Last Action Hero: Arnold Schwarzenegger’s biggest flop or a classic?

Has any movie ever been as unfairly maligned as John McTiernan’s Last Action Hero? This 1993 Arnold Schwarzenegger action epic was hyped as the start of the next great action franchise in the summer of ’93, only for Arnie to run afoul of some pesky dinosaurs when it had the misfortune to open on Jurassic Park’s second weekend. However, the movie likely would have done fine at the box office were it not for the terrible buzz it received going into the opening. Hollywood declared it the most significant disaster since 1980’s Heaven’s Gate bankrupted a studio. All this is due to a few poor test screenings. In the years since its release, Last Action Hero, against all odds, has gone on to be remembered as one of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s most beloved films, but why was it hated so much in the first place?

In this episode of Revisited, we dig into the movie’s origins as a dark screenplay written by Zak Penn that was heavily rewritten once McTiernan and Schwarzenegger got involved. One of the strikes against it, initially, was that it was Arnold’s follow-up to his biggest hit ever, Terminator 2: Judgement Day, so expectations were high. His fans did not like that he was again being saddled with a child sidekick (Austin O’Brien) and that it would be given a family-friendly PG-13 rating. Years later, folks can appreciate what the filmmakers were trying to do, with it being a knowing satire of 80s and 90s big-budget action movies, with Schwarzenegger’s Jack Slater a hilarious riff on the troubled cop archetype. Dig in with us on this episode of Revisited (written by Cody Hamman, edited by Juan Jiminez and narrated by Travis Hopson) and let us know in the comments if you still enjoy Last Action Hero!