G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

• Channing Tatum as Conrad Hauser / Duke:
  The lead soldier. Lorenzo di Bonaventura was originally interested in casting Mark Wahlberg,[4] and when the script was rewritten into a G.I. Joe origin story, the studio offered the role to Tatum.[5] Tatum had played a soldier in Stop-Loss, an anti-war film, and originally wanted no part in G.I. Joe, which he felt glorified war.[6] The actor later detailed that he wound up in the film due to a contractual obligation with Paramount, given Tatum signed a three-picture deal following Coach Carter. Tatum was a fan of the G.I. Joe franchise growing up, and expressed interest in playing Snake Eyes despite Paramount wanting him for Duke.[7]
• Dennis Quaid as General Clayton Abernathy / Hawk:
  The Joes' commanding officer. Quaid described Hawk as "a cross between Chuck Yeager and Sgt. Rock and maybe a naïve Hugh Hefner".[8] Quaid's son convinced him to take on the part, and the filmmakers enjoyed working with him so much, Stuart Beattie wrote "10 to 15 more scenes" for the character.[9] He filmed all his scenes within the first two months of production.[10][11]
• Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as Hershel Dalton / Heavy Duty:
  An ordnance expert and field commander of the team. Common was offered the role of Heavy Duty's cousin Roadblock,[12] although Bonaventura previously indicated Heavy Duty was being used in that character's stead.[4] Stuart Beattie ultimately chose to have Heavy Duty instead of Roadblock.[9]
• Rachel Nichols as Shana M. O'Hara / Scarlett:
  Scarlett graduated from college at age 12 and became the team's intelligence expert. Having left school so early, she does not understand men's attraction to her. Nichols was the first choice for the role.[9] Nichols had dyed her blonde hair red—Scarlett's hair color—for her role in Star Trek, which she filmed before G.I. Joe.[13] She burned herself filming an action sequence with Sienna Miller.[14]
• Marlon Wayans as Wallace Weems / Ripcord:
  A pilot with a romantic interest in Scarlett.[9] A fan of the franchise, Wayans was cast on the strength of his performance in Requiem for a Dream.[15] Bonaventura said that the film showed Wayans could be serious as well as funny.[9]
• Ray Park as Snake Eyes:
  A mysterious ninja commando who took a vow of silence, a departure from the character's traditional difficulty in speaking due to grievous vocal wounds, a close member of the Arashikage ninja clan, and Storm Shadow's rival. Park specifically practiced wushu for the role, as well as studying the character's comic book poses.[16] Park was already familiar with the character, but knew very little of the surrounding saga of G.I. Joe versus Cobra, so he read the comics to further understand the character. He was nervous about wearing the mask, which covered his entire head quite tightly, so he requested to practice wearing it at home. He found the full costume, including the visor, very heavy to wear and akin to a rubber band; he had to put effort into moving in it.[17]
  • Leo Howard as Young Snake Eyes
• Saïd Taghmaoui as Abel Shaz / Breaker:
  The team's communications specialist and hacker. He is seen chewing gum during the Battle of Paris in an homage to the original character.[9][18]
• Karolína Kurková as Courtney Krieger / Cover Girl:
  Hawk's aide-de-camp. Kurková described going from her modeling career to making such a film as "an amazing experience", but said she was upset about not taking part in any action sequences.[19]
• Brendan Fraser (uncredited cameo) as Geoffrey Stone IV / Sergeant Stone:
  Fraser was reportedly going to play Gung-Ho, but was instead later revealed to be playing Sergeant Stone.[20][21] According to the director's commentary on the DVD, Fraser begged director Stephen Sommers to be in the movie, making it his fourth collaboration with Sommers after The Mummy franchise.[22]

• Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Rexford G. 'Rex' Lewis / The Doctor / Cobra Commander:[23]
  The Baroness's brother, a former soldier who was thought to have been killed during a mission led by Duke—instead, he became the disfigured head scientist of Military Armament Research Syndicate (M.A.R.S.). USA Today reported that Gordon-Levitt would play multiple roles. Gordon-Levitt wore prosthetic makeup under a mask that was redesigned from the comics because the crew found it too reminiscent of the Ku Klux Klan.[24][25] Upon seeing concept art of the character, Gordon-Levitt signed on because; "I was like, 'I get to be that? You're going to make that [makeup] in real life and stick it on me? Cool. Let me do it.' That's a once-in-lifetime opportunity."[26] Gordon-Levitt is a friend of Tatum and they co-starred in Stop-Loss and Havoc. His casting provided extra incentive for Tatum to join the film.[6] Gordon-Levitt described his vocal performance as being "half-reminiscent" of Chris Latta's voice for the 1980s animated series, but also half his own ideas, because he felt rendering it fully would sound ridiculous.[24]
• Christopher Eccleston as James McCullen / Destro:
  A weapons designer and the founder of M.A.R.S. who is the main villain in the early part of the film.[9] Irish actor David Murray was originally cast as Destro, but was forced to drop out due to visa issues.[27] Murray was later cast as an ancestor of James McCullen in a flashback scene.[28]
• Sienna Miller as Ana Lewis / Anastascia DeCobray / The Baroness:
  The sister of Cobra Commander and a spy.[29] Years earlier, the Baroness was going to marry Duke, but he left her at the altar,[9] due to his guilt over her brother's apparent death.[30] Miller auditioned for the part because it did not involve "having a breakdown or addicted to heroin or dying at the end, something that was just maybe really great fun and that people went to see and actually just had a great time seeing."[31] Miller prepared with four months of weight training, boxing sessions and learned to fire live ammunition. She sprained her wrist after slipping on a rubber bullet while filming a fight scene with Rachel Nichols.[14]
• Lee Byung-hun as Thomas Arashikage / Storm Shadow:
  Snake Eyes's rival; both were close members of the Arashikage ninja clan. Lee was unfamiliar with G.I. Joe because the franchise is unknown in South Korea, but Sommers and Bonaventura told him that it was not necessary to watch the animated series to prepare for the role. Lee was attracted to Storm Shadow's "dual personality," which he stated has "huge pride and honor."[32]
  • Brandon Soo Hoo as Young Storm Shadow
• Arnold Vosloo as Zartan:
  A disguise expert who serves Destro.[33] After playing Imhotep in The Mummy franchise, this is Vosloo’s third collaboration with Stephen Sommers.
• Kevin J. O'Connor (cameo) as Doctor Mindbender:
  A scientist in McCullen's employ who developed the nanomite technology.[34] After playing Igor in Van Helsing, this is O'Connor's fourth collaboration with Stephen Sommers.

• Jonathan Pryce as the President
• Grégory Fitoussi as Daniel DeCobray / The Baron:
  The husband of the Baroness.
• Gerald Okamura as The Hard Master:
  Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow's ninja master.[35]

In 1994, Larry Kasanoff and his production company, Threshold Entertainment, held the rights to do a live-action G.I. Joe film with Warner Bros. as the distributor. Instead they chose to concentrate the company's efforts upon its Mortal Kombat films. As late as 1999, there had been rumors that a film from Threshold Entertainment was still a possibility, but that project was never developed.

In 2003, Lorenzo di Bonaventura was interested in making a film about advanced military technology; Hasbro's Brian Goldner called him and suggested to base the film on the G.I. Joe toy line.[36] Goldner and di Bonaventura worked together before, creating toy lines for films di Bonaventura had produced as CEO of Warner Bros. Goldner and di Bonaventura spent three months working out a story, and chose Michael B. Gordon as screenwriter, because they liked his script for 300.[37] Di Bonaventura wanted to depict the origin story of certain characters, and introduced the new character of Rex, to allow an exploration of Duke.[38] Rex's name came from Hasbro.[39] Beforehand, Don Murphy was interested in filming the property, but when the Iraq War broke out, he considered the subject matter inappropriate, and chose to develop Transformers (another Hasbro toy line) instead.[40] Di Bonaventura related, "What [the Joes] stand for, and what Duke stands for specifically in the movie, is something that I'd like to think a worldwide audience might connect with."[38]

