The Expendables 4 Movie Story by Spenser Cohen, Kurt Wimmer, and Tad Daggerhart Screenplay by Kurt Wimmer, Tad Daggerhart, and Max Adams Directed by Scott Waugh 2023

The Expendables take on a mission to expose the identity of an old foe of Barney's code-named Ocelot.

Read the movie summary at Wikipedia

Characters appearing or mentioned in this film

(Where relative, I have added the name of the actor who plays the character in the movies for aid in visualizing the characters)

Hamza (first Libyan guard soldier, dies in this movie)

second Libyan guard soldier (dies in this movie)

Libyan soldiers

General Fezzan

Fezzan's wife (dies in this movie)

Fezzan's son (dies in this movie)

Rahmat's men

Bok (dies in this movie)

Suharato Rahmat (actor Iko Uwais)

Barney Ross (actor Sylvester Stallone)

Lee Christmas (actor Jason Statham)

Gina (actress Megan Fox)

dance girls

bar patrons

Jumbo Shrimp (murdered in this movie)

bar waitress

bartenders

Chuck 

Gunner Jensen (actor Dolph Lundgren) 

Toll Road (actor Randy Couture)

Galan (actor Jacob Scipio)

Easy Day (actor Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson)

Galgo (actor Antonio Banderas, mentioned only)

Marsh/Ocelot (actor Andy Garcia, dies in this movie)

bar band

AC/DC fan

media influencer

Lash

Russo

Thai bartender

CIA agents

Fen Leong Bai (dies in this movie)

female crewmember

"Colin" (dies in this movie)

Donald Allman (mentioned only)

Paithoon (dies in this movie)

Takk (dies in this movie)

Pavel

welding man

American helicopter pilots

American guards 

Didja Know?

Expendables 4 returns to an R rating after fan pushback on the PG-13 rating of Expendables 3.

Didja Notice?

At 0:38 on the DVD, a logo similar to that of the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) is seen on the side of a building at Gaddafi's old chemical plant in Libya. Gaddafi (1942-2011) was a military and political leader of Libya and ruler of the country from 1977-2011.

The Libyan flag is seen flying over the old chemical factory at 0:0:47 on the DVD.

At 0:55 on the DVD, a Libyan soldier has a PKM (Pulemyot Kalashnikova Modernizirovanniy or "Kalashnikov's Machine-gun Modernized") next to him as he smokes a cigarette.

The second Libyan guard soldier appears to be carrying an AK-47 assault rifle.

An unidentified blue and green flag with the Libyan star and crescent symbol on it is seen at the checkpoint at 1:51 on the DVD.

The song that plays as the viewer is reintroduced to Barney Ross is "Backbone" by KALEO.

At 3:17 on the DVD, note that Barney's chopper has a slightly different Expendables logo on the fuel tank than was seen in The Expendables. Also note that the word "RESSURECTION" is painted on the chopper, a foreshadowing of Barney Ross' "death and resurrection" in the course of the film.

The padlocks on the saddlebag of the chopper have the Expendables skull-and-weapons emblem on them.

The garage Barney bikes out from appears to be the location of Tool's tattoo parlor in The Expendables.

The Expendables are still based in New Orleans.

    At 4:06 on the DVD, street banners for musical performers Waylon Jennings and the Rolling Stones are seen on a New Orleans street. It seems a bit odd that the Waylon Jennings one would be up now considering he died in 2002, but maybe there's a club featuring a Jennings memorial at this time.

    On the same street, the flags of the USA, the city of New Orleans, the state of Louisiana, and the nation of France are seen. The French flag reflects the state's 17th Century colonial heritage.

At 4:18 on the DVD, Barney is wearing Ray-Ban aviator sunglasses.

At 6:45 on the DVD, Christmas' motorcycle appears to be a Ducati.

Christmas helps Barney get his ring back after he's lost it "thumb wrestling" at a bar called Tainted Spoke. This is the first appearance of this bar.

Barney claims he is superstitious about his ring.

What does the neon sign say on the back wall of Tainted Spoke (around 7:10 on the DVD)? It looks like "FUCK OFF AND <something> YOU GET <something> FUCK OFF <something><something>".

A neon sign of a skull and crossbones, with the skull wearing a cowboy hat, is seen inside Tainted Spoke.

There appears to be a small animal skull hanging on the pole of a booze shelf behind the bar at Tainted Spoke at 7:21 on the DVD. A number of other animal skulls, antlers, and horns are seen on the walls throughout the bar.

At 7:39 on the DVD, there is a sign that reads "WARNING - NOBODY GETS OUT" on a vertical support girder in the bar.

At 7:53 on the DVD, a bottle of what may be Glenlivet scotch is seen behind the bar.

