Back when Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger were duelling at the box office to become the biggest action star on the planet, I was always team Arnie. Not only were his movies cooler, he was also more fun to watch. Even as a kid, I got the sense that Sly took himself a little too seriously, whereas the Austrian Oak was more tongue-in-cheek, seemingly aware how ludicrous his big, silly action flicks were. Playing the Terminator in his star-making role also informed his human characters, too. For the most part, they didn’t get all emotional and angry, they just went about their business blowing stuff up and killing bad guys. But nobody is invincible, however, and one of Arnie’s biggest flops made the man himself cry.
Released in June 1993, “Last Action Hero” was set to cement Schwarzenegger’s box office dominance over his muscle-bound rival. He and Stallone had matched each other blow-for-blow during the ’80s: Sly had huge hits with his “Rambo” and “Rocky” franchises, while Arnie built on the impact of “The Terminator” with the likes of “Commando,” “Predator,” and by successfully branching into comedy with “Twins.” By the early ’90s, Schwarzenegger had asserted his claim as Hollywood’s biggest action star, scoring two massive smashes with “Total Recall” and “Terminator 2: Judgement Day,” whereas Stallone was making a fool of himself in “Oscar” and “Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot.”
Like Rocky Balboa, you still couldn’t count Stallone out, and he bounced back in 1993 with the double-whammy of “Cliffhanger” and “Demolition Man.” Yet, Schwarzenegger was at the peak of his popularity, and “Last Action Hero” also had the benefit of John McTiernan (“Predator,” “Die Hard”) calling the shots and Shane Black (“Lethal Weapon,” “The Last Boy Scout”) on screenwriting duty. Unfortunately, the misguided spoof became one of the ’90s most notorious bombs.
Read more: Actors Who Damaged Their Bodies Forever For A Movie Role
What happens in Last Action Hero?
Arnold Schwarzenegger as Jack Slater playing Hamlet in Last Action Hero – Sony Pictures Entertainment
“Last Action Hero” sees Arnold Schwarzenegger sending up his screen persona by playing Jack Slater, the maverick cop at the heart of the fictional “Jack Slater” blockbuster franchise. His biggest fan is 10-year-old Danny Madigan (Austin O’Brien), a kid from a broken home who escapes his dreary reality in Slater’s larger-than-life adventures. He can’t wait for the latest sequel and gets closer to the action than he anticipated when the projectionist (Robert Prosky) at his local fleapit gives him a magic ticket that transports him into the movie.
Finding himself in Slater’s world, Danny tags along on his hero’s latest case to bring down mobster Tony Vivaldi (Anthony Quinn) and his sharpshooting henchman Mr. Benedict (Charles Dance), a stone-cold killer with a fancy glass eye for every occasion. Naturally, the action spills into reality after the ticket falls into Benedict’s hands. While Jack is coping with the revelation that he’s a made-up character, Benedict hatches a plan to take over the world with an army of cinematic villains — not least The Ripper (Tom Noonan), a serial killer who murdered Slater’s son in a previous film.
With Schwarzenegger seemingly too big to fail after “Terminator 2,” “Last Action Hero” was all geared up to become another massive hit. But things didn’t quite go as planned. There were writing problems from day one, with Shane Black, David Arnott, and several script doctors all having to tone down a more adult-oriented screenplay. Plus, the already-huge budget was inflated by Schwarzenegger’s whopping $15 million pay check and, after disastrous test screenings led to a hastily re-shot ending, Sony poured even more money into an extravagant marketing campaign that plastered the film’s logo on the side of a NASA rocket. Even so, the behind-the-scenes chaos wasn’t the biggest threat to the movie’s success.
Last Action Hero flopped, and Arnie didn’t take it too well
Arnold Schwarzenegger as Jack Slater checking out the video store in Last Action Hero – Sony Pictures Entertainment
“Last Action Hero” might have still succeeded if its producers weren’t dead-set on a June 1993 release date, which saw the movie going toe-to-claw with “Jurassic Park.” Even Schwarzenegger was no match for a T-Rex, and Steven Spielberg’s groundbreaking creature feature dominated the box office, leaving “Last Action Hero” in the dust. Ultimately, it made $137 million theatrically against an $85 million budget, but the extra millions lavished on marketing meant Sony lost money.
It was the first major failure of Schwarzenegger’s career, and he took it personally. In the Netflix documentary “Arnold,” he admitted:
“I cannot tell you how upset I was […] It hurts you. It hurts your feelings. It’s embarrassing. … I didn’t want to see anyone for a week. But you keep plodding along. And my mother-in-law also said this all the time: ‘Let’s just move forward.’ It’s a great message.”
James Cameron, who had directed Arnold in two “Terminator” movies by that point, recalled checking in on him:
“He sounded like he was in bed crying […] He took it as a deep blow to his brand. I think it really shook him. … I said, ‘What are you gonna do?’ He said, ‘I’m just gonna hang out by myself.’ […} That’s the only time I’ve ever heard him down.”
Schwarzenegger bounced back the following year thanks to Cameron’s “True Lies.” After the costly “Last Action Hero” debacle, he might’ve had some concern about the film’s price tag (it was the first movie with a budget over $100 million), but the spending paid off at the box office. Still, there was no escaping the sense that “Last Action Hero” was the beginning of the end for both Arnie’s Hollywood heyday and the type of gung-ho blockbuster that the film was lampooning.
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