By February 2005, Paul Lovett and David Elliot, who wrote di Bonaventura's Four Brothers, were rewriting Gordon's draft.[41] In their script, the Rex character is corrupted and mutated into the Cobra Commander, whom Destro needs to lead an army of supersoldiers.[42] Skip Woods was rewriting the script by March 2007, and he added the Alex Mann character from the British Action Man toy line. Di Bonaventura explained, "Unfortunately, our president [George W. Bush] has put us in a position internationally where it would be very difficult to release a movie called G.I. Joe. To add one character to the mix is sort of a fun thing to do."[4] The script was leaked online by El Mayimbe of Latino Review, who revealed Woods had dropped the Cobra Organization in favor of the Naja / Ryan, a crooked CIA agent. In this draft, Scarlett is married to Action Man but still has feelings for Duke and is killed by the Baroness. Snake Eyes speaks, but his vocal cords are slashed during the story, rendering him mute. Mayimbe suggested Stuart Beattie rewrite the script.[43] Fan response to the film following the script review was negative. Di Bonaventura promised with subsequent rewrites, "I'm hoping we're going to get it right this time."[44] He admitted he had problems with Cobra, concurring with an interviewer "they were probably the stupidest evil organization out there [as depicted in the cartoon]".[4] Hasbro promised they would write Cobra back into the script.[45]

In August 2007, Paramount Pictures hired Stephen Sommers to direct the film after his presentation to CEO Brad Grey and production president Brad Weston was well received.[46] Sommers had been inspired to explore the G.I. Joe universe after visiting Hasbro's headquarters in Rhode Island.[47] The project had found the momentum based on the success of Transformers, which di Bonaventura produced with Murphy.[46] Sommers partly signed on to direct because the concept reminded him of James Bond, and he described an underwater battle in the story as a tribute to Thunderball.[48] Stuart Beattie was hired to write a new script for Sommers's film,[49] and G.I. Joe comic and filecard writer Larry Hama was hired as creative consultant. Hama helped them change story elements that fans would have disliked and made it closer to the comics, ultimately deciding fans would enjoy the script.[50] He persuaded them to drop a comic scene at the film's end, where Snake Eyes speaks.[51] To speed up production before the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, John Lee Hancock, Brian Koppelman and David Levien also assisted in writing various scenes.[52] Goldner said their inspiration was generally Hama's comics and not the cartoon.[53] Sommers said had it not been for the rich backstory in the franchise, the film would have fallen behind schedule because of the strike.[54]

After Variety had reported that the film recharacterizes G.I. Joe as being a Brussels-based outfit whose name stands for "Global Integrated Joint Operating Entity",[55] there were reports of fan outrage over Paramount's alleged attempt to change the origin of G.I. Joe Team.[56] Hasbro responded on its G.I. Joe site that it was not changing what the G.I. Joe brand is about, and the name will always be synonymous with bravery and heroism. Instead, it would be a modern telling of the "G.I. Joe vs. Cobra" storyline, based out of the "Pit" as they were throughout the 1980s comic book series.[57]

Prague was used for the Paris sequences.

Filming began on February 11, 2008,[58] in Los Angeles, California.[59] The Downey soundstage was chosen as Paramount needed a large stage to get production underway as soon as possible. The first two levels of the Pit were built there, to complement the rest of the building which would be done with special effects.[60] Downey also housed Destro's M.A.R.S. base in the Arctic, his legitimate weapons factory in an ex-Soviet state, as well as filming various submarines' interiors, including a SHARC (Submersible High-speed Attack and Reconnaissance Craft) crewed by two G.I. Joes.[61]

Filming in the Czech Republic's Barrandov Studios began in May.[62] The crew took over sections of the Old Town in Prague.[63] While filming in the city on April 26, people were injured when a bus and several cars collided with a four-wheel-drive vehicle that appeared to have braking problems. The emergency services confirmed those taken to hospital had minor injuries.[64] Filming wrapped after a month in Prague.[13] Additional second unit filming took place in Paris, Egypt, Tokyo, the Arctic, and underwater.[54]

Sommers felt "almost 100 percent" of the technology in the film would actually become available within 10 to 20 years, citing the various books and magazines about developing weapons that he loved reading. For example, Sommers said he believed invisibility was impossible, but the virtual invisibility provided by camouflage camera that projects the background of a soldier's body upon its front allowed him to include it.[54] The production designers modelled the interior of Destro's private submarine on a Handley Page Jetstream.[65] Sommers said the bulky immobile "accelerator suits" (which Beattie said had enabled them to write "a car chase where one guy's not even in a car")[9] had been tough on the actors and were likely to have their roles reduced in potential sequels.[54] Critics have compared the suits to that of NFL SuperPro, a comic book character jointly licensed by the NFL and Marvel Comics, and resembling an armored football player.[66]

