It is needless to mention that legendary action stars have been featured in The Expendables franchise. However, they all pale in comparison to the epic scene in the initial 2010 film between Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis, all appearing together for the first time.
It has been noted that it was such a complicated sequence to pull off that not even Willis’ agent knew about it ahead of time.
“It was very last-minute,” Expendables producer Kevin King-Templeton told The Messenger. “Arnold was still the acting governor of California at the time, and Bruce’s schedule was busy. It was funny, after the movie opened, Bruce’s agent says, ‘What’s Bruce’s deal on this?’ [Laughs] I said, ‘What, you haven’t spoke to him?’ Because we spoke directly to Bruce, and so I’m not even sure he told his agent.”
The three iconic actors, who were arguably Hollywood’s biggest male stars in the ’80s and ’90s, joined forces early in The Expendables, when Stallone’s Barney Ross, the leader of a team of mercenaries, goes to a church to hear about a prospective job from a CIA bigwig, fittingly-named Mr. Church (Willis).
A rival mercenary Trench (Schwarzenegger) then walks in, and the trio of characters trade barbs, before Trench departs, happily leaving the dangerous gig for Barney.
“We shot at a church up in North Hollywood, it was one day, but it was very iconic — and beautifully lit by our director of photography, Jeffrey Kimball,” King-Templeton shares. “At the time, you don’t realize it, but when you see it, you think, ‘Wow, we did something good there.'”
The legendary duo of Willis and Schwarzenegger returned for bigger roles in the sequel of the Stallone-led franchise, and both were to continue on in 2014’s Expendables 3, only for Willis to be replaced by Harrison Ford, whose CIA character served in the same capacity as Church. Meanwhile, Willis was reportedly offered $3 million for four days of filming in Bulgaria but threatened to drop out if he didn’t get $4 million, prompting Stallone and company to draw the line.
