“Fubar” happens to be the best onscreen father/daughter story Schwarzenegger has ever been a part of, but there are some clear standouts, most notably in 1985’s R-rated instant action classic “Commando.” The unbreakable connection between retired Delta Force soldier John Matrix and his daughter Jenny (Alyssa Milano) is established early on in the opening minutes during what is surely the most macho montage of Schwarzenegger’s career. The showcase of Arnold’s muscles as he carries a tree trunk down a mountainside is immediately thwarted when he swoops up Jenny in his arms, cueing up a sweet collection of scenes showing their idyllic, solitary life at a remote cabin.
Now that their connection has been shown onscreen, when Jenny is kidnapped minutes later by Matrix’s old partner Bennett (a virtually unrecognizable Vernon Wells), it’s entirely justified for Matrix to start amassing an arsenal that ends up kicking off one of the bloodiest rampages of the eighties. By the time “Commando” enters into its explosive, graphically violent final act, Matrix has already jumped out of a plane, swung like Tarzan through the Sherman Oaks Mall, kidnapped a flight attendant, dropped a man off a cliff, impaled a former Green Beret, and committed grand theft by breaking into an army surplus store.
But that’s ok! It’s all in the name of his daughter, who has to be rescued at all costs. Matrix becomes an unstoppable one-man army that literally murders hundreds of people just to save Jenny. By the end, Matrix is only carrying his daughter in his arms instead of the massive array of guns, grenades, and rocket launchers it took to get her back. Luckily, Jenny wasn’t there to witness her dad dole out an extraordinarily disturbing level of carnage just to make sure she was safe.
