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The Expendables 2

2012 film directed by Simon West

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 29, 2026
Entity authorityQ210812
Source-derived summary

The Expendables 2 is a 2012 American action film directed by Simon West, written by Richard Wenk and Sylvester Stallone, who also starred in the lead role. The film is based on a story by Ken Kaufman, David Agosto and Wenk. Brian Tyler returned to score the film. It is the sequel to The Expendables (2010), and is the second installment in The Expendables franchise. The film co-stars an ensemble cast of largely action film actors consisting of Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Chuck Norris, Randy Couture, Terry Crews, Liam Hemsworth, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Bruce Willis, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. In the film, The Expendables undertake a mission which evolves into a quest for revenge against rival mercenary Jean Vilain, who murders one of their own men and threatens the world with a deadly secret weapon.

Principal photography took place over 14 weeks (beginning in September 2011) on an estimated $100 million budget. Film locations included Bulgaria, Hong Kong and New Orleans. Controversy arose over the accidental death of a stuntman and environmental damage caused during filming in Bulgaria.

The film was released in Europe on August 16, 2012, and in North America the following day.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “The Expendables 2” is 2012 film directed by Simon West. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Expendables, film and directed, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA useful identification and reception guide that helps separate the work itself from editions, performances, ownership and later interpretation. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2012, 2010, 2011—that can be checked directly. The authority record carries competing date values—2012-08-08, 2012-08-17, 2012-08-30—which should remain separate until their references and qualifiers are resolved. For this dossier, Expendables, film and directed is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “2012 film directed by Simon West” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q210812. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 3 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2012, 2010 and 2011.

Critical limits

Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. 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.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “The Expendables 2”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow The Expendables 2 primary sources, The Expendables 2 archive and Expendables research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “The Expendables 2”?
  2. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
  3. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from The Expendables 2” 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.