The Expendables 5 needs to break Sylvester Stallone’s worst career rule and finally kill off Barney Ross. The Expendables movies were created by Stallone himself, with the intent of uniting all the great action stars under one franchise. Even with luminaries like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Harrison Ford, Jet Li and many more, the saga has never fully lived up to its enticing potential. The box-office disaster of Expend4bles may have killed the series for good too. That could be a blessing in disguise since the fourth movie was easily the worst to date.
Expend4bles seemingly killed off Stallone’s Barney Ross early, only for the finale to reveal this was a ruse on his part. Sadly, the sequel even fumbles that storyline, since Barney’s “death” played like an obvious fakeout while it was happening. Killing Barney and handing the series over to Jason Statham’s Christmas felt like it would be a natural pᴀssing of the torch, but Stallone’s unwillingness to let his protagonists die robbed the sequel of dramatic weight.
The Expendables 5 Should Kill Off Stallone’s Barney (For Real This Time)
The Expendables should start living up to its тιтle
The Expendables is a modern riff on the man-on-a-mission films that were so popular during the 1960s and 1970s. Films like The Dirty Dozen or The Wild Geese brought together big stars for stories involving nearly impossible missions, with most of the cast dying before the credits roll. The Expendables has always resisted this setup though, as Liam Hemsworth’s sniper Billy the Kid is the only Expendable who has died. Other characters have been badly wounded, but the mortality rate for the Expendables team is shockingly low.
The Expendables 5 should break this habit and actually kill Barney. The third movie made a point to underline the team was already getting older and slower, so a sequel where Barney pushes his luck and finally bites the bullet would be fitting. Barney’s death could see the crew officially being handed over to either Christmas or a new leader and would allow for some new blood to join.
… it’s deeply odd that so few characters have died in a series dubbed The Expendables.
Barney’s death would also allow for a do-over of his memorial from the fourth film, in which only the current team members attended instead of all the other mercenaries he worked alongside, like Trench (Schwarzenegger) or Doc (Wesley Snipes). Killing a main character wouldn’t automatically translate to The Expendables 5 being any good, but after four entries that follow the same predictable order, it would shake things up. Plus, it’s deeply odd that so few characters have died in a series dubbed The Expendables.
Sylvester Stallone’s Characters Never Seem To Die, And That’s A Problem
Stallone hasn’t (technically) died in a movie since 1978
One of Stallone’s first follow-ups to the original Rocky was F.I.S.T., a crime drama where he played the head of a labor union. In the final scene, his character is gunned down by mobsters, but as Stallone recounted in his Netflix documentary Sly, he completely disagreed with this decision. He felt this downer ending hurt the film and sent a message that evil triumphs, but director Norman Jewison disagreed. Since then, Stallone has essentially refused to die onscreen.
Before F.I.S.T., Stallone’s character Machine Gun Joe was killed in the cult classic Death Race 2000.
He feels this sends audiences out of a movie on a low note, and they want to see their heroes triumph. He may have a point, but his inability to kill any of his characters has become a flaw. Barney should have died in Expend4bles, while films like Get Carter or Rambo: Last Blood would have been improved with darker finales too. There are some minor exceptions to his rule; Stallone’s villain Lieutenant Victor Von Ion was destroyed in 2016’s animated adventure Ratchet & Clank, while his character’s twin brother also perished in Samaritan.
Given that audiences don’t see the latter’s demise, it could be argued his superpowered character survived somehow. Stallone was also planning to kill his most popular characters in both Rocky V and Last Blood – only to back off at the last moment. Sly would be better off scrapping his no death rule since it doesn’t serve him the way it used to.
Giving Barney A Proper Death Would Be The Right Way To Wrap Up The Expendables
The Expendables series can wrap things up on an emotional note
The original Expendables was a curious mix of 1980s action flick and introspective drama about an older mercenary searching for some meaning in his violent existence. Later entries shed that more somber tone, but if The Expendables 5 happens, it could bring everything full circle. It could take a more serious tone, and see the gang reuniting to avenge Barney’s death.
|
The Expendables Movie Franchise |
Budget |
Box Office Gross |
Rotten Tomatoes |
|---|---|---|---|
|
The Expendables (2010) |
$82 Million |
$268,268,174 |
42% |
|
The Expendables 2 (2012) |
$100 Million |
$311,979,25 |
67% |
|
Expendables 3 (2014) |
$100 Million |
$209,461,378 |
32% |
|
Expend4bles (2023) |
$100 Million |
$51,133,603 |
14% |
He is the surrogate father to the gang, so it would add an emotional edge to proceedings. ᴀssuming The Expendables 5 is planned as the franchise finale, Barney’s demise would be a fitting way to close everything out. The team avenges their leader before disbanding or handing the keys to a younger team, while Christmas seeing his best friend’s death could inspire him to leave the mercenary life while he’s still in one piece.
Source: Rotten Tomatoes, The Numbers
