After returning home from Iraq, former Marine John Triton (Cena) and his wife Kate (Carlson) decide to take a vacation. Meanwhile, criminal mastermind Rome (Robert Patrick) robs a jewelry store with his accomplices: his attractive girlfriend Angela (Abigail Bianca), Morgan (Parker), Vescera (Gibson), and Bennett (Bennett). While running from the cops, they stop at a gas station, where John and Kate have stopped as well.
When a patrol car arrives to fill up, Morgan murders one of the officers while Rome injures the second officer. After Bennett knocks John out with a fire extinguisher, Kate is kidnapped. Morgan shoots at the gas tanks, causing the store to blow up with John inside. John survives, emerging to take the abandoned patrol car. He gives chase, with every single member of the gang shooting at him. They go through a construction area, and to the edge of a lake. Under heavy fire, John falls out of the car and into the lake.
The criminals decide to travel through the swamps to avoid the police, still with Kate as their hostage. John revives and, despite an officer denying him permission to, he continues to pursue them. After an altercation between Morgan and Vescera to show how crazy Morgan is, Rome decides that they have no further use for Vescera and shoots him, leaving the body for the alligators. Kate gets into heated arguments with the group, Angela especially, who strikes Kate whenever she insults her or tries to escape.
The Marine is a 2006 American action film directed by John Bonito. The film stars John Cena, Kelly Carlson, Jeff Chase, Jon Bennett, Abigail Bianca, Troy Brenna, Ashley Lyons, Anthony Ray Parker, Robert Patrick and Kelly Steves. It was produced by the films division of WWE, called WWE Studios, and distributed in the United States by 20th Century Fox.
John Cena: From Ring to Screen
John Cena: “My character in THE MARINE, John Triton, fights for his country – and loves doing so. He has a good wife, and he’s really focused on family. He’s a down-to-earth, grounded guy.”
Cena: “How did I get the role? That’s like asking me how I became a professional wrestler. I think it is the dream of a lot of people to be both; it certainly was mine! There was really no transition from wrestling to motion pictures. It’s not a move up – they’re both on the same level. My goal is to keep wrestling, until I can no longer handle it physically. I just want to add movies and acting into the mix.”
Cena: “In THE MARINE, I’m not as over-the-top as I am in the ring, where I’m usually the one talking trash of my opponents. In the film, I have to be soft-spoken – a walk-softly-and-carry-a-big-stick kind of guy.”
Cena: “I missed the roar of the [wrestling] crowd while I was filming, and I can’t wait to get back to that. Filming is a whole different experience from wrestling.”
Cena: “Robert Patrick plays the lead bad guy. He gets to be the witty character – the guy who’s a snazzy dresser and shoots first and asks questions later.”
Cena: “Kelly Carlson plays my wife, a character very different than her role on `Nip / Tuck.’ In our film, she’s very clean-cut but still very sexy.”
Cena: “Kelly [Carlson] can fight. She and Abigail Bianca, who plays the villainous Angela, have a fight sequence in the film, where they went at it WWE style! I think [the WWE wrestlers] The Divas would be proud of their work. Kelly and Abigail were really in [their fight scene] with each other. They made sure each kick and punch meant something. When I heard that they accidentally really connected [blows] by mistake, I patted them on the shoulder and said, `Welcome to the WWE.'”
Cena: “I wanted audiences [seeing THE MARINE] to get their money’s worth. You’re going to see some great action – and you’re going to believe in John Triton.”
Robert Patrick: Return to Villainy
Robert Patrick: [In THE MARINE] I play Rome, a jewel thief. He’s psychotic and cold-blooded, but he has a wicked sense of humor. He’s a charismatic bad guy. It’s one of those fun characters where I can do anything I want and have a lot of fun with him. You’re in on the joke with the audience; the hope is they like you being bad, and revel in your `badness.'”
Patrick: “I don’t think I’ve ever worked with anybody as powerfully built as John Cena. Arnold [Schwarzenegger] in `Terminator 2′ was big – but John’s enormous. I’m sure he’s not an easy guy to throw around the [wrestling] ring.”
Patrick: “John Cena should be the next Terminator. I told John he should go ahead and take that job. He’d be perfect. I think the Governor is too busy to do it, isn’t he?”
