitable. Sadly, it didn’t work in anybody’s favor, as The Marine grossed a tepid $22 million worldwide (via The Numbers).

Luckily, it arrived during a time when DVD sales gave even modest performers a boost, with the film earning an additional $27 million from home video sales. Still, The Marine was critically panned (it sits at 17% on Rotten Tomatoes), and did little to convince audiences Cena was a star in the making.

John Cena’s The Marine Is A Loose Remake Of Arnie’s Commando

“Somewhere, somehow, someone’s gonna pay!”

While The Terminator was Arnold Schwarzenegger’s big breakthrough, it was 1985’s Commando that cemented his stardom. This cast him as a retired Special Forces commando who has to rescue his kidnapped daughter and kill a LOT of people inbetween quips and puns.

While The Marine scales down the puns and bodycount, it’s basically Cena’s take on Commando. Both films are virtually plotless exercises for their leading men to flex their muscles, make cheesy gags and run away from gigantic explosions. Both have great antagonists for their heroes, too, with Commando having Bennett (Vernon Wells) and The Marine featuring Robert Patrick’s smarmy Rome.

The Marine is a fun, undemanding Wednesday night action flick, with occasional flashes of greatness. Still, it’s just not on Commando’s level, where it’s rare for a scene to pᴀss by without some outrageous gag or act of violence. With its PG-13 rating, The Marine feels much tamer than its inspiration and suffers as a result.

Both The Marine And John Cena’s Follow-Up 12 Rounds Were Bombs

Cena also did his own take on Die Hard with a Vengeance

The Marine may not have lost money, but it was far from the hit WWE hoped it would be. Cena’s next starring vehicle came with 2009’s 12 Rounds, where he plays a cop whose wife is kidnapped by a vengeful arms dealer. To get her back, Cena’s Danny has to survive 12 ᴅᴇᴀᴅly games the killer has created.

12 Rounds is very much a riff on Die Hard with a Vengeance, which is something all the reviews picked up on. Cena felt more engaged with 12 Rounds than he did with The Marine, but it still didn’t feel like he was having much fun either.

12 Rounds is another film that can be entertaining with some pizza and beer, but it borrows too much from Speed and the Die Hard franchise to feel in any way original or unique. The movie also failed to recoup its $20 million production budget, and in the aftermath, Cena’s movie career appeared DOA.

John Cena Said He “Wasn’t Ready” For Movies When He Made The Marine

Cena really wanted to be in the ring while filming his debut

In a candid chat with Happy Sad Confused, Cena grew candid about his early movie failures. Cena claims that in 2009, “I was told I would never work in movies,” and that he had wasted his opportunity for movie stardom. He also claims to have “earned” that grim ᴀssessment and puts it down to missing being in the ring.

No, I didn’t like making movies, because I was a young man going from town to town and audiences went berserk and I could go around the world. I’d been to Moscow and Tokyo and Delhi and you name it, everywhere, and the same thing happens. Music hits, people go nuts, and 25 minutes later I’m like we’re gonna do it again tomorrow night, right?

In Cena’s mind, he was then “plucked” from the adrenaline rush of performing live and pushed to front films he didn’t want to make. “It was just that it found me at the wrong time in my life,” is how the wrestler explains it, as Cena’s heart just wasn’t in the early movies he made.

That’s reflected in the aloof performances he gives in 12 Rounds and The Marine. He largely coasted on his larger-than-life persona without trying to dig into his characters. Of course, they were both pulpy action flicks, so there wasn’t much depth to start with – but it feels like the modern-day Cena would have at least tried to find some.

John Cena’s Scene-Stealing Trainwreck Performance Saved His Movie Career

Cena went back to basics to revive his acting career

In the same Happy Sad Confused conversation, Cena admits he could have just made crappy, STV action movies coasting on his fame. He didn’t want to do that, though, and decided to give his acting career another sH๏τ. Cena thus avoided leading roles in favor of supporting parts to build his skills with the likes of Daddy’s Home and Sisters.

The unlikely project that gave Cena a second sH๏τ was Trainwreck, where he gave a hilarious supporting turn as one of Amy’s (Amy Schumer) love interests. Trainwreck gave Cena the chance to display his comic chops, which let audiences (and filmmakers) see him in a totally different way.

This led him to movies like Blockers, F9, The Suicide Squad, and beyond. Considering how poorly his career was going around 2009, Cena’s acting comeback is nothing short of miraculous. He’s had his share of duds since, like the long-delayed Hidden Strike with Jackie Chan or Freelance, but he’s had more hits than misses.

John Cena has also come a very long way since The Marine, a movie he didn’t want to make, but the one that kickstarted his career regardless. It should be noted that the film received five sequels – but Cena missed out on them all.

Source: The Numbers, Rotten Tomatoes, Happy Sad Confused