Suburban Commando
1991 film by Burt Kennedy

Suburban Commando is a 1991 American science fiction action comedy film directed by Burt Kennedy, produced by Howard Gottfried, and written by Frank Cappello. The film stars Hulk Hogan, Christopher Lloyd, Shelley Duvall, and Larry Miller. Additionally, a young Elisabeth Moss briefly appears in her film debut, as does Mark Calaway.
The film was originally titled Urban Commando, and was intended for Danny DeVito and Arnold Schwarzenegger. When these two opted to make Twins (1988), the script was bought by New Line Cinema as the follow-up to another Hulk Hogan film, No Holds Barred.
In the film, an extraterrestrial warrior botches a part of his mission. He is subsequently instructed to take a vacation, and causes damages to his own control systems while reacting in frustration. He crash-lands on planet Earth, and finds himself stranded there until his spaceship recharges itself. He unintentionally gets his new landlords involved in conflicts with his foes.
Plot
Interstellar warrior Shep Ramsey is on a mission to capture intergalactic despot General Suitor.
“Suburban Commando” enters the record as 1991 film by Burt Kennedy. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Suburban, Commando and film can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Suburban Commando” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Suburban, Commando and film provides the most credible route into that argument.
Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 30, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1196527. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1991 and 1988.
Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.
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The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Suburban Commando”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Suburban Commando primary sources, Suburban Commando archive and Suburban research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Suburban Commando” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.