he then played a drug-addled assassin alongside sylvester stallone, jason statham, jet li, randy couture, steve austin, terry crews, mickey rourke, bruce willis, and arnold schwarzenegger in the action film "the expendables", which opened in theatres on 13 august 2010. the film is about a group of elite mercenaries, tasked with a mission to overthrow a latin american dictator. it was described by lundgren as "an old-school, kick-ass action movie where people are fighting with knives and shooting at each other." this was his first american theatrical release film since 1995's "johnny mnemonic", (although the inquiry (the final inquiry) and "missionary man" both played theatrically for one week in dallas and san diego in december 2007). film production began on 3 march 2009, with a budget of $82 million. filming commenced 25 days later in rio de janeiro and other locations in brazil, and later in louisiana. the film received mixed reviews from critics but was very successful commercially, opening at number one at the box office in the united states, the united kingdom, china and india.