Production Notes

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Rating: R for strong bloody violence throughout and language

Run time: 107 minutes

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Cast (Character): Arnold Schwarzenegger (Ray Owens), Forest Whitaker (Agent Bannister), Johnny Knoxville (Lewis Dinkum), Rodrigo Santoro (Frank Martinez), Jaimie Alexander (Sarah Torrance), Luis Guzmán (Mike Figuerola), Eduardo Noriega (Gabriel Cortez), Peter Stormare (Burrell), Zach Gilford (Jerry Bailey), Genesis Rodriguez (Agent Ellen Richards), Daniel Henney (Agent Phil Hayes), John Patrick Amedori (Agent Mitchell)

Directed by: KIM Jee-woon

Written by: Andrew Knauer

Produced by: Lorenzo di Bonaventura

Executive Producers: Guy Riedel, Miky Lee, Edward Fee

Executive Producers: Michael Paseornek, John Sacchi

Director of Photography: Ji Yong Kim

Production Designer: Franco Carbone

Edited by: Steven Kemper, A.C.E

Costume Designer: Michele Michel

Co-Producer: Hernany Perla

Casting by: Ronna Kress, CSA


SYNOPSIS

Action icon Arnold Schwarzenegger makes his much-anticipated return to the big screen in Korean director KIM Jee-woon’s hard-hitting U.S. directorial debut, THE LAST STAND.

After leaving his LAPD narcotics post following a bungled operation that left him wracked with remorse and regret, Sheriff Ray Owens (Schwarzenegger) moved out of Los Angeles and settled into a life fighting what little crime takes place in sleepy border town Sommerton Junction. But that peaceful existence is shattered when Gabriel Cortez (Eduardo Noriega), the most notorious, wanted drug kingpin in the western hemisphere, makes a deadly yet spectacular escape from an FBI prisoner convoy.

With the help of a fierce band of lawless mercenaries led by theicy Burrell (Peter Stormare), Cortez begins racing towards the US-Mexico border at 250 mph in a specially-outfitted Corvette ZR1 with a hostage in tow. Cortez’s path: straight through Summerton Junction, where the whole of the U.S. law enforcement, including Agent John Bannister (Forest Whitaker) will have their final opportunity to intercept him before the violent fugitive slips across the border forever.

At first reluctant to become involved, and then counted out because of the perceived ineptitude of his small town force, Owens ultimately rallies his team and takes the matter into his own hands, setting the stage for a classic showdown.


ABOUT THE PRODUCTION

Action icon ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER is back – and headed full-throttle for an all-out showdown in The Last Stand, KIM Jee-woon’s high-speed, high-mayhem action-thriller.

The good guys have never had it this bad, but they’re ready to give it everything they’ve got in this hard-charging, car-chasing, fist-fighting wild ride that takes an amped-up spin on the classic good vs. bad battle.

Schwarzenegger stars as relentless Sheriff Ray Owens, who left behind the LAPD following a bungled narcotics operation that still wracks him with remorse. Now he’s leading the quiet life in the border town of Sommerton – but that quiet is about to be shattered, big-time. When Gabriel Cortez (EDUARDO NORIEGA), the most lethal, not to mention wanted drug kingpin in America, makes a spectacular escape from an FBI prisoner convoy, he’s hell bent for the Sommerton border – in a specially-equipped Corvette ZR1 capable of blowing past 250 MPH.

U.S. Federal Agent John Bannister (FOREST WHITAKER) might be hot on his trail but Cortez has no fear of the Feds. Cortez only has to fear what he doesn’t see coming: Sheriff Ray Owens. Owens might be out-manned and out-gunned, but he won’t be out-smarted or out-lasted when Cortez threatens the only thing that matters to him now – his new home. Owens and his small but fiercely loyal force are all that stands between Cortez and his freedom.

