Gunner Jensen

I'm making a bomb. You mind?
—Gunnar on being interrupted while making a bomb in the second film

Gunner Jensen is highly dangerous, as well as formally educated as an chemical engineer. It's implied in the first film that he has had an ongoing issue with substance abuse and is generally a loose cannon in both films. He's crass and vulgar. He's got some light hand to hand training and carries a large bowie knife, a Milkor MGL multi-shot grenade launcher and at times a generic automatic weapon.

Biography

Gunner Jensen is a volatile, anti-social combatant with a non-specified personality disorder (though unlike his teammate Toll Road, he has yet to seek therapy). After years of substance abuse and way too much adrenaline, Gunner Jensen has nearly become undone.

The Expendables

A group of elite highly-trained mercenaries, the Expendables, has been deployed to the Gulf of Aden, Somalia to halt local pirates from executing the hostages. Barney Ross paid the original agreement of $3 million to secure the release of the hostages. However, the leader demands $5 million, and Gunner Jensen instigates a firefight after telling a crude pirate joke by firing his grenade launcher at the lead pirate, bisecting him and causing his torso to fly into the wall behind. As the rest of the team goes down below to deal with the rest of the pirates, Gunner Jensen says on the balcony to hang one of the few pirates left living, claiming it to be a "viking tradition." Hale Caesar reacts to this with relative disgust, telling Ross to "shoot Speed Racer in the shoulder." and Toll Road calls the man demented. While this is going on Yin Yang has sneaked up to the level that Gunner Jensen is on and kicks him, starting a brief fight. Barney Ross intervenes, subduing Gunner Jensen for the moment.

In the aftermath, Barney Ross reluctantly releases Gunner Jensen from duty due to psychological problems and drug use.

When the team gets back, Barney Ross is in his truck going over the brief file of their mission when Gunner Jensen approaches his truck and tries to start a conversation. His sweaty appearance denotes use of the drug Methamphetamine and Barney Ross picks up on this and says that he cannot be trusted due to his continued use of said drug and general instability. Gunner Jensen is taken aback and implies that he will get revenge on the team for what he obviously thinks of as wrongful termination.

Gunner Jensen sneaks onto the plane as Barney Ross and Lee Christmas go to scout out the Island of Vilena and approaches Garza and his ally, ex-CIA agent James Munroe to identify his former comrades for the price of 100,000 USD, cash.

Gunner Jensen and a number of Monroe's men tail Barney Ross and Yin Yang, instigating a shoot-out during a car chase during which Gunner Jensen kills a man who was in the SUV with him. Just as the pursuit ends in an abandoned warehouse, Yin Yang and Gunner Jensen fight each other a second time, with the both of them in a stalemate. Gunner Jensen eventually gets the upper hand and attempts to impale Yin Yang on a pipe, only for Barney Ross to shoot him. Believing that he was going to die, Gunner Jensen asks for a viking funeral and subsequently gives the layout of Garza's palace to Ross.

The team celebrates their victory at Tool's Bar, with Gunner Jensen and Yin Yang having reconciled with each other and Toll Road recommending some sort of therapy. Even though Gunner Jensen had recently been shot in the upper left corner of his torso, dangerously close to his heart, he seems to be healthier in appearance than previously, which implies that he's stopped using meth.

The Expendables 2

During the sequel, Gunner Jensen doesn't have much of a character arc at all. He's more or less been shoehorned into the background and given lines and what not to say, but is not as integral to the plot or as developed as he was in the first film. This could be due to the inclusion of other characters or simply because of other issues with the script, but Gunner Jensen's appearances are much less cohesive and motivated than they were in the first movie.

The Expendables 2

The second film opens with a raid on a fortress in Nepal, Asia to secure and rescue a Chinese billionaire, Dr. Zhou, who is being held hostage. In the opener, Jensen and Yin Yang are both in the same armored vehicle; Gunner Jensen driving and Yin Yang providing artillery support from the top hatch. Jensen calls Yang an insect and is rather loud and crass about the whole operation.

When the team rescues Trench Mauser, Jensen reacts distastefully to being called Frankenstein and Barney Ross warns him not to go crazy.

