Commando Was Written for Gene Simmons, Not Schwarzenegger, and the Original Hero Was an Israeli Soldier Who Gave Up Violence

The 1980s marked a banner period for Arnold Schwarzenegger, coming off the success of Conan the Barbarian and The Terminator, which put him on the map as one of the biggest action stars at the time. Then, Schwarzenegger played a one-man army in Commando as John Matrix, a retired US Special Forces colonel living a secluded life in the mountains with his beloved daughter, Jenny (Alyssa Milano). Of course, their peace doesn’t last long before a group of mercenaries led by Bennett (Vernon Wells), a former member of Matrix’s team, abduct Jenny.

Bennett, who served as a right-hand man for Arius (Dan Hedaya), the former dictator of the (fictional) Latin American country, Val Verde, blackmailed Matrix into assassinating the current president, or they would kill his daughter. Matrix has no choice but to agree, leading to a commercial flight to Val Verde with one of Arius’s henchmen, Henriques (Charles Meshack), on board to make sure Matrix will fulfill his job.

Everything seems to be going smoothly as planned until Matrix takes his chance to leap off the plane, and the 11-hour countdown begins as he must hunt down the mercenaries and save Jenny before Arius realizes he is not on the plane once it touches down at Val Verde.

Director Mark L. Lester, best known for his 1982 cult classic Class of 1984, maintains a lean pace throughout the movie to sustain its 90-minute momentum. The story, co-credited to 48 Hrs.’s Steven E. de Souza (with Jeph Loeb and Matthew Weisman) before he went on to write the first two Die Hard and the notorious 1994 live-action version of Street Fighter, retains only the bare essentials that are primarily about Matrix’s quest to locate and kill the mercenaries before making his way to Arius’s heavily guarded island mansion and rescuing his daughter.

True to a quintessential Schwarzenegger movie, Commando has plenty of memorable one-liners (“I eat Green Berets for breakfast and right now, I’m very hungry!”, “Let off some steam, Bennett”) and a high body count, notably the climactic finale where the musclebound Matrix, fully equipped with weapons, single-handedly takes down Arius’s army.

The movie made its theatrical debut on October 4, 1985, at No. 1 and stayed on top for three consecutive weekends, eventually earning $35 million in the US alone and over $57 million worldwide on a $10 million budget. Critics were positive, too (Rotten Tomatoes: 70%).

RELATED: “You Gotta Stop Kickboxing”: The Reason Jean-Claude Van Damme Was Fired As the Predator

The Original Commando Script Wasn’t Tailored for Schwarzenegger: Gene Simmons and Nick Nolte Came First

Interestingly, Commando wasn’t originally written as a straight-up Schwarzenegger action vehicle. In the early ’80s, co-screenwriters Jeph Loeb III and Matthew Weisman’s original draft was tailored for – believe it or not – their friend, Gene Simmons, the frontman of the popular rock band KISS. Their initial script centers on “an Israeli soldier who has turned his back on violence”, far from the larger-than-life hero that we would later see in Schwarzenegger’s John Matrix in the final product. But as in the eventual movie we know today, Simmons’s character is forced to return to action after his family is kidnapped.

The KISS frontman declined the role, but the writers didn’t give up as they reportedly revised their script for Nick Nolte by shifting from a former Israeli soldier to an inactive American ex-commando. The change of plan didn’t work either.

Then, when Barry Diller was appointed as the new head of 20^th Century Fox, his first priority was to secure Schwarzenegger for a movie that could be made under $12 million. And after going through different action scripts, Diller believed that Commando would be a perfect vehicle for the then-newly minted action star.

With producer Joel Silver in charge, he tapped Mark L. Lester to direct and Steven E. de Souza to rewrite the script to fit Schwarzenegger’s on-screen persona. De Souza then went to Schwarzenegger’s place to pitch his idea, and the star agreed to do the movie, citing that he liked the part where “John Wayne could play” and “not a robot from the future or caveman from the past” for a change.

Was There a Commando Prequel? Vernon Wells Says One Was Discussed

In 2020, Vernon Wells revealed there was a plan to do a Commando prequel, detailing the early days when John Matrix and Bennett worked together as a unit before their relationship went sour, turning into a conflict that would lead to the first movie. The prequel idea even went as far as suggesting that Bennett in Commando, who supposedly died after getting impaled by a steam pipe, “could still be alive”. Thankfully, the Commando prequel, which would be ill-advised anyway, didn’t happen, leaving the 1985 action movie as a one-off so far, as it should be.

Is a Commando 2 Happening? What Schwarzenegger Said About a Sequel Script

Prequel talk isn’t the only follow-up chatter. In March 2026, Schwarzenegger told an audience at the Arnold Sports Festival in Columbus, Ohio, that Fox had a sequel script for him, saying, “we just got a script for you to do Commando 2”. No director, cast or release date has been announced, so for now it is early-stage talk, even as Schwarzenegger has also teased a return to Predator and Conan.

RELATED: Arnold Schwarzenegger Turns 79 — Where Does He Rank Among 90s Action Stars?

Commando is available for streaming in the US on Tubi (free with ads). You can also rent or purchase the movie on Apple TV and Prime Video.