G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra Spoiler

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra is a 2009 American live-action film adaptation of the G.I. Joe toy franchise, with particular inspiration on the comic book and cartoon series G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero. The film is directed by Stephen Sommers, produced by Lorenzo di Bonaventura and co-written by Stuart Beattie, based on a 1998 screenplay by John Paul Kay. G.I. Joe features an ensemble cast based on the various characters of the franchise. The story follows two American soldiers, Duke and Ripcord, who join the G.I. Joe Team after being attacked by MARS troops.
After leaked drafts of the script were criticized by fans, Larry Hama, writer of the comic, was hired as creative consultant and rewrites were made. Filming took place in Downey, California and Prague's Barrandov Studios, and six companies handled the visual effects. The film was released from August 5, to November 5, 2009, worldwide, following an extensive marketing campaign focused on the Mid-American public. The film opened at the top of the box office and grossed over $302 million worldwide by the end of its run. A sequel is being planned for a possible 2011 or 2012 release.

Plot

In the near future, weapons expert James McCullen (Christopher Eccleston) has created a nanotechnology-based weapon capable of destroying an entire city. His company M.A.R.S. sells four warheads to NATO, and NATO troops are tasked with delivering the warheads. Duke (Channing Tatum) and Ripcord (Marlon Wayans) are delivering the warheads when they are ambushed by The Baroness (Sienna Miller), whom Duke recognizes to be his ex-fiancee Ana Lewis. Duke and Ripcord are rescued by Scarlett (Rachel Nichols), Snake Eyes (Ray Park), Breaker (Saïd Taghmaoui) and Heavy Duty (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje). They take the warheads to The Pit, G.I. Joe's command center in Egypt, and upon arriving rendezvous with the head of The G.I. Joe Team, General Hawk (Dennis Quaid). Hawk takes command of the warheads and excuses Duke and Ripcord, only to be convinced to let them join his group after Duke reveals that he knows The Baroness.
McCullen is revealed to be using the same nanotechnology to build an army of soldiers with the aid of The Doctor (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), planning on using the warheads to cause panic and bring about a new world order. Using a tracking device, McCullen locates The G.I. Joe Base and sends Storm Shadow (Byung-Hun Lee) and The Baroness to retrieve the warheads with assistance from Zartan (Arnold Vosloo). After a fight, Storm Shadow and The Baroness retrieve the warheads and take them to Baron DeCobray, The Baroness's husband, for him to weaponize. Making their way to Paris, The Joes pursue The Baroness and Storm Shadow but are unsuccessful in stopping them from launching the missile. The nanomites destroy The Eiffel Tower and some of the surrounding area before Duke manages to hit the kill switch, but in doing so he is captured and taken to McCullen's base under The Arctic.
The Joes locate the secret base and fly there as McCullen loads three missiles with nano-mite warheads. After Snake Eyes takes out one, Ripcord pursues the remaining missiles in a stolen M.A.R.S. prototype Night Raven jet while Scarlett, Breaker, and Snake Eyes infiltrate the base. Snake Eyes duels and prevails over Storm Shadow. Duke learns that The Doctor is Rex Lewis, Ana's brother believed to have been killed by a mistimed airstrike during a mission led by Duke. Rex had encountered Doctor Mindbender (Kevin O'Connor) in the bunker and became seduced with the nanomite technology, taking too long to retrieve the data and getting caught in the bombing which disfigured him. After freeing Duke, The Baroness gets subdued as The Doctor reveals he has implanted her with nano-mites which has put her under his control for the past four years. Attempting to kill Duke, McCullen ends up being burned so he and The Doctor flee to an escape vessel. Duke and The Baroness pursue him while The Joes fall back when The Doctor activated the base's self destruct sequence.
The Doctor assumes the identity of Cobra Commander, having healed McCullen's burned face with nanomites, encasing it in silver and naming him "Destro", which places McCullen under the Doctor's control. They are captured by G.I. Joe soon after. On the supercarrier USS Flagg, The Baroness is placed in protective custody until they can remove the nanomites from her body. Meanwhile, Zartan, having had his physical appearance altered by nanomites, infiltrates The White House during the missile crisis and assumes the identity of the President of the United States of America (Jonathan Pryce).

