The Expendables 4 Red Band Trailer Answers Fan Demand For Bullets, Blood, And Bad Words

The latest trailer for "The Expendables 4" seems wholly interested in one thing, and one thing only: making sure audiences are aware that the franchise is going back to being R-rated. This is a movie we've been excited about all year, but this is the trailer that truly sells the fun of the movie, mostly by focusing on the violence.

The whole point of the "Expendables 4" red band trailer and its throwback voice-over narration is to show that filmmakers finally listened to audiences (as exemplified by featuring random tweets from fans) and got the franchise back to its roots. If "Expend4bles" promises anything, it's lots of blood and guts. The R-rating is being waved around even more than the cast, to the point where we see the text in the trailer itself being stylized as  "They aRe Back." Get it?

Indeed, the trailer is filled with lots of shots of bullets hitting flesh, heads exploding, splashes of blood, swearing, a tease of some naughtiness with Jason Statham and Megan Fox. "Definitely rated R," the voice-over narrator says at the end of the trailer, and by that point, you are just all the way in. This is one of the most effective trailers in awhile, and even if you have zero interest in this franchise, it's hard to fight against the fun promised by a movie whose tagline is, "They'll die when they're dead."

Despite Sylvester Stallone's original plan to make a satire, the first "The Expendables" turned into a rather monumental piece of action cinema, a movie that not only gathered the biggest action stars on the planet but did so with stars in their 60s. The first two were dumb fun, but the franchise quickly fizzled out and became just another DTV action franchise with lower budgets and dumber plots. The third movie, despite having Harrison Ford and Antonio Banderas as part of a stacked cast, was a PG-13 movie that was just boring.

Where the first three films were rather white male centric, this one is changing things, looking towards Asian cinema and bringing in legends Iko Uwais and Tony Jaa, while making Megan Fox part of the core team too. Likewise, after Arnold Schwarzenegger decided to walk away from the franchise, Stallone is also now stepping back, though it seems "Expend4bles" is giving Jason Statham the reigns to the franchise. This is a very smart move, since Statham's Lee Christmas was always the most likable character in the franchise. Hopefully it all comes together.

"The Expendables 4" promises to bring blood and guts back to the franchise on September 22, 2023.