How To Lose an Arm in 10 Ways: A Michael Ironside Tribute

Share on Facebook posted 03-29-10 by Max Tedaldi

Michael Ironside is an insidious villain. He is a scoundrel, an anti-hero, a downright bastard, and he’s really good at it.

Some actors, whether it be from a famous role, a franchise that they become associated with, or just having a face that looks a certain way, get typecast. Sure, Michael Ironside can play the hardened war hero, but deep down we want him to play the villain. Even during Starship Troopers, when he is playing the ice-cold lieutenant Rasczak, stomping bugs and making his platoon endure a campaign that closely resembles hell, I could still see him switching teams. He has one of those Jack Nicholson arched-eyebrows-cheshire-cat-grin looks that makes you think that he is plotting some evil scheme or perhaps not so secretly going insane.

But this isn’t the only way that Michael Ironside is typecast. What may have begun as an innocent gimmick in his earlier films has pervaded a substantial portion of Ironside’s subsequent work. Michael Ironside has lost more arms in his films than any other actor I can think of. A dubious distinction or a clear-cut calling card? So just how many arms has he lost? Read on and discover why Ironside finishes his films with iron by his side . . . ehhhh.

Visiting Hours (1982)

No Ironside doesn’t lose an arm in Visiting Hours so let me save you hours of re-watching time. He does however, set in motion the convention of his later shoulder severing. Watch this clip and see how Ironside relishes rubbing his arm through a pile of glass. It’s disturbing, but also oddly prophetic.

Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone (1983)

A forgotten 80′s classic featuring none other than Molly Ringwald, in the Sci-Fi genre no less. Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone attempted to capitalize on the early 80′s reboot of movies in 3-D with less than stellar effect. Nevertheless, we do get to see Michael Ironside as the diabolical cyborg Overdog. Again, Ironside doesn’t quite lose a limb, but we know that he at one point did because of his insane robot claws! Overdog also creepily reminds me of the Gary Oldman spider-like character in Lost in Space.

Total Recall (1990)

Now we’re talking! I dare you to read the line, “see you at the party Richter”, without it resonating in your mind with an overblown Arnold accent. This is the ultimate finishing move that Arnold uses to “give his people air” and it could not be executed with a finer one-liner. The final image of Ironside falling to his death while flailing with his bloody stump arms is priceless!

Highlander II: The Quickening (1991)

The video that I have included from Highlander II: The Quickening is not the climactic battle between Connor Mcleod (Lambert) and General Katana (Ironside), in which Ironside loses both a hand and his head. The fight is pretty awful. In fact, it’s so bad that in his review of the film Roger Ebert said that it was “almost awesome in its badness”. This scene is easily the most awesomely bad part of the film and features a maniacal General Katana accelerating a train in order to kill all of its inhabitants. It’s campy and silly and Ironside is intimidatingly menacing in an “almost awesome in its badness” kind of way.

Starship Troopers (1997)

Sorry to disappoint but no arm loss in this one either. Ironside plays Lieutenant Jean Rasczak, leader of the “Roughnecks” the military unit that killed more bugs than any other. Rasczak had already lost his arm before the onset of the story but he gets a robotic one for use during his military service. Rasczak is hard-core to the extreme, never hesitating to kill one of his own if he thinks that he or she is suffering. Rasczak knows how to kick-ass, but also knows how to tap some ass when the moment is right. “I expect the best and I give the best. Here’s the beer. Here’s the entertainment. Now have fun. That’s an order!”. Words to live by!

The Machinist (2004)

The most gruesome of all of the Ironside arm amputations. The Machinist shows in excruciatingly explicit detail the drawn out process of Ironside losing his arm from a heavy duty piece of machinery. Skin tears, muscles rip, bones break, and tendons stretch and snap. This is Ironside’s masochistic masterpiece!

Guy X (2005)

Guy X is a smaller film with Jason Biggs as a soldier incorrectly transferred to Greenland. While there, Biggs strikes up a friendship with a Vietnam war vet (Ironside) who has lost most of three limbs, who only comes out of coma when in the presence of Biggs. I can see casting for this movie being an exercise in futility. Who do we cast as the military hard-ass who has lost an arm? Is that even a question? You go to the best of the best. You find the sultan of sever, the autocrat of armlessness. You find Michael Ironside.

14 responses to How To Lose an Arm in 10 Ways: A Michael Ironside Tribute

Post a comment

Lets not forget that Ironside is Sam Fisher.

Max Tedaldi

epic burliness on the dudes voice. Noted

Andrew Forbes

That first clip isn’t from Scanners. It’s from Visiting Hours.

Max Tedaldi

thanks for the heads up! For some reason I always mix those movies up in my head because Ironside is so creepy in both of them , but I’ve edited.

TommyT

Total Recall was always my favorite! I remember laughing hysterically at that scene, it’s a perfect representation of Paul V’s sense of humor!

Max Tedaldi

Don’t know if anyone else ever noticed this but I don’t think Sharon Stone has ever looked better than she did in TR. Case in point:

Yolanda

Well remember in Starship Troopers? He not only misses his arm, he ends up losing both his legs, too! How messed up was THAT?

latv

excellent lineup!

Karaph

My favorite role of his was tough guy Ham Tyler in the original V series (as opposed to the one currently on TV). Fortunately, he got to keep all of his limbs in that show AND he played a good guy. A nice change of pace on both counts.

Evil E

George Lucas should have recognized this and placed Ironside in the Star Wars universe somewhere.

Apathygrrl

The title of this article = win.

cubik

He also does a lot of brain sucking

quotes from scanners:
“I’m going to suck your brain dry!”"
starship troopers:
“They sucked his brains out!”
V the final battle:
“The Visitors came here to suck us dry, and when they’re finished with this planet, they’re gonna take it like an empty beer can and toss it over their shoulder.”

i know there were a few more but i forgot where i hearded them, reeker? masters of horror?
maybe in the next michael ironside tribute?!