The Last Stand (2013)
The Last Stand is a 2013 American action thriller film directed by South Korean film director Kim Jee-woon in his American directorial debut. The film stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, Johnny Knoxville, Forest Whitaker, Jaimie Alexander and Rodrigo Santoro and was written by Andrew Knauer. This was Arnold Schwarzenegger’s first lead acting role since Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines in 2003. The film focuses on a tough small town sheriff and his deputies who must stop a dangerous drug lord from escaping to Mexico in a modified sports car. Filming took place in Belen, New Mexico and Nevada in late 2011. The film premiered on January 14, 2013, at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre and was released on January 18, 2013, by Lionsgate, receiving mixed reviews from critics and grossing $48.3 million worldwide against a $45 million budget.
Plot.
Sheriff Ray Owens resigns himself to a life of crime-fighting in the sleepy border town of Sommerton Junction, Arizona. He left his LAPD post following a bungled operation and leaving him wracked with failure and defeat after his partner was crippled and his team decimated. The crimes experienced in Sommerton range from the Mayor parking his Camaro in the fire lane to vintage arms collector Lewis Dinkum firing off guns at slabs of meat with the deputies. One night, Gabriel Cortez, an international drug lord and race car driver makes a daring escape from FBI custody in Las Vegas and speeds off in a modified Chevrolet Corvette C6 ZR1, taking Agent Ellen Richards as his hostage as he races southbound toward Mexico at speeds over 200 mph. Agent John Bannister has a blockade set up in Bullhead City, Arizona, but Cortez’s men mow down the cops on site and clear the road for him to continue his getaway. Cortez also uses his extraordinary driving skills to immobilize two SWAT vehicles headed toward Summerton Junction. Before flying to Arizona, Agent Bannister has his team do a financial background check on all agents involved to learn about the mole, who has helped Cortez’s escape.
At 4:30 A.M, Owens dispatches deputies Jerry Bailey and Sarah Torrance to visit the residence of the local farmer Parsons, who has suddenly missed his usual milk delivery at the diner. After discovering that Parsons has been murdered, the deputies follow a trail of tire tracks that lead them to Cortez’s henchman Thomas Burrell and his mercenary cutthroats, who are planting a mobile assault bridge across the canyon that marks the U.S./Mexico border. Bailey is fatally shot in the middle of a shootout between the deputies and the thugs before Owens rushes in to bring his officers back to his precinct. Shortly after being notified by Agent Bannister of Cortez’s presence, Owens gathers Torrance and senior Deputy Mike “Figgy” Figuerola. He also deputizes jailed local Frank Martinez, a former US Marine who is a veteran of the Iraq War with PTSD who developed a streak of never finishing what he started; because Bailey was his friend, Martinez insists that he will not falter. Finally, Owens recruits Dinkum to protect their town. Dinkum agrees only if he becomes a deputy and if he keeps the gun Owens had confiscated earlier.
Production.
In June 2009, producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura and studio Lionsgate pre-emptively picked up Andrew Knauer’s spec script for The Last Stand. Back then, the script involved Cortez escaping with a Gumpert Apollo. One year later, South Korean director Kim Jee-woon became attached to the project. di Bonaventura stated that Jee-woon was invited because he felt that in his filmography he “makes the simple feel rich”. Kim in turn declared that he was attracted to the plot of “protecting something important, no matter how small”, and having advanced technology being taken down in “analogue ways”. Writer Jeffrey Nachmanoff was also brought in to rewrite the script, which di Bonaventura compared the film to a Western film, with a small town being attacked by an analogue to a corrupt cattle baron and a weathered veteran trying to stop him.
Liam Neeson was considered for the protagonist, but after he passed in 2011 Lionsgate offered the project to Arnold Schwarzenegger, who had just ended his tenure as Governor of California. He was announced on The Last Stand in July 2011. The actor said he considered the project “a lot different for me, even though it’s action-packed, because I have to play a guy who’s sensitive to my team. And we have lots of laughs like in True Lies.” Jee-woon was at first apprehensive to have such a big star in the project, but once both discussed the project he noticed both had the same ideas for Ray Owens, aiming for an everyman instead of a “Terminator like feel”. Two weeks later, Lionsgate announced a release date of January 18, 2013.
RELATED:
G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013) Biography, Plot, Cating, Filming, Box office, Trailer.
