In the spirit of the recent Blues Brothers thread where the OP asked what crimes the guys in the movie could have been charged with, I ask what crimes could John Matrix in “Commando” have been charged with.
I just watched the movie again, and it seems like Kirby gave him a pass at the end for all the destruction he caused. The guy was trying to save his daughter after all.
But let’s say for some reason the military decided to throw him under the bus.
There’s of course all the guys he killed on the island - he did this without official military approval.
He killed Sully and Bill Duke. He beat up all the security guards, ripped a phone booth out of the wall and caused a bunch of other damage at the mall. He broke into the Army surplus store and then escaped police custody (though it was Rae Dawn Chong who fired the rocket launcher at the police van). He stole an airplane. And then he escaped from the airliner, which I’m sure even pre-9/11 constituted some sort of violation.
What else?
We have Levying War*, Grand Theft Auto, Desctuction fo Property. He might or might not go down for a Murder or Manslaughter rap since it wasn’t too clear how that would be found out, or if self-defense would apply.
*Granted, you don’t normally think of one man as commioting acts of war. But the commando was more of a tank in human form.
I don’t know. Could it be considered self defense if he engaged in a high speed chase with Sully before killing him (after lying about killing him last, of course)?
He also killed the guy in the plane who was babysitting him until they arrived at the island - “Don’t disturb my friend - he’s dead tired.” That & Sully were probably the clearest murders - they were both unarmed at the time. Bill Duke you could probably get away with manslaughter - they were fighting and Duke just happened to fall on a table leg.
There’s probably some charge for illegally leaving/entering a foreign country without a passport.
Possession of military hardware by a now civilian.
Murder/Manslaughter of foreign nationals.
Is over-the-top acting a crime?
Dropping a man off a cliff probably counts as littering.
I think that might count as illegal disposal of a body.
Well, technically he isn’t a body until he hits the ground.
He was also guilty of being awesome 
When he made his way off the plane, that could be charged as vandalism to the plane or many counts of reckless endangerment, depending on how badly he destroyed the plane.
Then trespassing, on the airfield, when he landed.
Don’t forget the dead man Matrix killed in his living room in one of the most bad-ass scenes ever.
Nitpick: he’s still an officer, a Colonel. Probably on the reserve list, of course, but an officer nonetheless.
And regardless of the charges, what jury would convict him? After all, he was trying to save his daughter.
Vandalism: Tearing the passenger seat out of the Porsche.
He’s guilty of felony continuity violations.
Hey! I just saw on IMDB that his daughter was played by Alyssa Milano. Huh.
Yeah. I just read the “goofs” section on the IMDB/Commando entry, and there’s a ton of them.
Yep. I also noticed the last time I watched it that Bill Paxton from “Big Love” appears briefly as a communications officer.
You could get him for lifting off other movies. I counted three lines from “The Terminator” alone, including an “I’ll Be Back.”
[nitpick]
I think he ripped the seat out of an Alfa, the Porsche he got later on (Sully’s).
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