The poster for The Expendables features the main men and only their last names. Not just because they’ve been in so many action flicks that you’re supposed to know who they are, but because a last name alone is much more badass. It’s also a cliché, but these are the guys who made stuff like this into a cliché. Just look at their credentials.
Sylvester Stallone
Best-known action roles
John Rambo; Rocky
Number of action films: 34
Trademark weapon
Liberated machine guns, his knife, his fists.
Badass action hero line
“In town you’re the law, out here it’s me.”
Rambo
Badass action hero action
He takes out a guy in a helicopter by throwing a small rock at him in First Blood.
Jet Li
Best-known action roles
Wong Fei-hung in the Once Upon a Time in China series
Number of action films: 35
Trademark weapon
Martial arts
Badass action hero line
“Remember my face, so you can seek vengeance in the next life.”
Pang Qingyun, The Warlords
Badass action hero action
In Fist of a Legend, using nothing more than his fists and feet, he takes out more than 50 men. Men, we might add, who are top-level martial arts students.
Mickey Rourke
Best-known action roles
Harley Davidson, Ivan Vanko in Iron Man 2, Marv in Sin City
Number of action films: 33
Trademark weapon
Weird, energized whip-like chains in Iron Man 2
Badass action hero line
“This is blood for blood and by the gallon.”
Marv, Sin City
Badass action hero action
Walking into an armed robbery in progress, Rourke’s character in Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man politely pays for gas before beating up the thugs.
Bruce Willis
Best-known action roles
John McClane in the Die Hard movies
Number of action films: 39
Trademark weapon
Whatever he can snag from his enemies
Badass action hero line
“Yippee-ki-yay, motherf—er.”
John McClane, every single Die Hard movie
Badass action hero action
A helicopter drops him off on the wing of a moving plane, where he fights two bad guys, releases fuel and blows it all up with a lighter in Die Hard 2.
Dolph Lundgren
Best-known action roles
Drago in Rocky IV
Number of action films: 36
Trademark weapon
His fists
Badass action hero line
“I must break you.” Drago
Badass action hero action
He picks up a couch to ram it against a knife-wielding captor in Storm Catcher.
Jason Statham
Best-known action roles
Mercenary Frank Martin in the Transporter movies
Number of action films: 22
Trademark weapon
A pistol
Badass action hero line
“Have a good life. What’s left of it.”
Frank Martin
Badass action hero action
Without a weapon, he defeats two guys who corner him with axes in a narrow hallway in The Transporter.
