# The Commando

The Commando is a 2022 American action crime thriller film directed by Asif Akbar and starring Mickey Rourke and Michael Jai White.
It was released in the United States on January 7, 2022, by Saban Films.

## Cast

* Mickey Rourke as Johnny
* Michael Jai White as James Baker
* Jeff Fahey as Sheriff Alexander
* Brendan Fehr as Sebastian
* Gianni Capaldi as Dominic
* Donald Cerrone as Ray
* Sam Tan as Sean
* Mia Terry as Jennifer
* Nao Maes as Natalie
* Aris Mejía as Lisa
* Matthew Van Wettering as Matthew
* Cord Newman as Rudy
* John Enos III as Trey

## Plot

A DEA SWAT team, led by elite DEA agent James Baker (Michael Jai White), assault a Mexican cartel's drug lab. The bad guys are taken out in the ensuing gun fight, but Baker inadvertently kills three hostages, a mother and her two Daughters. As a result of PTSD-induced hallucinations, nightmares, and not being able to differentiate whether some things are real or not , Baker gets sent home to recover.
During this time, one of his Daughters makes an unexpected discovery in their home - some money from a stash worth $3 million. Baker just happens to live, with his wife Lisa (Aris Mejía) and their two teenage daughters, in the house where career criminal Johnny (Mickey Rourke) stashed his loot.
Johnny catches up with an old friend who is now the towns sheriff, he offers him a bribe to help him out .The sheriff sends a deputy to Bakers home to bring Baker to the station. He tells him he has a warrant for his arrest. Baker looks at it and realises it hasn't been signed by the judge , he leaves the station.
The Baker family soon faces the danger and threat of freshly sprung Johnny, who quickly reunites with his old crew to retake the $3 million of stolen money he hid before his arrest. Johnny is über-badass, just before his release, he "dealt" with three inmates who tried to shank him right before he was freed.
James needs a break , he eventually heads off with his wife Lisa for a quiet weekend together, leaving their two daughters home alone. The youngest girl promptly organizes a house party. The oldest daughter stays in her room and also discovers another stash of money under the flooring. She bumps into her father's friend Sabastian outside , who has come to check on them , she shows him what she has found and he tells her to hide it again until they speak to her father . He promptly goes downstairs and sends the party guests home.
It is during this party that Johnny's goons have been sat outside watching the goings on in and around the house, they have also killed some of the party guests, getting ready to stage a home invasion. Johnny and his henchmen will do whatever it takes to retrieve the money, including kidnap Baker's daughters.
Baker's goons invade the house and kill some more guests.The oldest daughter sees this and runs upstairs and hides under her bed, where she rings her father, who has no reception on his phone so doesn't hear what she says. Later he listens to a voice mail , his wife confirms its real so they head home.
Baker rings sebastian, who is already dead and Johnny answers, Baker warns him off hurting his daughters and says he will kill him if he hurts them.
The stakes are high in this head-to-head battle as Baker will stop at nothing to protect his family against the money-hungry criminals. There are many confrontations, but none of them between Baker and Johnny, until the final minutes.
One of the highlights is a high schooler getting shot while taking a leak and peeing all over his killer.

## Production
### Casting

In September 2020, it was announced that Rourke was cast in the film. In October 2020, White joined the cast of the film.

### Filming

Principal photography occurred in New Mexico on October and November 2020.

## Release

On December 7, 2021, Saban Films released a trailer for the film and set it for a January 7, 2022 release.

## Reception

Rene Rodriguez of Variety gave the film a negative review and wrote, "A talky and lethargic home-invasion thriller, The Commando amounts to an inept crime drama stuffed with banal dialogue and irrelevant supporting characters to pad its feature-length running time."
Leslie Felperin of The Guardian awarded the film one star out of five and wrote, "The Commando contains a number of egregious implausibilities and cliches."