G.I. Joe
Channing Tatum as "Duke" (Conrad Hauser): The lead soldier. Lorenzo di Bonaventura was originally interested in casting Mark Wahlberg,[4] and when the script was rewritten into a G.I. Joe origin story, the studio offered the role to Sam Worthington.[5] Tatum had played a soldier in Stop-Loss, an anti-war film, and originally wanted no part in G.I. Joe, which he felt glorified war. Once he read the script though, he realized the franchise was a fantasy akin to X-Men, Mission: Impossible and Star Wars rather than a war film.[6]
Dennis Quaid as "General Hawk" (General Clayton Abernathy): The team leader. Quaid described Hawk as "a cross between Chuck Yeager and Sgt. Rock and maybe a naïve Hugh Hefner".[7] Quaid's son convinced him to take on the part, and the filmmakers enjoyed working with him so much that Stuart Beattie wrote "ten to fifteen more scenes" for the character.[8] He filmed all his scenes within the first two months of production.[9] Quaid is signed on for two sequels.[10]
Marlon Wayans as "Ripcord" (Wallace Weems): Anil Rana, a pilot with a romantic interest in 'L'.[8] A fan of the franchise, Wayans was cast on the strength of his performance in Requiem for a Dream.[11] Bonaventura said that the film showed Wayans could be serious as well as funny.[8]
Rachel Nichols as "Scarlett" (Shana M. O'Hara): She graduated college at age twelve and became the team's intelligence expert. Having left school so early, she does not understand men's attraction to her. Nichols was the first choice for the role.[8] Nichols had dyed her blonde hair red – Scarlett's hair color – for her role in Star Trek, which she filmed before G.I. Joe.[12] She burned herself filming an action sequence with Sienna Miller.[13]
Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as "Heavy Duty" (Hershel Dalton): An ordnance expert and field commander of the team. Common was offered the role of Heavy Duty's cousin Roadblock,[14] although Bonaventura previously indicated Heavy Duty was being used in that character's stead.[4] Stuart Beattie ultimately chose to have Heavy Duty instead of Roadblock.[8]
Ray Park as Snake-Eyes: A mysterious ninja commando who took a vow of silence, a departure from the character's traditional difficulty in speaking due to grievous vocal wounds, a close member of The Arashikage Ninja Clan, and Storm Shadow's rival. Like his character, Park is a martial arts expert and specifically practiced wushu for the role, as well as studying the character's comic book poses.[15] Park had known of Snake-Eyes because he played with the toys as a child, but he knew very little of the surrounding saga of G.I. Joe versus Cobra, so he read the comics to further understand the character. He was nervous about wearing the mask, which covered his entire head quite tightly, so he requested to practice wearing it at home. He found the full costume, including the visor, very heavy to wear and akin to a rubber band; he had to put effort into moving in it.[16] Leo Howard plays the 10-year-old Snake Eyes.
Saïd Taghmaoui as "Breaker" (Abel Shaz): He is the team's communications specialist and hacker.[8][17]
Karolína Kurková as "Cover Girl" (Courtney Kreiger): Hawk's aide-de-camp. Kurková described going from her modeling career to making such a film as "an amazing experience", but said she was upset on not taking part in any action sequences.[18]
Brendan Fraser as "Sergeant Stone" (Geoffrey Stone IV):[19] At first, it was reported he was going to play Gung-Ho, but it was later revealed he plays Sergeant Stone.[20]

