Ever the perfectionist, Schwarzenegger performed many of his own stunts on “Commando.” His reasoning was simple — the fans would know it wasn’t him if he used a stunt double. Unfortunately, that led to a couple of accidents. During the film’s big climax, John Matrix finally goes toe-to-toe with the big bad, his former comrade, Captain Bennet (Vernon Wells). The fight that ensues is brutal and bloody … and resulted in Schwarzenegger damaging his shoulder.

“The mano-a-mano fight between Arnold and I was brutal,” said Wells. “People were waiting to see which of us went to hospital first. He chipped a bone in his shoulder, I dislocated my elbow.”

That’s not all, of course. Schwarzenegger was keen to personally perform a close-up where Matrix is practicing with knives. After all, the fans would notice if it wasn’t his ripped torso in the shot.

“There’s this scene where Matrix is testing knives, and I wanted to use one of the bodybuilding doubles to do that because we were just seeing his hand,” Lester said. “But Arnold said, ‘No, you see part of my stomach! It has to be me!’ And that’s when he got hurt — the knife went right into his hand. We lost five hours while he went to the emergency room and had stitches. He never wanted to listen and do every possible thing, because his body was so awesome. You couldn’t get anyone else to look like that.”

It may have cost Schwarzenegger a chipped bone and stitches in his hand, but the result is a classic action flick that stands the test of time. Sure, it’s got a ton of cheesy lines and some of the least-realistic action scenes on film, but that’s why it’s a stone-cold classic. And it laid the groundwork for Schwarzenegger’s impressive action movie career to come.