Arnold Schwarzenegger‘s had the chance to expand upon many of his career-defining films over the years. The results have been mixed as efforts to get him back in the Predator films have been less than successful, and the Terminator franchise has seen diminishing results with each entry. That hasn’t stopped Schwarzenegger from considering returning to his other films, as he told Collider that he is trying to get sequels to Twins and Conan the Barbarian off the ground while discussing FUBAR season 2. “Sometimes I wish that we could do more Conan sequels, because I think that if you have the right director and the right writing, there could be a really, really good franchise to continue King Conan and stuff like that,” Schwarzenegger said. I would love to see a King Conan movie in my lifetime, but I feel that one film Schwarzenegger should be pursuing a sequel to is Last Action Hero.
Last Action Hero has a truly unique premise for an Arnold Schwarzenegger action film. Danny Madigan (Austin O’Brien) has grown to love the Jack Slater action films, which star Schwarzenegger as the titular hero. When Danny’s gifted with a mysterious movie ticket, he’s transported into Slater’s world and ends up helping his hero fight a criminal overlord; things get hairy when the mob boss’s right-hand man, Mr. Benedict (Charles Dance) crosses into the real world. Though Last Action Hero wound up being a low point in Schwarzenegger’s career, a sequel could tap into its better qualities while also continuing to poke fun at action films — and provide Schwarzenegger with a chance to continue tapping into the comedic side he displays in FUBAR.
‘Last Action Hero’ Has Gained a Cult Following, Despite Its Disastrous Reception
Last Action Hero, on paper, sounds like a much bigger deal than it turned out to be. It had John McTiernan, who directed action classics like Die Hard, behind the camera; it featured a screenplay that was co-written by Shane Black, who helped launch another successful action franchise when he scripted Lethal Weapon; and Schwarzenegger was coming off a major box office win thanks to Terminator 2: Judgment Day. However, an oral history conducted by Empire revealed that Last Action Hero‘s production was more of a nightmare. Though the original draft of Last Action Hero was more of an over-the-top parody to the point where it was originally called Extremely Violent, Schwarzenegger wanted something less violent. Black was brought on to revamp the script, but when McTiernan boarded the film he was fired and replaced with a collection of script doctors, including The Princess Bride‘s screenwriter William Goldman. The final nail in the coffin was when Last Action Hero was released a week after Jurassic Park‘s premiere and was quickly overshadowed by Steven Speilberg‘s dinosaur epic. The cast and crew had less than kind things to say about Last Action Hero, with McTiernan referring to it as “the worst time I’ve ever had in this business”.
Despite its disastrous production and theatrical run, Last Action Hero has become a cult classic among action fans. I’m one of them: I love how self-aware Danny is of certain tropes in Jack Slater’s world, including the fact that a character played by F. Murray Abraham is going to betray him (in a nice nod to Abraham’s starring role in Amadeus.) The film also has some wickedly clever, tongue in cheek dialogue, not to mention some great visual puns; a poster for Terminator 2: Judgment Day features Sylvester Stallone — Schwarzenegger’s rival at the time — as the Terminator. It’s a well-placed visual that makes me laugh every time I see it. Schwarzenegger himself feels that Last Action Hero is one of the more underrated entries in his filmography, telling The Hollywood Reporter: “Last Action Hero was great – it wasn’t fantastic, but it was underrated. Now, more and more people are seeing it and saying, ‘I love this movie.'”
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The reason why I think that Last Action Hero needs a sequel is because it could offer plenty of commentary on how action has changed. What would an action hero like Jack Slater look like in a landscape that’s been shaped by films like John Wick and The Matrix? A sequel could show how Slater’s either changed with the times, or has to change to stay relevant. You could even get Keanu Reeves to make a cameo and have him and Schwarzenegger play off of each other, especially if Reeves is playing a newer kind of hero to balance out Slater. Given that Schwarzenegger’s older now, a sequel could follow in the footsteps of other “geri-action” stars like Liam Neeson or Denzel Washington. I know that Schwarzenegger has his eyes on making sequels to his other films, but Last Action Hero is the one that deserves to be revisited. In the right hands, a sequel could even fulfill the promise of the original film.