Di Bonaventura predicted that the aid offered by the United States armed forces to the film's development would be limited since much of the hardware depicted in the film is fictional.[15] The filmmakers were denied use of MRAP armored vehicles at the start of filming as the Defense Department had just prioritized their deployment on combat operations; however, they were later permitted to film the vehicles at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin Military Reservation.[67] Some commentators reviewing previews and promotional art from the film have noted superficial resemblances between it and the action film parody Team America: World Police.[68][69][70]

Six visual effects companies worked in The Rise of Cobra, the most prominent being Digital Domain, which handled the Paris action sequences and the opening convoy sequence.[71] For the Eiffel Tower destruction, special software was written for depicting how the crumbling metal works.[72] To create the digital Eiffel Tower, the technicians had access to the original building plans, and built a digital model so complex that it could not fit in a single computer file.[71] For the nanomites, designers used two proprietary software applications for their depiction—one made by Digital Domain, and another by Prime Focus VFX, which also created tools to generate 3D cloud and sky environments for the aerial scenes.[72] Many scenarios were almost fully developed by computer-generated imagery, such as the landing platform of the Pit, the Cobra ice caverns,[72] and the final underwater battle.[71] As for the sound effects themselves, only one is considered popular and isn't instantly recognizable. When the pulse cannon fires upon the main submarine during the polar assault, the sound of a program de-resolution from the 1982 cult movie classic TRON can be heard.

In 2009, R.M. Productions Ltd. was contracted by Paramount Pictures Corp. to produce a viral marketing campaign for G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. This resulted in the creation of G.I. Joe: The Invasion of Cobra Island, a two-part animated web video, which eventually went viral.[92] The plot has G.I. Joe called in to stop Cobra when they develop a secret bio-weapon on their hidden island base. It was done in the style of Team America: World Police and Thunderbirds, using a mix of vintage Hasbro G.I. Joe vehicles of the 1980s, and the newly produced 25th-anniversary G.I. Joe figures. The characters were animated using custom puppetry techniques, while their faces and other special effects were done using 3D animation software packages.[93]

The film was first screened in the US on July 31, 2009 at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland.[91] The premiere was at Hollywood's Grauman's Chinese Theatre on August 7, 2009,[94] and on the following day, G.I. Joe started playing at 4,007 theaters in the US,[95] along with 35 other markets.[96]

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra was released on November 3, 2009 on Blu-ray and DVD in regular and two-disc editions, and later[97][98] as a book[99] and as a video game. Both disc editions include audio commentary by Stephen Sommers and Bob Ducsay, and two making-of featurettes, with the second disc of the special edition holding a digital copy of the film.[100] The film opened at #1 at the DVD sales chart, making $40.9 million from 2,538,000 DVD units in the first week of its release.[101] The film sold more than 3.8 million discs, 500,000 of them on Blu-ray, during its first week.[102] The film was released on Ultra HD Blu-ray on July 20, 2021, to coincide with the theatrical release of Snake Eyes.[103]

During the opening weekend (August 7–9, 2009), G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra opened at #1 of the North American box office with an estimated $54.7 million.[95] It earned an additional $44 million internationally during the same weekend.[96] In the following week, the film opened in 14 more territories and continued atop the international box office with $26 million.[104] This made it the third Hasbro film to reach number one at the box office after Transformers and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

The film grossed $150 million in the United States and $152.3 million internationally for a worldwide gross of $302.5 million[3] against a production budget of $175 million. It is the 22nd-highest-grossing film of 2009 and the tenth-highest-grossing film of 2009 to gross $300 million worldwide behind Star Trek, Monsters vs. Aliens, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Terminator Salvation, Fast & Furious, A Christmas Carol, Inglourious Basterds, The Proposal, and The Blind Side.[105]

Paramount decided to not screen the film for print critics before its release and wanted to focus on internet critics.[106] On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 33% based on 171 reviews, with an average rating of 4.60/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "While fans of the Hasbro toy franchise may revel in a bit of nostalgia, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra is largely a cartoonish, over-the-top action fest propelled by silly writing, inconsistent visual effects, and merely passable performances."[107] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 32 out of 100, based on 25 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[108] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.[109][2]

One of the many complaints made by fans was that the film did not relate to the G.I. Joe franchise. G4tv.com stated that, "[the studio] actually went out of their way to butcher the G.I. Joe mythos in favor of derivative storyline devices." They cited the Baroness, who was changed from an East European noble in the comics to Duke's brainwashed ex-girlfriend in the film.[110]

