Commando (film)/Headscratchers

• How did Matrix know the surplus store had that back room?
  • Maybe he had been a customer previously.
  • He knows what is in every surplus store in the country.

• What surplus store HAS a secret back room with rocket propelled grenades and machine guns?
  • The Best Damn Surplus Store in town!
  • Surplus Stores with secret government caches, which an agent of the government would be aware of. (Yes, you just saw a pothole for Fridge Brilliance for this movie).
  • Another possibility is that the surplus store in question is also a black-market arms dealer (which is entirely logical; surplus stores and survivalists go together like ham and eggs), and Matrix knows about the guy from his past as a secret agent.
  • Or he's another retired operative like Matrix is, and Matrix is just going to a friend's place to borrow some stuff during an emergency. Pity he was apparently out of town at the time or else we'd have had a buddy action movie.

• How come the cops arrest Matrix when he's stealing enough weaponry to start a small war but don't even bother to handcuff him? How were they able to just ignore Cindy, especially when they should've seen her wheeling a shopping cart full of guns (and a rocket launcher on top) right out the front door to bring to a car on the surplus store's premise.
  • How come they didn't notice all the military surplus goods in the backseat of the car (with the rocket launcher right on top) when Cindy pulled up alongside the patty wagon Matrix was in? How come they missed all that in plain sight and merely just thought that Cindy was just a hooker driving a Cadillac convertible?
    • Male Gaze Up to Eleven.
    • More like Distracted by the Sexy. And Cindy might have had time to duck out of sight earlier.

• Why didn't Matrix contact the military after he got off the plane?
  • He wanted to take care of everything himself before the military got there, so they couldn't screw things up and get Jenny killed.

• Why did the infinite number of security guards at the mall focus all their attention entirely on Matrix, even while the bad guys were firing guns at other people in the mall?
  • Probably figured they were all members of the same gang. And remember things were pretty chaotic by that stage.
    • Even within the confines of Willing Suspension of Disbelief, such a large group of security guards being unable to identify gunshots or notice other people in the mall are actually being shot and killed is really pushing it. Given the obscenely large groups of security guards that are on duty at the mall, surely they'd be able to divide their manpower to diffuse the chaos throughout the entire mall and not just focus everything they have on one person.
      • The 'one person' is an incredibly menacing man-mountain who is apparently maiming fellow police officers with his bare hands. The other guards have to try and pull him off the dude he's chokeslamming, and given his size its hardly surprising that they figure they have no chance unless they all jump on him. In fact, its a rare moment of realism that they all dogpile Matrix... but its actual law enforcement procedure. Since Matrix isn't holding any weapons, usage-of-force guidelines would prohibit them from shooting him.
      • That's actual dialogue in the movie. The first security guard to spot Matrix takes one look at him and calls in backup saying 'We're going to need everybody, this guy is one gigantic motherfucker.'

• When the motel door breaks down, revealing a couple in the adjacent room having sex, why is the woman positioned behind and on top of the man who is on his hands and knees?
  • he, uh... they, uh... Never Mind.
  • This is why.

• Okay, most of these can be justified by Rule of Cool, but I've always wondered what Special Force Col. Matrix was from. He's a colonel, so that rules out Navy SE Al. He "eats Green Berets for breakfast," so that rules that out. And the Berets seem more elite than Rangers. My own guess: Col. Matrix started as a Beret but them moved on to Delta Force.
  • Note that Matrix is retired.
    • True enough, but still...
  • He's from Or Something. That's the real name of the secret government organization.
  • Note that the Marine Corps also has the rank of colonel, and loves to make fun of the Army.