History Film / TheExpendables

* BondVillainStupidity: Munroe seems to be a CombatPragmatist, but falls into stupidity anyway. [[spoiler: After getting Barney to disarm himself via HostageSituation, Munroe wisely shoots him. After noting that he is still alive, Munroe abstains from shooting him again and instead [[EvilGloating yells at him for ruining his plans long enough for Barney to get back up and for Lee to flank his position]] [[WhatAnIdiot and is promptly killed as a result]]]].

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 women, and a stupid pun [''The Expendabelles''] 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]] Meanwhile, a fourth film was eventually SavedFromDevelopmentHell and produced in 2021 for a release the following year; Stallone confirmed this would be his final appearance in the series, with any future installments to feature Statham as the lead.

* WeaponOfChoice - An interesting case in that each character has their preferred weapon, but all characters switch between guns and fists/knives to fit the situation - or are forced to [[ThrowawayGuns drop them due to situation change.]]

* AwesomeMcCoolname: [[PunnyName Hale Caesar, Toll Road]] and Doctor Death.

** [[spoiler: Gunnar is accepted back into the team after being ejected for his unpredictability.]]

* CoolPlane: The crew travels in an ex-US Navy Grumman HU-16/[=JR2F=] Albatross seaplane in the first film. It is replaced for unspecified reasons by a heavily-modified Canadair CL-215 amphibious firefighting airtanker in the sequel, which gets crashed in a DynamicEntry, and replaced at the end by an Antonov An-2 biplane. The third movie features an Antonov An-26 as their new plane. Each aircraft has been modified with heavy forward-firing weaponry, taken UpToEleven with the CL-215’s nose-mounted 75mm howitzer ([[TruthInTelevision which was a real feature of some B-25 bombers during WWII]]).

** The climax of the third movie takes this UpToEleven when and entire battalion of the Azmenistani army, with tanks and air support still can’t hit the good guys.

* TheSnarkKnight: Christmas. UpToEleven in the sequels.

** Lee: [[KnifeNut Throwing knives]].
** Gunnar: [[KnifeNut Huge Bowie knife]], Grenade Launcher.

* KnifeNut:
** Lee Christmas prefers to fight with his knives and will sometimes use a throwing knife instead of a pistol. Lampshaded by Gunnar, who carries a huge bowie knife himself, and later hands it to Christmas. Ironically, Statham's breakout role in ''Film/LockStockAndTwoSmokingBarrels'' had his character get very creeped out by a KnifeNut.
** Tool as well, with whom Christmas has throwing knife competitions.
** Doc quickly kindles a rivalry with Lee almost as soon as he's sprung from the box, when he tells Lee that one of his knives' balance is off. Also, Doc's stuff, which Barney kept around, is a backpack full of all sorts of cutlery.

* BackFromTheDead: [[spoiler: Gunnar is revealed to be alive at the end of the movie]].

A modest action movie franchise that intentionally contains [[GenreThrowback pretty much every trope associated with 1980s action movies]]. After the success of ''Film/RockyBalboa'' and ''Film/{{Rambo}}'' (2008), Creator/SylvesterStallone became interested in making a film that brought together [[AllStarCast as many action stars he could get]] with careers ranging from the 80's to modern day.

** The whole church scene.

* BookEnds: The Expendables entering, and later, leaving [[FanNickname the Toolshed]] on {{Cool Bike}}s.

* BaldOfAwesome: Lee, Mr. Church, Paine, Toll Road and Hale Caesar. Apparently hair is for sissies.

*** "Are you afraid of me?" "No." "You really should be."

——>’’’Gunner:’’’ Swedish.

** "Now I can see inside you. And I see lies."

* WorldOfHam: Considering it's a movie with Creator/SylvesterStallone, Creator/DolphLundgren, Wrestling/StoneColdSteveAustin and Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger, this trope was pretty much unavoidable.

* NotSoDifferentRemark : Munroe attempts to make Ross believe that they are both mercenaries who are "dead inside."

Two sequels have been made; ''Film/TheExpendables2'' (2012) and ''Film/TheExpendables3'' (2014). A fourth film is currently in development. There is also an original comic story set between the second and third movies.

Two sequels have been made; ''Film/TheExpendables2'' (2012) and ''Film/TheExpendables3'' (2014). There is also an original comic story set between the second and third movies.

The actual plot starts with a mission to deal with boat hijackers, Gunnar is expelled from the team for his unpredictable behavior. Ross gets a new job from the mysterious Mr. Church (Creator/BruceWillis). He hires the team to go into a BananaRepublic and [[OneManArmy single-handedly]] take down a dictator's (David Zayas) regime. After a disastrous scouting mission, they learn Church is connected to the CIA and their real job is to upset the profiteering from a rogue CIA agent James Munroe (Eric Roberts), who has a particularly nasty bodyguard named Paine (Wrestling/StoneColdSteveAustin). They initially agree to walk away from a likely suicide mission and from doing the CIA's dirty work, but their contact Sandra (Giselle Itie) is captured by Munroe and they feel [[AlwaysSaveTheGirl obligated to rescue her]], and Gunnar is not [[HeelFaceTurn happy with being rejected from the team]].

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 women, 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]] Meanwhile, a fourth film was eventually SavedFromDevelopmentHell and produced in 2021 for a release the following year; Stallone confirmed this would be his final appearance in the series, with any future installments to feature Statham as the lead.

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 women, 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]]

* NotSoDifferent: Munroe attempts to make Ross believe that they are both mercenaries who are "dead inside."

** The drilling vehicle that Trench (Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger) uses to bust the Expendables out of the collapsed mine bears a STRIKING resemblence to the drilling vehicle that Quade (also played by Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger) shoves a drill into in Paul Verhoeven's adaptation of ''Film/TotalRecall1990''. And of course, the homage to his actor's most beloved CatchPhrase as soon as he appears: