“You know he’s back,” Luis Guzman announced at the premiere of The Last Stand, when referring to his cast mate and star of the film, Arnold Schwarzenegger. The Last Stand marks Schwarzenegger’s return to leading man status since his Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines in 2003. In the film, which hit theaters this weekend, Schwarzenegger plays Sheriff Owens, a retired LAPD officer who has resigned himself to a life of fighting what little crime takes place in the sleepy border town Sommerton Junction. However, Owens and his small town force end up being the government’s last hope when it comes to stopping a wanted drug kingpin and escaped FBI prisoner who just happens to be heading toward the border at 200 mph in a specially outfitted car with a hostage and a fierce army of gang members.
Rodrigo Santoro who plays Deputy Frank Martinez in the film says he grew up watching Schwarzenegger. “It is a pretty big deal for me. He [Schwarzenegger ] said that he would be back! And he honored his word and I feel just honored and proud to be a part of his return.” Santoro joked that his favorite Schwarzenegger film was Conan the Barbarian because it was the first film that made him notice how tough Schwarzenegger is an actor. When asked how it was to see Schwarzenegger doing action scenes at age 65, Santoro said, he still kicks ass.
Jaimie Alexander who plays Sarah Torrance in the film, echoed those sentiments saying “he embraces the fact that he is older and poked fun at himself in a way. He still jumped off a building for real in this film and crashed through 3 awnings and took a guy down. He can still do it. He’s still got those terminator qualities.” Schwarzenegger joked that he wasn’t sore after a day, but after a week it was a different story. He sang the praises of his director saying, “Kim Ji-woon made sure we were working our butts off, believe me, doing it over and over with all the stunts chase scene and shoot outs.”
The Last Stand is now playing.
-Melissa Unger