Cobra
Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Cobra Commander (Rex Lewis/The Doctor):[21] The Baroness's brother, a former mild-mannered U.S. Soldier who was thought to be killed during a mission - instead, he became the insane disfigured MARS head scientist. USA Today reported that Gordon-Levitt will play multiple roles. Levitt wore a mask – which was redesigned from the comics because the crew found it too reminiscent of The Ku Klux Klan – and prosthetic makeup underneath it.[22][23] Upon seeing concept art of the role he was being offered, Levitt signed on because; "I was like, 'I get to be that? You're going to make that [makeup] in real life and stick it on me? Cool. Let me do it.' That's a once-in-lifetime opportunity."[24] Levitt is a friend of Tatum and they co-starred in Stop-Loss and Havoc. His casting provided extra incentive for Tatum to join the film.[6] Levitt described his vocal performance as being half reminiscent of Chris Latta's voice for the 1980s cartoon, but also half his own ideas, because he felt rendering it fully would sound ridiculous.[22]
Christopher Eccleston as Destro (James McCullen XXIV): A weapons designer and founder of the Military Armament Research Syndicate (MARS) and the main villain in the early part of the film.[8] Irish actor David Murray was cast as Destro, but was forced to drop out when he had problems with his visa.[25] Murray was later cast as an ancestor of James McCullen in a flashback scene.[26]
Sienna Miller as The Baroness (Ana Lewis/Anastascia DeCobray): A spy and sister of Cobra Commander.[27] Years before the film, The Baroness was going to marry Duke, but he left her at the altar,[8] due to his guilt over the apparent death of her brother Rex Lewis.[28] Miller auditioned for the part because it did not involve "having a breakdown or addicted to heroin or dying at the end, something that was just maybe really great fun and that people went to see and actually just had a great time seeing".[29] Miller prepared with four months of weight training, boxing sessions and learned to fire live ammunition, gaining five pounds of muscle.[30] She sprained her wrist after slipping on a rubber bullet while filming a fight scene with Rachel Nichols.[13]
Byung-Hun Lee as Storm Shadow (Thomas Arashikage): Snake-Eyes' rival, both were close members of The Arashikage Ninja Clan. Lee said he did not know G.I. Joe because it is an unknown series in South Korea. Sommers and Bonaventura told him that it was not necessary to watch the cartoons to prepare for the role. Lee was attracted to Storm Shadow's "dual personality", which he stated has "huge pride and honor".[31] Brandon Soo Hoo plays 10-year-old Thomas Arashikage.
Arnold Vosloo as Zartan: An expert in make-up and disguises serving Destro. He is also Destro's aide-de-camp.[32]
Kevin J. O'Connor as Doctor Mindbender: A scientist in McCullen's employ who developed the nanomite technology.

