History Film / TheExpendables

* RealityEnsues: Virtually all guns are loud, [[HollywoodSilencer even suppressed ones]]. However, the team learns just ''how'' loud they can really be when Caesar starts mowing down bad guys with a fully-automatic AA-12 shotgun in a narrow, confined tunnel that serves to reflect and concentrate the gun's report, leaving everyone reeling at how ridiculously loud it is and leaving Caesar temporarily deafened by it.[[note]] Of course, in reality, having a firefight in an enclosed place like that without hearing protection would likely rupture the eardrums of everyone in the tunnels, even without an AA-12 pounding away.[[/note]]

An [[DistaffCounterpart all-female]] SpinOff was pitched and pretty much every actress who had ever played an ActionGirl was suggested, though the project does not seem to have gotten past "What if all woman, and a stupid pun for the name?" [[note]]The fact that the supposed plot was a fairly misogynistic "Male team gets killed, female team gets recruited to infiltrate as prostitutes" probably didn't help.[[/note]]

This series is the closest we'll probably get to [[http://i.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/photoshop/2/5/8/33258.jpg?v=1 TV Tropes, the Movie]].

Two sequels have been made; ''Film/TheExpendables2'' (2012) and ''Film/TheExpendables3'' (2014). There is also an original comic story [[https://boundingintocomics.com/2020/02/03/new-expendables-project-coming-from-sylvester-stallone-and-the-creators-of-bane-chuck-dixon-and-graham-nolan/ currently in development]] set between the second and third movies.

** In the first movie got Barney vs Munroe and Toll Road vs Pain. Stallone is ten years older than Roberts and Couture is one year older than Austin.
** In the second movie got Barney vs Vilain and Christmas vs Hector. Stallone is fourteen years older than Van Damme and Statham is nine years older than Adkins.
** In the third movie got Barney vs Stonebanks. Stallone is ten years older than Gibson.

Two sequels have been made; ''Film/TheExpendables2'' (2012) and ''Film/TheExpendables3'' (2014). There is also a comic adaptation [[https://boundingintocomics.com/2020/02/03/new-expendables-project-coming-from-sylvester-stallone-and-the-creators-of-bane-chuck-dixon-and-graham-nolan/ currently in development]] set between the second and third movies.

Two sequels have been made; ''Film/TheExpendables2'' (2012) and ''Film/TheExpendables3'' (2014). There is also a comic adaptation [[https://boundingintocomics.com/2020/02/03/new-expendables-project-coming-from-sylvester-stallone-and-the-creators-of-bane-chuck-dixon-and-graham-nolan/ currently in development]] which details the team's adventures after they die and go to {{Hell}}.

Two sequels have been made; ''Film/TheExpendables2'' (2012) and ''Film/TheExpendables3'' (2014).

* BlackAndGreyMorality: While they refuse to hurt civilians The Expendables are a group of mercenaries who don't have many qualms about killing enemy combatants for money and many of them [[DarkAndTroubledPast have shady pasts]]. The people they fight, however, are usually out and out [[AxCrazy psychopaths]] who, unlike the Expendables, don't have ''any'' standards.

* GreyAndBlackMorality: Not really the Expendables themselves, mind you, but their most frequent employer, the CIA, ''are'' portrayed as being shady and amoral. However, the targets that the Expendables are sent to take out are even *worse*.

* ConspicuousCG:
** Garza's palace collapsing. The explosions before that, however...
** Paine on fire. The compositing is painfully obvious.
** The blood as well. And potentially even the blade on Gunnar's knife looks to have been at least touched up, if not wholly fabricated.

* ActionGirl:
** Maggie in ''2''.
** Luna in ''3''.
* [[ActionHero Action Heroes]]: Very much so.

** The Expendables wear magical body armor that regularly shrugs off a lot of rounds that should penetrate it. They also suffer no ill-effects as per genre conventions (no broken ribs or severe blunt force injuries that come with being shot, even wearing armor, in real life).

* BackToBackBadasses:
** Ross and Lee.
** Galgo and Luna in ''3''.

* BadassCrew: The Expendables.
* BadassGrandpa: Kind of the point of the series.
** One of the first images of the movie was a shot of Stallone's character, [[ShirtlessScene barechested]] and covered in tattoos. Nearly everyone was slack-jawed, saying, "''That'' guy is over 60?!"
** The series also stars 47-year-old (in the first film) Creator/RandyCouture, then-actively competing [[UsefulNotes/MixedMartialArts mixed martial artist]] and MMA's original BadassGrandpa.
** Creator/ChuckNorris is ''72'', and looks no older than 40-50.
** Jean-Claude Van Damme still looks every bit as capable at 53 as he did in his prime.
** Mel Gibson is 58, but is equal to the task of being an action villain in ''3''. He isn't in ''Film/LethalWeapon'' shape anymore, but his FinalBattle with Ross is brutal and physical.
** After a four-year prison sentence, WesleySnipes emerges at 52 looking like he hasn't lost anything.
** Creator/JetLi sure doesn't look like he's nearly 50 in the first movie either, does he? Could convincingly pass for lower 30s.

