BILL AND BIEHN
THE FIVE COLLABORATIONS OF MICHAEL BIEHN AND BILL PAXTON
THE LORDS OF
DISCIPLINE (1983) Biehn and Paxton’s first big-screen teaming finds the pair scumming it as abusive, racist-asshole officers in a ’60s military academy. Their hatefully extreme hazing includes forcing cadets to spend all night standing on a ledge, and pouring petrol over them and threatening immolation. Not a fun watch. THE TERMINATOR (1984) Sadly they never share the screen in James Cameron’s lean, mean sci-fi classic, which belongs more to Biehn as doomed future-soldier Kyle Reese, tasked with protecting Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) from the Arnie-shaped killer cyborg. Paxton doesn’t last so long against the burly robot, but his “Fuck you, asshole” blue-spike-haired punk makes an impression.
ALIENS (1986)
The ultimate Biehn/paxton team-up, as Colonial Marines Hicks and Hudson, whose “bug hunt” goes spectacularly shit-shaped on terraformed rock LV-426. Biehn is the ice-cool one, Hudson is the hot head. Both are treated by James Cameron to several great moments, from Hicks’ “looks like love at first sight to me” to Hudson’s, “Game over, man. Game over!”
NAVY SEALS (1990) Another outing in military fatigues, another movie in which neither Biehn (as the team leader) nor Paxton (as the sniper) make it to the end credits — unlike the film’s waxy hero, played by Charlie Sheen. It’s an unsavoury splodge of American jingoism best left at the bottom of the cinematic bargain bin, so definitely one for Mike ’n’ Bill completists only.
TOMBSTONE (1993) For George P. Cosmatos’ beefy take on the infamous Earp-clanton feud, Biehn and Paxton take opposing sides. In the Earp corner, Paxton plays youngest bro Morgan, destined to tragically bleed out on a table. In the Clanton corner, there’s Biehn’s “high-strung” shootist Johnny Ringo, who gets a bullet in the brain courtesy of Val Kilmer’s Doc Holliday. Which handily gives us both actors’ greatest death scenes in one movie.