Development
In 2003, Lorenzo di Bonaventura was interested in making a film about advanced military technology; Hasbro's Brian Goldner called him and suggested to base the film on the G.I. Joe toy line.[35] Goldner and Bonaventura worked together before, creating toy lines for films Bonaventura produced as CEO of Warner Bros. Goldner and Bonaventura spent three months working out a story, and chose Michael B. Gordon as screenwriter, because they liked his script for 300.[36] Bonaventura wanted to depict the origin story of certain characters, and introduced the new character of Rex, to allow an exploration of Duke.[37] Rex's name came from Hasbro.[38] Beforehand, Don Murphy was interested in filming the property, but when the Iraq War broke out, he considered the subject matter inappropriate, and chose to develop Transformers (another Hasbro toy line) instead.[39] Bonaventura felt, "What [the Joes] stand for, and what Duke stands for specifically in the movie, is something that I'd like to think a worldwide audience might connect with."[37]
By February 2005, Paul Lovett and David Elliot, who wrote Bonaventura's Four Brothers, were rewriting Gordon's draft.[40] In their script, the Rex character is corrupted and mutated into the Cobra Commander, whom Destro needs to lead an army of supersoldiers.[41] Skip Woods was rewriting the script by March 2007, and he added the Alex Mann character from the British Action Man toy line. Bonaventura explained, "Unfortunately, our president has put us in a position internationally where it would be very difficult to release a movie called G.I. Joe. To add one character to the mix is sort of a fun thing to do."[4] The script was leaked online by El Mayimbe of Latino Review, who revealed Woods had dropped the Cobra Organization in favor of the Naja / Ryan, a crooked CIA agent. In this draft, Scarlett is married to Action Man but still has feelings for Duke, and is killed by the Baroness. Snake-Eyes speaks, but his vocal cords are slashed during the story, rendering him mute. Mayimbe suggested Stuart Beattie rewrite the script.[42] Fan response to the film following the script review was negative. Bonaventura promised with subsequent rewrites, "I'm hoping we're going to get it right this time."[43] He admitted he had problems with Cobra, concurring with an interviewer "they were probably the stupidest evil organization out there [as depicted in the cartoon]".[4] Hasbro promised they would write Cobra back into the script.[44]
In August 2007, Paramount Pictures hired Stephen Sommers to direct the film after his presentation to CEO Brad Grey and production prexy Brad Weston was well-received.[45] Sommers had been inspired to explore the G.I. Joe universe after visiting Hasbro's headquarters in Rhode Island.[46] The project had found the momentum based on the success of Transformers, which Bonaventura produced with Murphy.[45] Sommers partly signed on to direct because the concept reminded him of James Bond, and he described an underwater battle in the story as a tribute to Thunderball.[47] Stuart Beattie was hired to write a new script for Sommers's film,[48] and G.I. Joe creator Larry Hama was hired as creative consultant. Hama helped them change story elements that fans would have disliked and made it closer to the comics, ultimately deciding fans would enjoy the script.[49] He persuaded them to drop a comic scene at the film's end, where Snake-Eyes speaks.[50] To speed up production before the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, John Lee Hancock, Brian Koppelman and David Levien also assisted in writing various scenes.[51] Goldner said their inspiration was generally Hama's comics and not the cartoon.[52] Sommers said had it not been for the rich backstory in the franchise, the film would have fallen behind schedule because of the strike.[53]
After Variety had reported that G.I. Joe became a Brussels-based outfit that stands for Global Integrated Joint Operating Entity,[54] there were reports of outrages over Paramount's alleged attempt to change the origin of G.I. Joe Team.[55] Hasbro responded in its G.I. Joe site claiming it was not changing what the G.I. Joe brand is about, and the name "G.I. Joe" will always be synonymous with bravery and heroism. Instead, it would be a modern telling of the "G.I. Joe vs. Cobra" storyline, based out of the "Pit" as they were throughout the 1980s comic book series.[56]
[edit]Filming and design
Filming began on February 11, 2008,[57] in Los Angeles, California.[58] The Downey soundstage was chosen as Paramount needed a large stage to get production underway as soon as possible. The first two levels of the Pit were built there, to complement the rest of the building which would be done with special effects.[59] Downey also housed Destro's MARS base in the Arctic, his legitimate weapons factory in an ex-Soviet state, as well as various submarines interiors, including a SHARC (Submersible High-speed Attack and Reconnaissance Craft) manned by two G.I. Joes.[60]


Prague was used for the Paris sequences.
Filming in the Czech Republic's Barrandov Studios began in May.[61] The crew took over sections of the Old Town in Prague.[62] While filming in the city on April 26, people were injured when a bus and several cars collided with a four-wheel-drive vehicle that appeared to have braking problems. The emergency services confirmed those taken to hospital had minor injuries.[63] Filming wrapped after a month in Prague.[12] Additional second unit filming took place in Paris itself, Egypt, Tokyo, the Arctic and underwater.[53]
Sommers felt "almost 100 percent" of the technology in the film would be available within 10 to 20 years, citing the various books and magazines about developing weapons that he loved reading. For example, Sommers said he believed invisibility was impossible, but the virtual invisibility provided by camouflage camera that projects what is behind a soldier on their front allowed him to include it.[53] The production designers modelled the interior of Destro's private submarine on a Handley Page Jetstream.[64] Sommers said the bulky immobile "accelerator suits" (which Beattie said had enabled them to write "a car chase where one guy's not even in a car")[8] had been tough on the actors and were likely to have their roles reduced in potential sequels.[53] Critics have compared the suits to that of NFL Superpro, a comic book character jointly licensed by the NFL and Marvel Comics, and resembling an armored football player.[65]
Bonaventura predicted the United States armed forces' aid of the film would be limited since much of the hardware is fictional.[11] The filmmakers were denied use of MRAP vehicles at the start of filming because it was ordered many MRAPs had to be sent to the Middle East as soon as possible, though later they permitted filming at Fort Irwin Military Reservation.[66] Some commentators reviewing previews and promotional art from the film have noted superficial resemblances between it and the action film parody Team America: World Police.