When a former action hero is found dead near a theater, it seems he was killed with a garrote for trying to stop a drug lord.
Tropes that appear in this episode:
- Affectionate Parody: Of 80s action movies and the Affectionate Parody that most likely directly inspired this episode, The Expendables.
- Becoming the Mask: The various 80s action stars have taken on the persona to the point of treating the victims death like the death of a member of a military unit and setting up an operation to recover the evidence. On the other side the actor who played the drug dealing villain actually became a drug dealer.
- Bland-Name Product: "The Indestructibles" serves as the in-universe version of The Expendables. "Hard Kill" and Hard Kill 2: The Blowback" stand in for Die Hard (in name, at least; the scene looks more like Desperado. Perhaps the best is the direct-to-movie Raiders of the Nubian Temple
- Credits Gag: The opening card's typical music is replaced by a bombastic 80s action movie version.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Subverted. While the victim claimed to have worked for Spanish intelligence and used his black ops experience to inform his movie role, in reality he was a goat herder and merely appropriated his friend's background to appear more mysterious.
- Expy: All of the stars of The Expendables have counterparts in The Indestructibles.
- Lance DeLorca is Antonio Banderas: he was born in Spain, was married to his one-time American co-star for decades before they got a divorce, and survived cancer, plus the scene of "Hard Kill" resembles the climatic scene in Banderas' action debut, Desperado.
- Brock Harmon is Sylvester Stallone: created a franchise of action movies starring aging action stars and made porn at the beginning of his career
- Rolf Magnus is Dolph Lundgren: former Scandinavian bodybuilder rumored to be a genius.
- Serafina is Ronda Rousey: female mixed martial arts champion with no previous movie experience that could be her co-stars' granddaughter.
- Heroic BSoD: When Brock Harmon invites Castle to come out drinking with the remaining Indestructibles, Castle just freezes.Harmon: Castle? [waves hand in front of face, clicking fingers] Hey, Castle?
- Long Last Look: Beckett, as she moves out of her old apartment.
- Plausible Deniability: When Castle brings Beckett the bugged model car from the drug dealer's office, he claims that a "concerned citizen" dropped it off with him. When pressed, he refuses to elaborate and a disbelieving Beckett doesn't push further to avoid contaminating the evidence.
- Unfolding Plan Montage: Respective cuts and voiceover occur when Castle and the "Indestructibles" cast obtain the bugged model car from Boothe's office.
- Verbal Backspace: Castle has to stay out of trouble with Beckett.Castle: SHE'S COMING HERE?! I HAD HER POSTER ON MY WALL FOR [Death Glare from Beckett] [Beat] a minute.
- Your Son All Along: The victim found out that he was the actual father of his co-star's supposed son, stemming from an affair he had with the co-star's wife. The wife had the victim permanently silenced to prevent her marriage from being ruined.