* BashBrothers: All of the Expendables.

* ChaseScene: Once a movie.

* CoolBike: Every Expendables member has one.

* CoolShades: Appear here and there.

* TheDragon:
** Paine.
** Hector was this in the sequel, and quickly formed a rivalry with Lee.

** [[spoiler: Gunnar]]
** In the sequel, [[spoiler:Lacey.]]

* FiveManBand:
** TheHero: Ross
** TheLancer: Lee and, to a slightly lesser extent, Yang. The latter was dropped in the sequel, however.
** TheBigGuy: Caesar, though most of them are pretty big.
** TheChick: Sandra. Maggie in the sequel.
** TheSmartGuy: Toll Road.
** SixthRangerTraitor: Gunnar
* FriendlyEnemy: Ross and Trench to each other. By the second film they have clearly come to respect, if not actually ''like'' each other. By the third one they’re in extremely good terms and Trench offers his assistance multiple times.

* GunsAkimbo: Ross
* HeroOfAnotherStory: Trench, who is implied (and in the sequel, stated) to have his own team in the same manner as the protagonists.
* HeterosexualLifePartners: Ross and Lee.

** In the second movie, the badguys are largely an army of poorly-trained East European militia and gangsters who aren't terribly accurate at best, and are getting mowed down constantly, often before being able to return fire. Also played somewhat for comedy when the group encounter a village where the menfolk had been taken away and the only ones left to defend the place was a handful of untrained civilian women who starts shooting on them. [[LampshadeHanging Christmas even jokes that the safest place to be is right in front of their guns]].

* ImprobableAimingSkills: The good guys.

* MadeOfIron: None of the protagonists suffer meaningful injuries for the duration of the films. [[spoiler: Gunnar gets shot just above the heart and is hale and hearty by his next scene.]]

** The Expendables talk between themselves about previous adventures in well-known hot spots of the Eighties and Nineties. Subverted in the case of Mickey Rouke's character - he describes a woman he could have saved in Bosnia. In the sequel, Billy the Kid talks about his prior tour of duty in Afghanistan.

* OutrunTheFireball: Several times. Usually by the bad guys, and it ''sometimes'' works for them.

* RuleOfCool: The entire series. Special mentions go to:
** Stallone's character uses a single-action revolver which he fires in bursts by fanning the hammer. Badass? Yes. Homage to classic Westerns? Probably. Utterly illogical? Who gives a fuck?!
*** Fanning is something a trained shooter could do. Taking down several targets in the process? [[ImprobableAimingSkills Not so much]].
** Ross and Caesar blow up a chopper by throwing a shell and then setting it off in midair. By ''shooting at it.'' Wait, aren't those things, like, built to make sure stuff like that doesn't happen? Fuck that! Who needs physics when you've got HSQ?

** [[spoiler: Barney to Gunnar]].
** In the sequel, Billy talks about his time in the military, specifically an event where his base commander literally shoots the dog. This was part of what lead to his being disillusioned with the military and ultimately joining the Expendables.

* {{Troperiffic}}: It even provides the page image.

*** Played straight with Vilain, though, who's only interested in selling the plutonium.

* [[WeaponizedCar Weaponized Seaplane]]:

* BackFromTheDead: [[spoiler: Gunnar at the end of the movie]].
* BaldOfEvil: Paine is a nasty piece of work.

** Sandra.

* DisneyDeath: [[spoiler: Gunnar.]]

* DramaticNecklaceRemoval: Done by Munroe to Sandra.

** Part of Ross' motivation. He seems to realize that it doesn't make much sense.

* EvilIsHammy: Eric Roberts as Munroe is a pretty triumphant example.
* FruitCart: They hit one during the ChaseScene at Vilena.

* HannibalLecture:
** Munroe gives one, before [[spoiler: [[ShutUpHannibal being silenced by six bullets to the chest and a giant knife to the back]]]].
** Also subverted. Munroe is sure that [[spoiler: mercs were sent by the Agency after him. Ross responds by saying that he just came for the girl]].

