Arnold Schwarzenegger Reveals His Most Underrated Movie Role
What is Arnold Schwarzenegger's most underrated role? According to the acting icon and former Governor, it is his 1993 action-comedy/meta-satire film, Last Action Hero. Schwarzenegger is doing press for his new Netflix series Fubar, and one lengthy profile about the 75-year-old screen legend ventured into all kinds of reflections on the decades of roles he's played – including the one(s) he feels didn't get their due.
"Last Action Hero. It was slaughtered before anybody saw it," Schwarzenegger told THR. "It was literally a political attack because I was campaigning for [former President George H.W. Bush], but Bill Clinton won. Last Action Hero was great – it wasn't fantastic, but it was underrated.
What Happened to Last Action Hero?
As Schwarzenegger claims, Last Action Hero was something of a flop when it was released in theaters in the summer of 1993. Even though the film had Schwarzenegger both headlining and re-teaming with blockbuster hit director John McTiernan (Predator, Die Hard), it opened a week after Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park was released in theaters, and got drowned in the wave of that film's milestone success.
Moreover, Last Action Hero's meta-satire story by Shane Black (Lethal Weapon) and his buddy David Arnott was something mainstream audiences weren't yet familiar with – long before the days of seeing Nic Cage tackle a project like The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. Like so many pioneers, Last Action Hero paid the price of not getting the recognition it deserved in its time. Arnold Schwarzenegger at least has the silver lining of seeing how Last Action Hero has grown into a full-fledged cult hit in the thirty years since it was first released:
"Now, more and more people are seeing it and saying, 'I love this movie.' I'm getting the residual checks, so I know it's true. It made money – that's always an important thing for me. Because it's show business, right?"
Last Action Hero has been a big draw on streaming services like Netflix, as new generations of moviegoers stumble onto it; the film also got a long-overdue Blu-ray and 4K release in 2021. It now stands as a smart satire of the 'Testosterone Action' films of the 1980s – and of Schwarzenegger himself, as one of the subgenre's biggest ambassadors. If you haven't seen the movie – do it.
The synopsis is below:
Young Danny Madigan (Austin O'Brien) is a lonely 11-year-old boy who escapes from his bleak reality by watching the action adventure movies of his favorite film character, Jack Slater (Arnold Schwarzenegger). When his best friend, Nick the projectionist, gives him a special ticket to the new Slater film, Danny is magically transported into Jack's world, where the good guys always win. Danny becomes his helper as Jack battles a trio of nefarious bad guys, Benedict (Charles Dance), Vivaldi (Anthony Quinn) and The Ripper (Tom Noonan). But things get out of hand when Benedict steals Danny's magic ticket stub and transports himself into the real world, where crime can, and often does, pay. Jack and Danny must leave fictional Los Angeles for real-life New York and battle the villains without the aid of movie magic or stuntmen.
