The Expendables movies get a really bad rap. However, its spectacular cast, exhilarating action, and badass one-liners make for a highly entertaining action franchise. Sure, the movie’s cast is easily what drew many to the films in the first place, but what kept many coming back was its thrilling action and brutal kills. So without further ado, oil up your muscles and polish your weapons, as we rank the best kills in The Expendables franchise.
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10 X-Ray Machine – The Expendables 2 (2012)
Lionsgate
The final act of The Expendables 2 is sensational. Seeing the biggest action stars and heroes of the ’80s like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, Chuck Norris, and Sylvester Stallone rack up a mighty kill count as they fill their enemies with bullets. But few moments were better than the very creative X-Ray machine kill.
During Chuck Norris’s one-man massacre, the legendary martial artist kicks a bad guy onto an airport security conveyor belt before pumping him full of lead. What makes this kill so memorable was the fact that audiences saw this kill through an X-ray machine.
Related: The Best Action Movie Kills of All Time, Ranked
Lionsgate
Lacking etiquette and creativity compared to the rest of the kills on the list, this brutal kill is still among the best. The kill sees Dolph Lungdren repeatedly and relentlessly stomp on one of his allies’ heads, against the glove compartment of a moving car. As great as this kill ultimately is, the final cherry on top of the cake is Lungdren exclaiming, “Insect!” to his dead companion.
8 Bike vs Chopper – The Expendables 2 (2012)
Lionsgate
Shooting a vehicle at a helicopter in an action movie is nothing new. We saw it in Live Free or Die Hard, and it returns here in The Expendables 2. However, this time, it sees Sylvester Stallone rev the engine of a motorbike and send it speeding at a helicopter shooting at Stallone and Jason Statham.
The motorbike doesn’t instantly destroy or blow up the helicopter, and instead, sends it hurdling towards the floor and sending the helicopter into a brutal nose dive, causing a large explosion.
7 Full Steam Ahead – The Expendables 3 (2014)
Lionsgate
The Expendables 3 is without a doubt the weakest in the franchise. Yet, it did have its moments. Most notably the thrilling train action scene, which saw Wesley Snipes make his fantastic first appearance in this action blockbuster franchise.
The kill sees Wesley Snipes’ character, full of rage and vengeance, run to the front of the train to kill the train’s conductor, before leaping onto the mounted machine gun turret at the front of the train. This, therefore, sends the train speeding into a heavily-fortified fortress, with Wesley Snipes laying waste to the fortress with the turret. Snipes’ captor and torturer is peculiarly standing directly in the middle of the said fortress, and the train speeds right for him, running him over and demolishing the entire fortress.
6 Barneys Finger Guns – The Expendables 2 (2012)
Lionsgate
The title may not suggest a particularly great kill, but this creative and badass kill in The Expendables 2 is well and truly awesome. During the climax of the exhilarating opening action sequence, Sylvester Stallone and Jason Statham are caught in a rock and a hard place. Surrounded by many Militia members, Stallone and Statham must find a way out.
However, Stallone’s bright idea is to make his finger into the shape of a gun. The universal finger gun motion. From there, Statham’s character asks, “That loaded?” To which Stallone’s character responds with “We can only hope”. Stallone then aims his finger pistol at his enemies, and with a quick “thrakakar thrakakar”, the militia gets blasted to oblivion by a sniper rifle wielded by Liam Hemsworth’s character. One of the more creative kills in the franchise.
5 “Get Over Here!” – The Expendables 2 (2012)
Lionsgate
Like previously mentioned, the final act of Expendables 2 is bombastic and an action movie fan’s dream. Easily one of the many highlights of said finale, is the brutal and jaw-dropping fight between Sylvester Stallone’s Barney Ross and Jean-Claude Van Damme’s Villain. That’s vi-lane. After the two action legends duke it out, the fight ends with Villain’s violent death at the hands of Barney Ross.
Perhaps the best way to describe this badass kill is to compare it to Scorpion’s special movie in the Mortal Kombat video game franchise. After seemingly losing the battle and being taunted by Van Damme’s Villain, Stallone grabs a metal chain and whips it around Van Damme’s neck, before pulling the legendary martial artist towards Stallone and plunging a knife into the antagonist’s chest.
4 Chuck “Freaking” Norris – The Expendables 2 (2012)
Lionsgate
Remember the hilarious memes of Chuck Norris, well The Expendables franchise leans heavily into them. Throughout the franchise, the deeply-skilled martial artist and action hero has delivered many awesome moments and dialogue. Namely, when Stallone’s Barney Ross asks Chuck Norris’ character Booker, “I’ve heard another rumor, that you were bitten by a King Cobra?” To which Norris replies, “Yeah, I was. But after five days of agonizing pain, the Cobra died.”
However, easily one of Norris’ best moments ever, is when he single-handedly defeats an entire army and a tank pinning down Ross and his crew of Expendables. When all hope is lost and The Expendables run out of ammo, their attackers get faced by a barrage of bullets that come out of nowhere, all before the mysterious protector blows up the tank. But when we see Chuck Norris casually stroll through a cloud of smoke, to the iconic The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly theme, it all makes sense.
Related: 8 Catchiest Orchestral Movie Scores of All Time, Ranked
3 Propeller to the Face – The Expendables 2 (2012)
Lionsgate
Another moment from the spectacular finale in The Expendables 2 is when the two martial artists, Scott Adkins and Jason Statham finally get a chance to face off. The fight is filled with awesome choreography and physicality from both martial artists, but the highlight is without a doubt underrated action star, Scott Adkins’ brutal death, by way of a rotating Helicopter propeller, which shreds his head clean off.
2 Man and Knife – The Expendables 2 (2012)
Lionsgate
The Expendables franchise is full of many memorable and badass quotes, but none are as fantastic as Jason Statham’s “By the power vested in me, I now pronounce you, man and knife”. Cheesy, yes, but that’s what this franchise is. So, as expected, after delivering this line, Jason Statham’s Lee Christmas begins slicing a dicing a church full of bad guys.
1 Bullet Barrage – The Expendables 2 (2012)
Millennium Films
There are many over-the-top kills in action movies. The kind that makes you think, “Okay. That’s a bit much”. Saying that, however, we absolutely adore every time a movie goes for an overkill. Whether it’s John Wick shooting an assassin with a dragons’ breath shotgun only to have that very enemy run back into his firing line for John to shoot him again, or even Judge Dredd shooting a flare into a criminal’s mouth, melting his face from the inside in the action epic, Dredd. Yet, few kills are more brutal or relentlessly unnecessary than this kill in Expendables 2.
After the Expendables defeat Villain’s goons attacking a small unarmed town, they discover there is one left, leaving Sylvester Stallone, Dolph Lungdren’s, Nan Yu, Randy Couture, and Terry Crews to all turn around and empty their magazines into the poor soldier’s flailing torso, spewing blood and guts all over the place leaving nothing but a giant hole.
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