I decided I was going to join the marines in 2005 when I was 15. I couldn’t wait, and I consumed so much media involving the Marine Corps. In 2006 WWE Films produced a movie right up my alley, literally called “The Marine.” It’s a film that’s been largely forgotten but did spawn a series of direct-to-DVD sequels. 2006 Travis couldn’t wait to see “The Marine.” I even bought and read the novel and went to the theatres to see this thing.
After seeing it once, I didn’t watch it again until last night (as of this writing), and man, I’ve come to some interesting conclusions about this film. I think this could have been a legendary comedic action film or at least a cult favorite. A few changes would have made all the difference.
Into “The Marine”
The opening scene is completely ridiculous. Marine Sergeant John Triton, played by John Cena, is on a mission in Iraq. He’s on a solo recon mission where he finds 3 marine hostages about to get the al-Qaeda necktie. He’s ordered to wait, but he’s a rogue and acts against orders. In a ridiculous-but-awesome action scene, Triton shows off his wrestling moves and destroys the entire al-Qaeda camp single-handedly. He frees the Marines. They arm up and walk outside into a massive fight between American forces and Iraq insurgents.
A Marine asks, “How do we get around them?”
To which Jon Triton says, “We don’t. We go through them!”
This sets up the entire movie as ridiculous, and it is. It’s an over-the-top action movie, and that’s fine. I enjoy those as much as realistic action movies.
Next, we are introduced to the bad guys. These diamond thieves give the crew from “Heat” a run for their money, in terms of destruction. The team is made up of a series of rather bland, villainous bad guys led by Rome, played by the always-awesome Robert Patrick, and we get the “Terminator” reference we all expected. Even though the bad guys are mostly flat, Robert Patrick’s Rome is great and the only other bad guy that gets some personality is Morgan.
This was Cena’s first big role, and he did okay, but his character is fairly bland. His biggest defining feature is he was a Marine. There is literally nothing else we know about him.
“The Marine” Gets Ridiculous
Triton and his wife run into Rome and his crew by chance. A bad guy kills a cop in front of them, and they are forced to steal Triton’s vehicle and kidnap his wife. He gives immediate chase to the bad guys in a requisitioned cop car. The whole movie is about Triton using his Marine training to chase down Rome and his crew. That’s the entire plot, but let’s talk about some of the ridiculousness that occurs throughout the film.
- In the opening scene, he breaches a room, firing from the hip while hostages are clearly in his line of fire. He’s spraying full auto like a madman.
- One of the helicopters supporting the American Marines is, for some reason, a Russian Hind.
- The bad guys use a rocket launcher in something as simple as a diamond heist.
- In a car chase, Triton’s police Camaro loses its roof, but he still has a rearview mirror, apparently.
- The bad guys have various automatic long guns but leave them all behind after the car chase.
- Triton gets in car accidents, dives from vehicles, gets punched multiple times, hit with a sledgehammer in the ribs, falls through a table of glass bottles, and is smashed in the face with a fire extinguisher and never has a wound on him.
- The bad guy, Rome, gets tossed into a fire during the end fight. Then suddenly reappears, looking like Freddy Krueger and still wanting to kill Triton.
The Problems
The above situations make “The Marine” sound ridiculous, right? Well, the problem is that most of the characters take the whole thing super seriously. Rome is seemingly the only character written to embrace the craziness of the film. In one of the few jokes in the movie, he puts his mysterious partner on hold to answer a call about his incoming cable service.
The movie should have embraced the silliness and gone over the top. We know that John Cena can be hilarious. He’s great in Peacemaker and does some awesome comedic roles. He can be both charming and hilarious. They should have allowed him to be hilarious and kind of silly because the movie is inherently silly. But, it’s taken so seriously that it really kills any charm it could have had. It’s a relatively low-budget movie, and that’s completely fine, but it should have gone totally over the top; I’m talking “Fast and Furious” over the top.
The Guns and Gunplay
It’s a 2006 action movie, and, like a lot of movies and tv shows from that time period, the bad guy uses a Jericho 941. For some reason, the Jericho became the bad-guy gun of this era. It’s a notably sweet pistol. In a stylized scene, a casing ejects and flips towards the camera, and we see the gun is a .45mm…which isn’t a thing.
The cops might drive Camaros, but they still wield revolvers. Specifically big Model 14s from S&W. The bad guys use a Heat-inspired Colt 733 and alter an Uzi, as well as a smattering of Rugers, Berettas, and Taurus handguns.
One interesting shotgun is used by a couple of hillbilly moonshiners. It’s a custom Remington 870 with what appears to be a pistol grip ‘sawn’ off design. What’s interesting is the bayonet/barrel clamp device. It appears to be from the USMC MK1 Remington 870. These bayonet adapters are extremely rare, and it’s interesting to see. It’s a Marine-designed bayonet lug in a movie called “The Marine.”
The Most Marine Movie
“The Marine” isn’t a realistic film by any means, but it might be the most Marine film ever. This is how the Marine Corps views itself. An unstoppable force that can take a beating but will just keep on coming. If the Marine Corps was personified, it would be John Triton. At least, this is how the Marine Corps’ public relations make them seem.