A large sign for Helix 7 Vodka is seen at 7:49 on the DVD. A bottle of Helix 7 is seen on the booze shelf at 8:09.

A Harley-Davidson motorcycle is seen behind Jumbo Shrimp's table at 8:49 on the DVD.

When he realizes that Jumbo Shrimp doesn't like being called Shrimp, Christmas calls him "bite size", "Yoda", and "Dinky". Yoda is a small, green alien character in the Star Wars franchise.

At 10:43 on the DVD, two of the beer spigot handles behind the bar appear to read "Pressburg". I have not found a real world beer by that name, but "Pressburg" is the historical name of Bratislava, capital city of Slovakia, a city known for its beer.

A new Expendable named Galan is the son of Galgo (who appeared in Expendables 3, portrayed by Antonio Banderas). Galan is very much like his father, talkative and cheerful most of the time. The role here was originally written to be Galgo, but Banderas was unavailable for filming.

Gunner wears a neck-length blonde hair wig in this movie. He explains that he's been chatting with a girl on the internet and she likes the '70s look, "The Farrah Fawcett thing." Farrah Fawcett (1947-2009) was an American model and actress best known for her role on the 1976-1981 TV series Charlie's Angels and for her long, blonde hair.

The Expendables are given their mission in this film by Marsh, an agent of the CIA with whom Barney worked prior to forming the Expendables. The CIA is the Central Intelligence Agency, one of the major intelligence agencies of the United States government.

The Expendables' plane is an Antonov An-26. It seems to be intended to be the same plane they used in Expendables 3, though the interior is a little different.

Christmas refers to the old plane as a deathtrap, foreshadowing Barney's "death" aboard it during the Libya mission.

At 16:33 on the DVD, the dog tags of (presumably) dead Expendables are hanging in the plane.

At 16:37 on the DVD, Gunner is reading the book Sober Living. There are a number of real world books with that as their title or part of the title. As far as I can tell, this particular one is fictitious. 

Aboard the Expendables' plane, Galan tells a story of his first ménage à trois and a golden shower. A ménage à trois is a sexual or romantic arrangement among three individuals. A golden shower...is just as Galan describes it.

Christmas claims he had a panic attack the night before and Barney recommends he just take some Xanax and pretend he's happy with his life. Xanax is the trade name for the drug alprazolam, used for treating anxiety disorders.

After his wife has been killed and he is begging for Rahmat to spare his son, Fezzan says, "Allahu Akbar!" This is Arabic for "God is great!"

When Barney "wakes up the kids" by tilting the plane to port and starboard and couple times, he and Christmas sing the words "east side, west side" in the cockpit. These are lyrics from the 1894 vaudeville song "Sidewalks of New York" by Charles B. Lawlor and James W. Blake. The Grateful Dead performed it on stage in 1972.

At 19:26 on the DVD, Galan preps a Hera Arms CQR rifle as the plane prepares to land into an immediate combat situation. Toll Road also has one.

Gunner's skull tattoo on his arm has the words Sihe Netu (or something similar) underneath it. I've been unable to translate it.

Browning M2 machine guns are mounted to the Expendables' combat buggies.

Tool Road's combat buggy has "EAT LEAD" stenciled on the side of the hood. Galan's has "JUMP THIS".

Gunner's watch, seen at 20:40 on the DVD, is a Panerai Luminor Watch.

When Gunner misses the shot at Rahmat twice with his sniper rifle, Galan snarks, "Hey, Stevie Wonder, you might want to get that prescription checked," (referring to the prescription scope and eyeglasses Gunner uses). Stevie Wonder is a famed American singer-songwriter who is blind.

At 21:07, Galan says, "Hold on to your huevos." Huevos is Spanish for "eggs".

At 22:14 on the DVD, a blue metal barrel with an EVOLVE logo on it is seen inside the old chemical plant. This may be a reference to a brand of aviation fuel made by Atlantic Aviation.

At 24:44, Easy Day pulls out a Glock 17 pistol. Galan also appears to use one at 25:15.

At 25:12 on the DVD, Toll road shouts at Galan, "You might want to watch your six..!" This is military parlance for "watch your back."

Barney's watch at 26:21 on the DVD is a Expend4bles Panerai Luminor Submersible 1950 Amagnetic. Seconds later, we see Easy Day's watch, which appears to be an MTM Special Ops Grey Air Stryk II.

At the bar for Barney's memorial at 28:33 on the DVD, the following booze brand bottles are seen on the shelf: Johnny Walker Black Label, Johnny Walker Red Label, Don Julio, and Ketel One. These are all real world brands.

The bar is Rusty's, the same bar seen in Expendables 3.