Arnold Schwarzenegger stars in The Last Stand, which marks the U.S. directorial debut of celebrated Korean action director KIM Jee-woon (I Saw Devil; A Tale Of Two Sisters; The Good, the Bad, the Weird) and is written by Andrew Knauer. The film is produced by Lorenzo di Bonaventura (the Transformer series, G.I. Joe: Retaliation). Joining Schwarzenegger is an all-star ensemble that includes Forest Whitaker, Johnny Knoxville, Rodrigo Santoro, Jaimie Alexander, Luis Guzmán, Eduardo Noriega, Peter Stormare, Zach Gilford and Genesis Rodriguez.

The film’s behind-the-camera talent includes director of photography Ji Yong Kim (A Bittersweet Life); editor Steven Kemper, A.C.E. (Mission: Impossible II); production designer Franco Carbone (The Expendables); and costume designer Michele Michel (Training Day).

IGNITION: SCHWARZENEGGER RETURNS

He’s long been among the toughest, most iconic action heroes of cinema legend, but lately Arnold Schwarzenegger has been serving in another high-adrenaline role – as the Governor of California. Now, at last, he makes his much-anticipated comeback with his first leading action role in a decade in The Last Stand. Taking on the role of a small-town Sheriff with a hard-edged past, Schwarzenegger resumes his screen hero status with a character who is familiar in his fierceness, yet brings a new twist. This bold, badass veteran lawman has seen plenty of action -- but he thinks he’s moved on to more peaceful pastures until bad guys show up in the very town where he’s come to escape them

“In this film, we see the Arnold we have missed, and the Arnold we have never seen before,” sums up the film’s director Jee-woon, whose Hollywood debut makes a surprise collision with Schwarzenegger’s return to the screen. One of the most lauded and watched of the Korean cinematic phenoms, Jee-Woon won acclaim with his stylish noir thriller A Bittersweet Life, his award-winning outlaw comedy The Good, the Bad, the Weird, his hardboiled horror movie I Saw The Devil and his haunting ghost story A Tale Of Two Sisters. But he had never made an action film in America before – and would get his first chance to do so with the biggest Hollywood action star of them all.

Jee-woon was instantly drawn to The Last Stand’s mix of breakneck speed, rollicking humor and colorful characters on both sides of the law, but he was compelled most of all by the chance to have Arnold lead an awe-inspiring defense of justice, even when he and his town have been counted out as nobodies.

Says Jee-woon of their unusual pairing: “Arnold has done everything in Hollywood and I am just starting out in Hollywood. We are so different, but when I met him, our thoughts on The Last Stand and his character coincided. Sheriff Owens has left behind his violent past for a quiet, peaceful small town, but ironically, he must now put everything he has on the line in order to protect this new home. I think we both saw it as story about how a villain armed with high-tech machinery that even governments cannot stop is thwarted by small town people who are inspired by justice.”

For producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura, whose films include all three Transformers, Salt and The G.I. Joe series, The Last Stand was a great match for Schwarzenegger’s desire to make his first film back something as thunderously exciting as ever but also fresh. “I thought it would allow Arnold to come back to the screen in a different way; and yet, there is a lot of what we always love about Arnold in this role,” says the producer. “I think this is a moment where he can redefine who he is. He’s always going to be that strong hero, but in this movie, he also has some vulnerability along with his inner fortitude. It’s a role that is less about him being an individual and more about him being a true leader.”

Di Bonaventura was also exhilarated by the chance to work with Jee-woon, who though renowned by action and horror film enthusiasts around the world, had not yet made an English-language feature. “He has a body of work that is really astonishing. When you see all of his different movies, you see his versatility — every one of them has both entertainment value and emotional pull,” observes the producer. “He knows how to shoot action, how to shoot comedy, how to shoot drama – and in this film, he brings all of that to bear in a unified way.”

As soon as Jee-woon saw the screenplay for The Last Stand, he was drawn in. “The Last Stand is a very American story, but it also had many elements that intrigue me, so I decided to go for it,” he recalls. “I found its underlying theme of finding value in the people of a small town and protecting justice very attractive, and I was also inspired by the idea of a story in which bad guys using high technology are stopped by good guys in low-tech ways.”