Dan Jolin of Empire magazine commented that it was "Bond without the style and Team America without the bellylaughs".[111] The Daily Telegraph reviewer said, "The taint of cruddiness extends everywhere in this joyless stinker."[112] James Berardinelli said the characters were "as plastic as the toys that inspired them" and considered Tatum "wooden" and that his character was "more animated in sequences when he is rendered by special effects than when being portrayed by Tatum".[113] Roger Ebert described that "there is never any clear sense in the action of where anything is in relation to anything else".[114] Chuck Wilson of The Village Voice criticized the dialogue and described the underwater battle as "absurdly overproduced, momentarily diverting, and then instantly forgettable".[115] Manohla Dargis of The New York Times considered the plot "at once elemental and incomprehensible",[116] and Peter Travers of Rolling Stone thought that, despite the high budget, the special effects "look shockingly crappy; the Eiffel Tower appears to be destroyed by some green slime left over from the Ghostbusters films".[117] Reviewers also criticized the film for the scientific impossibility of sinking ocean ice.[114]

Matthew Leyland from Total Film called it "a throwaway blast of solid, stupid fun" and gave it three out of five stars, particularly praising Joseph Gordon-Levitt's performance as the treacherous Cobra Commander.[118] Sister publication SFX called the film "dumb and dopey, with plenty of bumpy bits" and that "GI Joe has a genuine cliffhanger charm, especially when the last act becomes a whole string of pulp plot twists. The ending screams 'To Be Continued'; we could do worse.", finally awarding the score of three stars out of five.[119] Christopher Monfette of IGN also gave the film a positive review, saying "This is an adult's interpretation of a childhood phenomenon, and if you're willing to give it a shot, one suspects that you'll find yourself entertained enough to give your best, "Yo, Joe!" He gave the film three and a half out of five stars.[120] Betsy Sharkey of the Los Angeles Times criticized the excessive flashbacks, but praised the action scenes and design, and considered that Marlon Wayans "steals the show".[121] Dan Kois of The Washington Post describing it as "loudest, flashiest, silliest and longest blockbuster in a summer full of long, silly, flashy, loud blockbusters" thought it was "as polished and entertaining as war-mongering toy commercials get".[122]

Cast members Eccleston, Tatum and Miller have been critical of the film in the years since its release. Eccleston stated "Working on something like GI Joe was horrendous. I just wanted to cut my throat every day" and admitted he regretted taking the role primarily for the financial reward.[123] Tatum, in an interview with Howard Stern, said he hated the film, revealing he was pushed into doing the film as to fulfill a three-picture deal he had signed with Paramount.[124] "The script wasn't any good," said Tatum but expressed relief that it could have been worse.[125] Miller, in an interview with Forbes, stated “I’m sorry,” she said as soon as I mentioned I had seen not only the first movie but also the companion piece. “You saw both of them? Wait, there was a second one? Well, they didn’t bring me back.” “There are roles in those kinds of things that would be fun and things that I think my kid would like. I just haven’t been offered that yet. I would be open to it. I know what I can do now, and I know what I can’t do,” she mused. “I shouldn’t have played a villain in a comic book because I’m just not that villainous or tall or strong. I am internally, of course, but I couldn’t fire a gun without blinking. I’m not a particularly physically threatening presence. The whole thing was a bit of a disaster from start to finish.”[126]

Tatum won the Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Actor: Action for his performance as Duke and the film also received three other Teen Choice Award nominations: Choice Movie: Action, Choice Movie Actress: Action for Sienna Miller, and Choice Movie: Villain for Joseph Gordon-Levitt.[127][128] The film was also nominated for six Razzies including Worst Picture, Worst Director, Worst Screenplay, Worst Supporting Actor for Marlon Wayans, and Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-off, or Sequel—with Sienna Miller winning the Razzie for Worst Supporting Actress at the 30th Golden Raspberry Awards becoming the biggest stump for 2010.[129]

Inspired by the movie, The Ballad of G.I. Joe was released in 2009 on the website Funny or Die. Written by Daniel Strange and Kevin Umbricht, and featuring celebrities such as Olivia Wilde, Zach Galifianakis, Alexis Bledel, Henry Rollins, and Vinnie Jones, the video short parodies several characters from G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero by showing what they do in their spare time.[130][131]