* HeelFaceTurn:
** [[spoiler: General Garza starts having second thoughts when it's his own daughter being tortured by Munroe and Paine. Pity Garza [[InTheBack turns his back on Munroe]] to speak to his soldiers...]]
** SubvertedTrope: One of the rarest characters in film: [[spoiler:The sympathetic South American Generalissimo.]]
* HoistHeroOverHead: Gunnar does this to Yang.
* HonourBeforeReason: Why Ross decides to finish the mission, despite the odds they're up against.

* ItsWhatIDo: Lee demonstrates to Lacy what he does for a living.
* KillItWithFire: How [[spoiler:Paine]] is killed.
* LeeroyJenkins: Gunnar. It gets him kicked off the team.
* LetMeGetThisStraight: Lee to Ross.

* TheManBehindTheMan: Munroe.

* MotiveRant: Munroe gives one.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Sandra stops Garza from killing Munroe. And [[spoiler: two seconds later, Munroe proceeds to kill Garza.]]

* NowItsMyTurn: [[spoiler: Gunnar to Yang]]

* PrisonRape: Sandra [[AttemptedRape almost]] falls victim to this, but is saved by Ross.
* PsychoPartyMember: Gunnar.

* RebelliousPrincess: Sandra, General Garza's daughter.

* RedemptionEqualsDeath: [[spoiler: General Garza]]

* RuthlessModernPirates: The African pirates at the beginning.

* ShellShockedVeteran: Tool, when he reveals his guilt to Barney.
* ShirtlessScene: [[BadassGrandpa Sylvester Stallone's]] character and his ''insane'' abs.

* ShowyInvincibleHero: It wouldn't be an old school movie throwback without one.
* ShutUpHannibal: "I didn't come for you, dipshit; I came for her!"
* SmugSnake: Eric Roberts is, shall we say, not straying far from his comfort zone here.

* StormingTheCastle: Garza's palace. Not surprisingly, the plan involves blowing it up.

** The leader of the pirates. Seriously? You have a group of elite badasses who have all of their {{Laser Sight}}s directly on you, they have just tossed down a bag of money to peacefully let the hostages go. And you have the audacity and stupidity to ask for more money?
** It comes with the territory. As Lee [[LampshadeHanging so exasperatedly comments]]: "Well, what do you know. ''A greedy pirate.''"

* UndersideRide

* WarriorPoet: [[spoiler:Lee Christmas, at the end.]]

While unabashedly masculine action movies, they also attempt to show just how depersonalized [[AMillionIsAStatistic the body count can be to a mercenary]], along with [[ActionFilmQuietDramaScene a few quiet moments of reflection]] and the [[BadassGrandpa struggles of aging soldiers staying relevant]] while [[MetaCasting feeling their age]].

** The Expendables are infallible, indestructible ubermensch. They are not, however, [[TropesAreNotBad Boring]].

* ComicBookAdaptation: Chuck Dixon write one for Creator/DynamiteEntertainment.

* CoolSword: The General brandishes one when he finally stands up to Monroe. In the spirit of authority figures who demand respect at the point of a naked blade. [[spoiler:Don't bring a knife to a swordfight, boyo.]]

* ComicBookAdaptation: Chuck Dixon write one for Creator/Dynamite entertainment.

* BigBad: At first presumed to be General Garza, but later revealed to be ex-CIA agent James Munroe (EricRoberts).

** Christmas acquiring a ruby from Burma. [[Film/TheDarkKnightSaga Alfred]] relates a similar tale, and closer to home Burma was the setting of the most recent Rambo film, starring...you know.

An [[DistaffCounterpart all-female]] SpinOff was pitched and pretty much every actress who had ever played an ActionGirl was suggested, though the project does not seem to have gotten past "What if all woman, and a dumb name [[note]]The fact that the supposed plot was a fairly misogynistic "Male team gets killed, female team gets recruited to infiltrate as prostitutes" probably didn't help.[[/note]]

An [[DistaffCounterpart all-female]] SpinOff [[http://www.joblo.com/movie-news/gina-carano-is-the-first-to-sign-on-for-the-all-female-version-of-the-expendables is also being planned]]. Creator/GinaCarano, Creator/KateeSackhoff, and Sharni Vinson have signed up thus far, and the director has expressed an interest in such names as Creator/SigourneyWeaver and Creator/LindaHamilton. Also thrown into the mix: Creator/MillaJovovich, Creator/MerylStreep and Creator/CharlizeTheron.

[[quoteright:290:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Expendables_4204.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:290:No, this is not a Fan Made Poster]]

** Arguable for Creator/JetLi, as Wiki/TheOtherWiki reports that scheduling conflicts with another film prevented him from participating in anything more than the first part of the film.