Though the director had a lot to learn, diving into a very different filmmaking culture from that of Korea, he says that Schwarzenegger made it a pleasure. “Arnold is so smart that he could always figure out what I was looking for,” he says. “Even when I would fumble because I’m not that familiar with the Hollywood system of doing things, he would say ‘the director is an artist, he needs his time.’ There was also a real camaraderie between us because Arnold is an immigrant and I am a foreigner. But I grew up on Hollywood cinema and that is reflected in my work.”

While Jee-woon had fun with the villain Cortez’s need for speed and state-of-the-art firepower, he was also interested in driving the action with character – as Schwarzenegger’s Sheriff Ray Owens finds himself on a very personal collision course with the most lethal criminal of his long, storied career.

Di Bonaventura concurs that this is the core of the adrenaline-pumping story. “Ray Owens was highly successful with the LAPD, but then he was involved in a raid that forced him to walk away, back to the town where his immigrant parents settled. In a sense, he has been hiding from the responsibility of being a big city cop. But when our villain Cortez decides to come right through this town that forces Owens to face the things he didn’t really want to face again, in order to protect the town and the people he loves.”

He goes on: “I think Arnold brings kind of a quiet confidence to this role, like one of my heroes, John Wayne, always did. When we see just how outmanned he is, we begin to wonder if this might not be his last stand. But you can always count on Arnold.”

ACCELERATION: SCHWARZENEGGER ON SHERIFF OWENS

On the heels of seven years as Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger had planned to make a slow transition back into the action movie roles that made him an international hero – but that transition happened at a breakneck speed when he ran across the screenplay for The Last Stand.

“It was a fantastic script,” comments Schwarzenegger. “It had intensity, it had drama, it had the action I love and which my fans expect me to deliver, and at the same time it had a lot of comic relief. It was one of those movies where you laugh in the middle of the intense suspense.”

Schwarzenegger was equally intrigued by the chance to work with an up and coming director who he felt had the chops to take classic action for a fresh and fun spin. He had already seen many of Jee-woon’s Korean films and found them exhilarating. “He’s very, very talented and I like to work with talented directors,” Schwarzenegger says. “The first movie I saw of his, The Good, the Bad, the Weird, I loved – the size of it all and the action was just incredible. Then I watched I Saw The Devil, A Bittersweet Life and A Tale of Two Sisters; and with each of his movies, I liked him more and more. What a wide range of talent this man has. He is especially good at working with the universal theme of good versus bad. That comes through in each of his movies and in The Last Stand.”

As the project came together, Schwarzenegger was also excited by the ensemble cast he would be leading. “This cast is unbelievable – Johnny Knoxville, Forest Whitaker, Luis Guzmán, Jaimie Alexander, Rodrigo Santoro, Eduardo Noriega, Genesis Rodriguez and the list goes on and on,” he says. “Each one of them has great acting talent, both from a comedy point of view but also from an intensity point of view.”

Schwarzenegger loved that Noriega plays Cortez as a man as suave as he is bad. “He’s such a good-looking guy, he’s like a sex symbol,” Schwarzenegger comments. “But he also plays a drug kingpin unbelievably well. I saw right away the intensity in his eyes and his face that made him totally believable and a really strong opponent for my character.”

Schwarzenegger also had a great time working with Knoxville. “Johnny’s hilarious,” he says. “If you’ve seen his Jackass movies, you know he’s willing to put everything on the line in order to get a big laugh – and this character was perfect for him. He ends up being the most supportive of Sheriff Owens’ team and courageous in their battles.”

Schwarzenegger also felt an affinity with Sheriff Owens, who may have once been an action hero in his own right but has taken up a very different kind of life, keeping the peace in a small town that he had assumed would never see much trouble. “He’s had all these experiences as part of a Los Angeles S.W.A.T team, but that time is over,” Schwarzenegger observes. “He’s kind of looking forward to retirement and he’s set in his mind that he’s going to live quietly until his town gets hit by criminals. So it becomes an underdog story of how the town finds a way out of this mess.”