Commando is a 1985 American action thriller film directed by Mark L. Lester and produced by Joel Silver. It stars Arnold Schwarzenegger in the lead role, alongside Rae Dawn Chong, Alyssa Milano, Vernon Wells, Bill Duke and Dan Hedaya. The musical score was composed by James Horner.

In upstate California[clarification needed], John Matrix, a former United States Army Special Forces Colonel, is informed by his former superior Major General Franklin Kirby that all the other members of his former unit have been killed by unknown mercenaries. The assassins attack Matrix’s secluded mountain home and kidnap his young daughter Jenny. While trying to intercept them, Matrix is tranquilized and abducted by the mercenaries, led by Bennett, an ex-member of Matrix’s team discharged for excessive violence. Bennett had faked his death and is now working with the mercenaries as revenge against Matrix. Matrix is taken before their commander, Arius, a former South American dictator whom Matrix removed from power. Arius blackmails Matrix into carrying out a political assassination in his home country of Val Verde, where he wishes to lead a military coup.

With Jenny’s life on the line, Matrix seemingly agrees to fulfill the demand. After boarding a flight to Val Verde, Matrix kills his guard Henriques and jumps from the plane just as it is taking off. Knowing that Arius will kill Jenny, regardless of whether or not he does the job, and with approximately 11 hours before the plane is scheduled to land, Matrix sets out after Arius’ henchman Sully. He enlists the aid of an off-duty flight attendant named Cindy and instructs her to follow Sully to a shopping mall. Cindy first assumes that Matrix is a madman, but after she sees Sully pull a gun on Matrix in the ensuing fight, she decides to assist him in his endeavor. After a lengthy car chase, Matrix catches up with Sully and drops him off a cliff to his death. Taking a motel key from Sully’s jacket, Matrix tracks down and confronts Cooke, a former Green Beret in Arius’ employ, and impales him on a table leg after a brutal fight.

With evidence from Cooke’s car, Matrix and Cindy break into a warehouse owned by Arius that supplies weapons for his army and learn where Jenny is being held after tracing Arius’ island base on a map of the coastal region. Matrix breaks into a surplus store to equip himself with military weaponry, but is arrested by the police. Cindy helps him escape, and after commandeering a seaplane from a nearby marina controlled by Arius, Matrix and Cindy land the plane off the coast of Arius’ island hideout. Matrix instructs Cindy to contact General Kirby and then proceeds to Arius’s villa, killing Arius’s entire army.

Arius emerges and engages Matrix in a gunfight until Matrix kills Arius. Jenny escapes to the villa’s basement, but is eventually captured by Bennett. Matrix tracks them down and after a lengthy fight, Matrix finally kills Bennett by impaling him with a steam pipe. Kirby arrives with a military detachment and asks Matrix to rejoin the unit, but Matrix declines and departs the island aboard the seaplane with Jenny and Cindy.