Arnold Schwarzenegger, 66, and Sylvester Stallone, 67, are known for their lead roles in action-packed feature films of the 80s and 90s, but they’ve never been matched up to lead a major Hollywood motion picture.
The recent coupling of the duo in “Escape Plan,” an action-thriller about outsmarting the world’s most sophisticated prison system, Schwarzenegger and Stallone don’t disappoint with their intense fight scene.
“Not to have some kind of a confrontation, some kind of a fight, would really let down the audience,” Schwarzenegger said in a recent interview.
“For so many years we tried and we couldn’t do it, now all of a sudden here we are and we’re doing it and we’re having a great time doing it,” Schwarzenegger said.
In “Escape Plan,” Stallone plays a structural-security authority, Ray Breslin, who gets incarcerated in the world’s most secure jail. He then needs to come up with an escape plan, but first he must befriend the tough, authoritative insider, Emil Rottmayer, played by Schwarzenegger.
Having starred alongside all major action movie legends, Stallone said this was the culminating point of having a heavy confrontation with an action movie veteran.
“This is the last one,” he said about Schwarzenegger. “I thought [Jean-Claude] Van Damme would be the last one in the last Expendables, but then there was Arnold,” Stallone said.
He said that not only do audiences get the fireworks they expect to see, Stallone made sure to push himself physically which he thinks is essential to the film’s success.
His motto is: “If I don’t get injured a few times on a film, it’s bad luck.” Stallone attributes his willingness to challenge himself physically to a “crazy gene.”
Curtis Jackson, known by his stage name 50 Cent, who also makes an appearance in the film, said he’d love to be in the shape Stallone is at his age.
For Schwarzenegger, the action sequence was “wild” because he hasn’t appeared in action films during his two terms as Governor of California from 2003 to 2011.
“This is kind of my comeback,” he said.
Although fans can expect a lot of action, tension, and an intricate plot, the two were given a chance to have dramatic sequences too.
Overall, it’s a long-awaited match made in heaven. “If you don’t have the proper ensemble, it’s just not going to work,” Stallone said, noting that the days of carrying a film alone are over.
Friends Read Free