Fifteen years ago, wrestling superstar John Cena made his acting debut in the 2006 feature, The Marine. Cena plays a U.S. soldier who is honorably discharged from active duty after disobeying orders during a mission in Iraq and has to adjust to life back home with his wife. As they take a vacation together, a criminal (Robert Patrick) and his band of thieves are on the run after stealing valuable diamonds. Cena is forced to battle Patrick and his crew after they kidnap his wife.
The Marine is a typical action film that isn't necessarily memorable, but John Cena's first movie role is an admirable one due to his physique and his capability in playing an action hero, while Robert Patrick portrays a convincingly sinister villain with some humor. Patrick has a history of playing bad guys opposite big action stars, such as the T-1000 battling Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator 2, and a dirty cop opposite Sylvester Stallone's timid officer in Copland. In this film, Cena and Patrick also play off each other well in a battle of good versus evil.
Cena's protagonist, John Triton, is reminiscent of other action heroes from the 80s and 90s because he's a man of few words, and lets his fighting skills do most of the work. While the film is predictably easy to figure out, there are small moments in which Cena is able to express Triton's vulnerability in a few early scenes. These include when Triton comes home to his wife, Kate, and they talk about how challenging it will be for him to get used to civilian life again after an extensive career as a marine. Triton also expresses frustration over his boring new job as a security guard, which he immediately gets fired from after attacking a female employee's crude ex-boyfriend and his bodyguards.
In order to get over his anxiety, Triton and Kate plan to take a short vacation by driving somewhere quiet and peaceful. When a master thief named Rome (the antagonist played by Patrick) and his criminal partners (Angela, Morgan, Bennett, and Vescera) arrive at the same gas station as Triton and Kate, hell breaks loose. Bennett attacks Triton with a fire extinguisher, while Morgan and Rome shoot down a couple of police officers. After that, Rome and his crew take Kate hostage and blow up the gas station and convenience store.
Of course, Triton survives the explosion at the gas station (one of many close calls). He then spends the rest of the film going after the criminals in order to rescue his wife and take them down. There's an exhilarating car chase involving Triton driving a police squad car, which is shot at numerous times by Rome's crew, but the hero is miraculously never hit, and he manages to protect himself by holding up a bulletproof vest.
While the film misses the opportunity to delve deeper into Triton's challenging transition from marine to civilian, he is still a larger-than-life hero who fights tough villains and uses his expertise as a soldier to track the criminals' movements. The action sequences are also the most entertaining aspect of the film, including the major explosions, car chases, shootouts, and physical fights.
Aside from the action, there is also some humor, particularly from the villains. In one scene, Rome tells Kate that he envisions a future with her if it weren't for his relationship with his girlfriend, Angela, and Kate calls him crazy. Rome and Angela also have some intimate moments together, especially when Angela initially pretends to be a hostage during the diamond heist. Angela also annoys Kate, and both women throw punches at each other.
Morgan (played by Anthony Ray Parker, who was Dozer in The Matrix) is also a standout since he is the one who causes the most trouble and is trigger-happy. He cracks jokes about how he's supposed to drive a Cadillac and not a minivan, or how he's not built for traveling on swamps. Morgan also mentions how much he hates rock candy due to a terrible memory he had with someone during camp. Morgan isn't a fully developed character, but he's a killer with humor and emotion.
There are also moments in The Marine that pay homage to classic films. There's a moment before the diamond heist when Vescera tells Rome "you got it man" in a laughably bad attempt to impersonate Tony Montana from Scarface, and Rome responds by saying "that's horrible." When Morgan mentions his bad camp memory, the banjo theme from Deliverance is playing, which is fitting since that film was also about a group trying to survive through a conflicting trip. The biggest homage occurs during the car chase scene when Rome's crew tries to blow Triton away, with Bennett saying that the protagonist is like the Terminator, and Rome looks at the rearview mirror with serious eyes, which is what Arnold did in T2.
Triton and Rome only have a few confrontations in the film, but when Cena and Patrick go at each other, it's electric. The final fight is especially brutal when Rome hits Triton with various hardware tools, including a sledgehammer, and tries to finish him with a chainsaw, but Triton beats him mightily with some big punches. The score by Matrix composer Don Davis is also energetic and effective in both the action scenes and the intimate moments between Triton and Kate.
While The Marine is a routine action feature, Robert Patrick is always a cool villain, and John Cena shows he can act in action and tough-guy roles, especially since he's a wrestler who performs skits for the WWE. Cena has also progressed in his film career through the years, starring in various genres including animation (Ferdinand), comedy (Trainwreck, Blockers), and other big action franchises (Fast & Furious 9). However, Cena may have found his greatest role to date as Peacemaker (in The Suicide Squad and his upcoming HBO Max TV series) because he's a combination of a hero and villain. Patrick will star opposite Cena as Peacemaker's father in the DC television show, and both stars will likely share more jabs and humorous moments together.