Patrick: “There are a lot of big action sequences in this movie. There’s an explosion every few minutes! And there are some things that reminded me of working on `Terminator 2′, like missiles being fired into cars. I haven’t done a film like this in a long time, so it’s fun to experience this kind of relentless action, again.”
Kelly Carlson: Action Heroine!
Kelly Carlson: “One of the reasons I accepted the part was to be part of an action film. I love doing fight scenes. I love being very active and working out. We were constantly doing stunts in THE MARINE. So the film fulfilled that `action’ side of me that I haven’t experienced in other roles. During shooting, the cast and crew called me `Mini-Champ.’ I’m tiny, but I can pack a punch!”
Carlson: “I have a long fight in the film with Abigail Bianca, who plays one of my abductors. We stumbled, punched, flipped, kicked each other – and she hit me in the face with a gun! Abigail is very physical – she’s petite, but she held her own in our fight scene. Abigail and I should go on tour with John Cena and the WWE – as a pre-show, of course [laughs].
Carlson: “Another draw to do THE MARINE was that the character, Kate Triton, is sweet and loving, and she comes from an honest place. I don’t get to play that very often. I usually play a femme fatale in movies and on TV. On the series `Nip/Tuck,’ my character is sort of sugar and vinegar. She can be very vindictive. And Kate [in THE MARINE] is the opposite of that – she’s a very loving person.”
Carlson: “Shooting in the swamp was difficult: there were always a lot of spiders and crocodiles. We worked in water up to our waists. It freaked me out at first, but I got used to it.”
John Bonito: A New Action Film Maestro
John Bonito: “The WWE really wanted to put its mark on feature films. They made it clear: Let’s go for the jugular with THE MARINE. I was excited to be a part of that.”
Bonito: “Explosions? Let’s just say that on set we had a running joke: If it’s getting built, it’s getting blown-up.”
Bonito: “THE MARINE is a fastball down the middle – a rock `em, sock `em action thriller.”
Bonito: “I was not familiar with John Cena’s work as a wrestler, but after working with him on THE MARINE, I was very impressed with his work ethic – every day he came to play. He was a consummate professional.”
Bonito: “John Cena did many of his own stunts: He jumped cars, smashed into cars, jumped out of burning buildings. He was blown up, shot at, stabbed, punched and kicked. He also has a natural charisma; the camera loves him.
Bonito: “Robert Patrick does a lot of serious, dramatic roles, but he has a great sense of humor, and that really comes across in the film.”
Bonito: “Kelly Carlson was a real trooper: she gets pushed around, dragged, thrown, blow up – and she always wanted to do the big action scenes herself.”
Joel Simon: A New Era For The WWE
Joel Simon: “Vince and Linda McMahon told me what they were looking for in a film company. They wanted to make a full commitment to the motion picture business. Most of all, we all wanted to fulfill the expectations of the WWE fans. We have this wonderful audience that watches our programming every week. Fulfilling their expectations for WWE funded movies was what most excited me.”
Simon: “When I [co-produced] `X-Men,’ it took six years to get the film off the ground. It took `Wild, Wild West’ [on which Simon was an executive producer] five years in development. That’s just the pace of Hollywood. Vince McMahon’s pace is very simple: He wakes up on Monday morning with an idea, and that idea is on TV the same night.”
Simon: “The first thing we [WWE’s Vince McMahon, Linda McMahon and Simon] decided was that we’re never going to make films about wrestlers. We are not going to be in the wrestling-film business because that’s what we do in our day jobs.”
The Marine (2006)
Directed by: John Bonito
Starring: John Cena, Kelly Carlson, Jeff Chase, Jon Bennett, Abigail Bianca, Troy Brenna, Ashley Lyons, Anthony Ray Parker, Robert Patrick, Kelly Steves
Screenplay by: Michell Gallagher
Production Design by: Herbert Pinter
Cinematography by: David Eggby
Film Editing by: Dallas Puett
Costume Design by: Graham Purcell
Set Decoration by: Mandy Willaton
Art Direction by: Daryl Porter
Music by: Don Davis
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for sequences of violent action, sensuality and language.
Distributed by: 20th Century Fox
Release Date: October 13, 2006
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