The Last Stand is a 2013 American action thriller film directed by Kim Jee-woon in his American directorial debut and written by Andrew Knauer. The film stars Arnold Schwarzenegger in the lead role, alongside Forest Whitaker, Johnny Knoxville, Rodrigo Santoro, Jaimie Alexander, Luis Guzmán, Eduardo Noriega, Peter Stormare, Zach Gilford and Genesis Rodriguez. This was Arnold Schwarzenegger's first lead acting role since Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines in 2003. In the film, a tough small town sheriff and his deputies must stop a dangerous drug lord from escaping to Mexico in a modified sports car.
Filming took place in Belen, New Mexico and Nevada in late 2011. The film premiered on January 14, 2013, at Grauman's Chinese Theatre and was released on January 18, 2013, by Lionsgate, receiving mixed reviews from critics and grossing $48.3 million worldwide against a $45 million budget.
Plot
Sheriff Ray Owens resigns himself to a life of crime-fighting in the sleepy border town of Sommerton Junction in Arizona. Owens left his LAPD post following a bungled operation. He was left wracked with defeat after his partner was crippled and his team was decimated. The crimes experienced in Sommerton range from the Mayor parking his Camaro in the fire lane to vintage arms collector Lewis Dinkum firing off guns at slabs of meat with the deputies. One night, Gabriel Cortez, an international drug lord and race car driver, makes a daring escape from FBI custody in Las Vegas and speeds off in a modified Chevrolet Corvette C6 ZR1, taking Agent Ellen Richards as his hostage as he races southbound toward Mexico at speeds over 200 mph.
Agent John Bannister has a blockade set up in Bullhead City, Arizona, but Cortez's men mow down the cops on site and clear the road for him to continue his getaway. Cortez also uses his extraordinary driving skills to immobilize two SWAT vehicles headed toward Sommerton Junction. Before flying to Arizona, Agent Bannister has his team do a financial background check on all agents involved to learn about the mole, who has helped Cortez's escape. At 4:30 A.M, Owens dispatches deputies Jerry Bailey and Sarah Torrance to visit the residence of the local farmer Parsons, who has suddenly missed his usual milk delivery at the diner. After discovering that Parsons has been murdered, the deputies follow a trail of tire tracks that lead them to Cortez's henchman Thomas Burrell and his mercenary cutthroats, who are planting a mobile assault bridge across the canyon that marks the U.S./Mexico border.
Bailey is fatally shot in the middle of a shootout between the deputies and the thugs before Owens rushes in to bring his officers back to his precinct. Shortly after being notified by Agent Bannister of Cortez's presence, Owens gathers Torrance and senior Deputy Mike "Figgy" Figuerola. He also deputizes jailed local Frank Martinez, a former US Marine who is a veteran of the Iraq War with PTSD who developed a streak of never finishing what he started; because Bailey was his friend, Martinez insists that he will not falter. Finally, Owens recruits Dinkum to protect their town. Dinkum agrees only if he becomes a deputy and if he keeps the gun Owens had confiscated earlier. At 7:10 A.M., Owens and his deputies, equipped with weapons from Dinkum's private museum, have the town's main road barricaded with cars when Burrell and his men arrive, prompting a lengthy firefight. Armed with a Tommy gun, Figuerola holds off the thugs before being injured by a sniper.
Owens and Dinkum mow down a majority of the thugs with a Vickers machine gun mounted on the back of a school bus with Martinez providing cover fire, while Torrance snipes several gunmen on the rooftops. After Owens kills Burrell, Cortez's Corvette eventually arrives in town, veering past the barricade as Owens and the deputies shoot it. Cortez ejects Agent Richards from the car before speeding through a corn field. Suddenly, he encounters the mayor's Camaro commandeered by Owens before both cars collide with a swather. A dazed Cortez continues his escape on foot, but Owens meets him at the bridge. Owens ignores Cortez's bribe offers before both men fight each other. Despite sustaining slashes and stab wounds from Cortez's push dagger, Owens defeats Cortez and handcuffs him before dragging him back into town using the battered and now roofless Camaro.