In the course of his action career, Arnold Schwarzenegger has eliminated countless villains. But no other film with the star has such a high body count as The Phantom Menace from 1985. Arnie kills an impressive 81 people in this genre firework.
At that time, Schwarzenegger had a particularly intense idea for a bizarre action scenewhich never made it into The Phantom Commando. That would have really taken the Terminator legend too far!
Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Phantom Commando idea was way too hard
FandomWire picked up a question and answer session with Arnie that took place on Reddit in 2019. At the time, the actor was asked if the cast and crew had completely gone along with the humor of The Phantom Commando.
Schwarzenegger revealed that he himself is a bizarre action scene pitchedwhich was more than clearly rejected by studio head Lawrence Gordon:
I wanted to cut off a man’s arm and kill him with it. That wasn’t in the script. He threw a knife at me and after it missed, I hacked his arm off with a machete at the shoulder while his arm was still outstretched and beat him to death. Needless to say, I was asked by the head of the studio, Larry Gordon, to come into his office. And he said, “What’s wrong with you? Do you want to make money off this movie or an X-rated movie?” I said, “You’re right,” and he said, “Get the hell out of my office.”
Watch a trailer for Phantom Commando with Arnie here:
The Phantom Commando – Trailer (German subtitles) HD
The Phantom Commando by Mark L. Lester, which in the original has the simpler title Commando, is already packed with endless crazy one-liners. But in the scene with the arm, Arnie’s imagination got a little too wild.
Where can you watch the action thriller Phantom Commando?
If you are now in the mood for one of the toughest action blockbusters of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s career, you can watch The Phantom Commando anytime on Disney+ stream by subscription.