The song played by the cover band at the memorial is "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" by American rock band Blue Öyster Cult from 1976. The cover band uses Marshall amplifiers.

On the band stage is a highway sign of Interstate 20. This is an east-west highway running from Scroggins Draw, Texas to Florence, South Carolina.

Christmas pours a couple of shots of Don Julio tequila at his table.

Neon signs for Miller Genuine Draft and Budweiser are seen behind the bar.

Marsh seems to enjoy chewing on a toothpick. He has one in his mouth in his first and second introductions in the film and is seen to carry a small handful of them on his person later in the film.

At 32:25 on the DVD, the classified ads page Christmas looks at all list phone numbers in the 555 area code. 555 is a longtime convention of telephone prefixes in Hollywood film and television; in this case, used as an area code instead of a prefix.

A brand (for, I don't know, lipstick or something) called Neon is seen at the media influencer party Christmas provides security for at 32:36 on the DVD.

The media influencer refers to Christmas as "Muscles".

A number of screen names are seen in the media influencer's live stream chat: Diego Silva, your_girl 2002, sahara_at_night, Danielle_92, Jelapenio_96, Amanda Santos, Cynthia_Oliva, Oliver Mason, Andrea Davidova, and Viktoresta_2019.

The door lock that Christmas picks on Gina's front door is a York brand. This is a real world brand of locks and latches.

The safe Christmas opens in Gina's house is a Smith & Locke brand. This is a real world brand of locks, bolts, and safes.

The interior of Gina's house is decorated with numerous primitive weapons and defensive implements.

    A text tattoo is seen on Gina's back at 36:31 on the DVD. It is a quote attributed to German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, "We will all laugh at gilded butterflies." This refers back to another quote, this time from Shakespeare's King Lear, "So we'll live, and pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh at gilded butterflies." The tattoo is not a temporary movie tattoo, but an actual one sported by actress Megan Fox. A star tattoo is also seen on her right ankle at 37:20, another actual Fox tattoo. Under her left arm are the words, "There once was a little girl, who never knew love until a boy broke her heart."

    An additional tattoo on Gina's back that Fox does not have is a "Grin & Bear It" tattoo with a bear's head pictured.

As Christmas tries to re-seduce Gina, he remarks, "I'm gonna play a little Hendrix. Usually does the trick." This probably refers to American singer, songwriter, and guitarist Jimi Hendrix (1942-1970), a celebrated rock guitarist.

As Christmas tracks Gina on his smart phone through the tracer placed in the knife handle, the latitude/longitude displayed on the device's screen is accurate to the location shown on the map, over the ocean west of Baja California.

Toll Road's watch at 39:43 on the DVD is an MTM Sherman 3-GER.

The song that plays on the soundtrack as the viewer is introduced to Thailand is "Bigcityboi" by Binz, a Vietnamese rap singer-songwriter.

At 41:03 on the DVD, Christmas appears to be wearing Nike Tactical Boots.

At 42:13 on the DVD, Christmas notices that Decha's boat has a variation of the Expendables logo on the side.

Ramhat's hijacked ship is the Jintara, which was taken in the Andaman Sea and now heading for Vladivostok. The Andaman Sea is a marginal sea along the coasts of Thailand and Myanmar.

At 44:38 on the DVD, Rahmat's criminal record shows he was born June 1, 1996 in California and his race is white. "White" does not seem like the correct racial designation for the Thai actor, Tony Jaa, but...okay.

Oddly, the criminal record of Rahmat's cohort, Fen Leong Bai, also shows a birthdate of June 1...but in 1994.

Gina tells the team they will HALO in to the Jintara. HALO stands for High Altitude-Low Opening parachute jump.

Decha's boat flies the flag of Thailand at 46:43 on the DVD.

So, Christmas and Decha take Decha's small fishing craft and head out from an unnamed port in Thailand to intercept the Jintara. But, the Jintara is on its way to Vladivostok (a thousand miles away by land and even more by sea), and is apparently within a few hours or so of arriving there. So, there's basically no way Decha's little ship is going to be able to catch up to it in the first place, let alone have enough fuel to get that far! Yet, somehow, they do.

Some of the shipping containers aboard the Jintara have SHYPO painted on them. I unaware of what this stands for or if it is a real world shipping company.

After the Expendables get captured by Rahmat's men on the Jintara, the team suspects they have an informant in the group who ratted them out and they argue amongst themselves about who it might be. Toll Road remarks to Gunner that Gunner is the one who sold them out in Vilena on an earlier mission. This occurred in The Expendables.

The tattoos seen on Bok are actor Daren Nop's actual tattoos.

