EX4 Is A Rescue/Extraction Mission On A Ship

For those who like to speculate about EX4, you’ve come to the right place! In an earlier article, I formulated the first theory about the EX4 movie, mostly centered around its cast, characters, filming locations, screen times, etc.

It’s time to theorize about the plot!

Back a few years ago when Avi and Sly had their fallout about the direction of EX4, it was decided that Millennium would reboot the Expendables franchise without Sly and take a new direction.

During that period, Millennium was in possession of a script written by a certain Spencer Cohen. Cohen was an upcoming screenwriter, and his script, based on true events, was centered on an international squad of private military contractors who were tasked with infiltrating a cargo ship overrun by pirates to capture and extract a seemingly impossible High-Value Target. Cohen’s script was pitched as “Black Hawk Down” meets “The Raid,” and Millennium was actually going to make a movie out of it with Statham and Jaa! Sounds familiar? Statham & Jaa in a mercenary movie! The movie was even announced for production in the first quarter of 2017…

Then the big EX4 fallout between Sly & Avi happened.

Millennium started to think about rebooting the EX franchise. Statham was becoming a household name with the Fast & Furious franchise, Cohen’s script was in the works for a mercenary movie that had Statham already cast in the lead role. Why make 2 mercenary movies with Statham, especially since EX4 had no lead after Sly exited the project? Statham was the obvious choice for the lead role in EX4. Cohen’s project got transformed into a new Expendables movie to reboot the franchise. The Expendables: A Christmas Story was born.

Cohen’s script has since gone through rewrites by Connolly and Adams. The high-octane, intense action thriller initially penned by Cohen has been given an Expendables flavor. But the core of the story seems to have been preserved.

So if you’re wondering about the plot of EX4, you might find Cohen’s original idea of a rescue/extraction mission by a group of mercenaries, fighting the bad guys à la “The Raid” in a tightly guarded cargo or warship.

Reports from Greece have described the building structure in the production facility as a frigate of 100 meters (328 FT) long and 30 meters (98 FT) wide, from which Statham will attempt an escape on a motorcycle.

The scenes shot in Greece are most likely centered around the rescue/extraction mission from some sort of ship.

It’s safe to assume that a new team of Expendables is assembled to complete the rescue/extraction mission from the ship. The question that many may ask is who or what the high-value asset or target is. Some theories have insinuated Sly to be the target of the mission. And that could be a plausible story.

Sly is not going to be in the movie a lot. He won’t be in the fight scenes of Statham’s final mission that are shot in Greece. We spoke about a surprise in the opening scene leading to a whodunit-type of plot. He could very well be the target to rescue/extract. The only problem with that story is that he won’t be in Greece to shoot the scenes on that ship. But that should not be a technical problem. He could film his scenes in a room in London or Bulgaria where he’s held hostage, and edits could bring him together with the rescue team at the end. And that’s maybe why the new team (Fox, Garcia, etc.) is also filming in London!

Another theory is that Sly gets killed by the movie’s main bad guy in the opening scene, and Statham goes on a revenge mission that leads him to the ship where the main villain resides, and the bad guy could be the object of the extraction mission.

 

Extraction or Rescue, Sly or the main villain, an operation à la “The Raid” on a ship seems to be part of the plot. Now, what will actually transpire from all of this, we should find out soon…