YMMV / Expend4bles

• Anti-Climax Boss: After all of Marsh's men are killed, Marsh himself challenges Christmas to come down and meet him face-to-face. Just when you were expecting one last throw down between Christmas and Marsh, Marsh is unceremoniously blown away by Barney in his helicopter when he cheats by pulling a gun out.
• Ass Pull: The reveal that Barney faked his death is really stretching it enough as it is, but the fact that he put a living Asshole Victim in the plane to die in his place—just for winning his ring from him and being a jerk about it—is complete and utter insanity. Even without all that, the bar fight scene clearly establishes Jumbo Shrimp is far shorter and less heavily muscled than Barney. Even in his burned condition, Christmas missing this is ludicrous.
• Captain Obvious Reveal: While one theory was that a surprise cameo would be revealed as the villain, to no one's surprise ultimately, Marsh turns out to be Ocelot and the real Big Bad.
• Complete Monster:
  • Marsh is a CIA officer who is the true identity of Ocelot, the man who sabotaged Barney Ross's mission 25 years prior, resulting in the deaths of nearly all of Ross's men. In the present day, Marsh hires Suarto Rahmat to steal a nuclear weapon, which he plans to set off near Russia, resulting in World War III, all so he can profit. Marsh removes Lee Christmas from the mission; makes it so the other Expendables are captured; fatally shoots one of his own men for questioning him; arranges for himself to be "captured" by Rahmat so that his former partner can be exchanged—allowing Marsh to kill said partner—and, finally, when he and Christmas remain, offers a fair fight before pulling a gun and attempting to kill Christmas.
  • Suarto Rahmat is a cheerfully sadistic Arms Dealer who has been hired for Ocelot's plan for global catastrophe. Raiding a Libyan general's compound to acquire a nuclear bomb, Rahmat has all the guards within slaughtered. After killing the General's wife, Rahmat holds his young son as a bargaining chip for the nuke, casually killing him when the general complies anyway. Having the nuke placed onto his ship, Rahmat has his boat travel to Russia to detonate it and trigger World War III.
• Ending Fatigue: No one expected the battle on Rahmat's ship was going to take up the bulk of the film, taking about 55 minutes to slog through. And just when you thought it'd be over after Rahmat dies, he reveals he never had the kill switch, but his client did, and that's when Marsh steps in to reveal his true status as the Big Bad.
• Harsher in Hindsight: During the final battle, Rahmat mockingly tells Russo that "it's her call whether the Expendables need to live up to their namesake or not". After the movie bombed, a lot of the bad reviews dismissed this as "expendable".
  • Sly Stallone expressing that he knew people were disappointed by the third movie and promised the fourth one would be better. Despite going back to the R-rating as promised, it very much was not, being a critical and commercial failure due to not only the Troubled Production from the COVID-19 Pandemic and later the writers' strike of 2023, but just general lack of interest from the public.
• Karmic Overkill: How some viewed Jumbo Shrimp’s death. Yes, he was certainly a Jerkass towards Barney and Christmas for refusing to give the former his ring back, but there are those who thought Barney using him as a body double when Rahmat shot his plane down came off as rather disproportionate for an Asshole Victim like him.
• Like You Would Really Do It: Come on now, did you really think Barney was going to kick the bucket?
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • Rahmat crosses it by killing a Libyan general's family even after the general surrenders the nuclear weapon to him.
  • Marsh throwing the kill switch to his nuke into the ocean to start World War III and frame the Expendables for it. He also shoots one of his own men when they object that the bomb will go off if they don't escape the ship.

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