At 53:58 on the DVD, Christmas walks past AKGU and WESSL shipping containers. AKGU is Al Khafrah Industrial Gases Company Limited. WESSL is fictitious as far as I can tell, but it may be a stand-in for WESAL Shipping LLC.

After Rahmat punches Marsh down to the floor at 54:57 on the DVD, notice that a few toothpicks fall out of his uniform on the floor around him!

At 54:24 on the DVD, Christmas calls "Colin" a "bellend". This is a British slang term meaning "dickhead".

Rahmat's men hoist a U.S. flag on the ship at 55:41 as part of Ocelot's plan to frame the U.S. for the destruction planned with the nuclear bomb. As the flag is hoisted, one of the men sings the national anthem of the United States, "The Star-Spangled Banner".

At 1:00:54 on the DVD, Christmas walks by an Aqua shipping container in the cargo hold. I've been unable to confirm if this is a real world brand of shipping container.

Why is there a man making repair welds to the stairwell at 1:01:47 on the DVD if Marsh's plan is to blow up the ship shortly??

A number of the crates on the deck of the ship have umbrella symbols on them. This symbol indicates that the package must be kept dry.

At 1:02:53 on the DVD, notice that there are fake fighter jets on the deck of the Jintara, presumably to add to the illusion that the ship is a secret U.S. military asset on satellite photographs.

After blowing a motorcycle opponent off the ship and into the sea, Christmas quips, "Rubber side down, mate." "Rubber side down" is a term used in motorcycle parlance which means to "keep safe" or to "land on your tires" after a jump (as opposed to laying it flat or, worse yet, upside-down).

Galan's description of the hyoid bone in the human throat is roughly accurate.

Galan goes on to remark, "With these hands, I will claw the hyoid bone from the throat of that fucker Rahmat, stick it up his boyfriend's culo, then make both of their asses apologize while they drown in their own blood." Culo is Spanish for "ass".

At 1:07:45 on the DVD, an Elo monitor is seen on the bridge of the Jintara.

At 1:08:20 on the DVD, notice that Galan uses a rag to dry the piss off himself that dripped down off the bilge door, then he tosses the rag over his shoulder and it almost hits Lash in the face!

When Christmas (with Decha) is reunited with the Expendables, Galan refers to him as Feliz Navidad. This is Spanish for "Merry Christmas."

Gunner refers to the axe he likes to carry as a Traumahawk. The Traumahawk is an actual specialty/collectors axe made by Zombie Tools which specializes in "accessories for the apocalypse."

When Gina asks Toll Road if he can make them something loud and messy, he responds, "Does the pope shit in the woods?" He is mixing two well-known sarcastic answers to a question whose answer is an emphatic "yes": "Does a bear shit in the woods?" and "Is the pope Catholic?"

The song that plays from the boombox at 1:11:00 is "P.I.M.P." (2003) by 50 Cent.

Christmas deploys the ship's anchor to turn the ship around and it does exactly that, the anchor snagging onto an outcropping of rock on the sea floor and spinning the boat around 180 degrees. This seems unlikely. Wouldn't the chain break against the force of the ship's movement?

The gauges on the bridge of Jintara are mostly labeled in Cyrillic, suggesting the ship was originally Russian.

When Marsh sees Christmas put on his brass knuckles, he says, before pulling out a gun, "Look what Santa brought me." Santa Clause, of course, is the folkloric figure who brings gifts to children around the world on Christmas Eve.

When Barney pummels the Jintara with rockets, the ship sinks much too quickly for a vessel of that size. Of course, the script needed it to sink quickly to mitigate the force of the nuclear bomb aboard that goes off seconds later.

At 1:31:34 on the DVD, signs for Bud Light and Coca-Cola are seen in Rusty's.

As he reveals at the end of the movie, Barney murdered Jumbo Shrimp so that there would be a body in the cockpit to make it appear that Barney himself had died in the crash. So, let that be a lesson to you, kids...do not win a thumb wrestling match against Barney Ross...he will murder you for it. That's what a great American good guy does. And Christmas is totally on board for it when he learns of it.

The song that plays over the closing credits is "The Boys Are Back in Town" by Thin Lizzy (1976). This song also played at the end of The Expendables.

Unanswered Questions

How was Marsh planning to escape the destruction of the Jintara? His helicopter was blown off the side off the side of the ship and he threw away the remote control device that would disable the nuclear bomb. At 1:25:04 his men are prepping to launch motorized inflatable boats...but does he really expect to escape the force and shockwave of a nuclear explosion in less than six minutes in an inflatable raft on the choppy seas?!

How was Barney able to parachute out of the plane earlier in the film without anyone seeing him? Christmas (and others) were watching the plane when it was hit with anti-aircraft ordnance and as it fell from the sky.