The Expendables 2 Blu-rayThis week sees the home entertainment release of The Expendables 2, a film which somehow manages to trump its firestorm of a prequel with a far more ludicrous plot and even bigger explosions.

You can argue that it is somewhat of a self-fulfilling prophecy that in an era of nostalgia-fueled entertainment the indestructible action heroes of the past would still be around.

Having killed a healthy percentage of the population (corrupt businessmen, notorious gang leaders, low-level pimps and drug-running police officers, you know – that lot), it seems right that they would find one another and blaze guns together.

Or it could be that people will never get tired of seeing musclebound men blow stuff up and kills faceless ne’er-do-wells.

In order that we come to fully understand that The Expendables 2 isn’t without precedent we’ve decide to plunder the vault (or YouTube as the common parlance has it) for six of the most bizarre screen kills performed by members of the cast*.

Jean-Claude Van Damme kills a snake.

[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AO2gBezgKrE’]

Chuck Norris kills someone to death with his stare.

[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kr_X10iYeP8′]

Arnold Schwarzenegger kills a bear in the face.

[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWGuyo8F7MA’]

Dolph Lundgren almost kills his career.

[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CajVX7iMro’]

Jean-Claude Van Damme kills sleep. One Z at a time.

[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCtXEFbc6Co’]

Jason Statham kills the spirit of the game.

[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMs8EsCFbGI’]

*We are well aware that Jean-Claude Van Damme is in this list twice however you can’t kill a snake and advertise Japanese sleep-smashing gum in the course of your career and not have it honoured somewhere.