When Yang gets dropped off with Dr. Zhou (the aforementioned hostage) Jensen expresses slight disappointment at the fact that Yang may or may not be returning to the team. It seems as if both parties have set aside their past differences.

The team then goes to celebrate at The Old Point bar, presumably back in New Orleans, where they are based. It is here that Jensen claims to have improved Einstein's Theory of Special Relativity before blowing his nose into the napkin he wrote it on. This is sort of interesting because it expresses a duality to Jensen which the audience hasn't seen yet- the intellect hidden by his mental fraying. Ross goes on to explain that before Jensen was apart of the team, he earned a Master's degree in Chemical Engineering and went to M.I.T. before dropping out to become a bouncer and subsequently getting dumped by the girl he dropped out to pursue.

During the second mission of the film, to retrieve the case, Jensen asserts on the plane ride over that Maggie is "into him" and tries to get her attention by grunting repeatedly. It's implied that he was going to do something with the rubix cube in his hand, but nothing ever comes of it. This is yet another instance where Jensen is acting as comic relief for the film.

When the team goes to get the contents of the safe, Jensen is impressed by Billy's ability to run up the slope. He also seems reluctant to drop his gun when confronted by Jean Vilain and afterwards appears to wipe his eye during Billy's impromptu funeral.

The team drives into the testing facility town and Jensen says that it reminds him of home, much to the dismay of both Toll Road and Hale Caesar.

Unasked, Jensen announces that his favorite Swedish dinner is baby seal and whale ass in the Summer, and that he would love some Chinese food. The latter is an obvious dig at his attraction towards Maggie, but is generally ill received by the crew. In this same location its shown that he snores profusely and knows a bit about the legend that is Booker.

When the team is stuck in the mine, Gunner Jensen attempts to try and blow up the cavern using the natural phosphorus in the walls and gunpowder in a pipe. This of course, for comedic effect, is unsuccessful and the rest of the team jeers at him.

During the fight at the airport Gunner Jensen seems to be only carrying his knife as a back up to his grenade launcher, something that's a little risky when dealing with close combat and enemies who all have automatic weaponry.

The Expendables 3

Untypical of his previous appearances, Gunner Jensen ends up being on rather good behavior while helping the team free Doc from captivity of a armored train in Serbia after he was arrested by overwhelming debt. He feels some grief with the whole team after a failed mission in Mogadishu, Somalia as Hale Caesar was unconsciousness after being shot by Conrad Stonebanks. He is also very unhappy after Barney Ross decides to disable the whole team to replace with the new one by the youngster. Matters are not helped when Thorn insults him by claiming him to as being "old". Regardless, he is helping along with his crew and ultimately into the final battle against Conrad Stonebanks after hijacking the tank with Toll Road alongside with the youngster. Eventually, make it out alive by the Helicopter and celebrating at the end after the Mission Successful and seeing Hale Caesar recovering.

The Expendables 4

Coming Soon!

Personality

Gunner Jensen seems to be completely ape crazy in the first film, presenting himself as psychologically unstable and a clear danger to anyone in his path, even turning on his teammates. He appears to enjoy his job and the act of killing all together, almost to a sociopathic degree, though he shows more humanity when surrounded by his peers and away from battle. Gunner Jensen also seems quick to lie and bend the truth, as seen when he asserts that he wouldn't have killed Yin Yang during their fight in the warehouse, then admits that as a falsification upon Barney Ross' prodding. In all actuality, Gunner Jensen is so much of a liability to the team as a whole that it's easy to assume that the only reason Barney keeps him on the team is because he'd rather have the loose cannon pointed at someone other than themselves. In the second film some of Gunner Jensen's history is revealed, most prominently his degree in chemical engineering and full bright Scholarship to MIT, an attribute that he shares with the actor who plays him, Dolph Lundgren.

Drug Use

During the first film Gunner Jensen is using an illegal substance [methamphetamine] and this is referenced both in the dialog and in the character's general appearance. His profuse sweating is a side effect of the drug, as is erratic or unusual behavior, though this could also be attributed to Gunner Jensen's possible hard years in battle. In dialog the two things that lead one to believe that Gunner Jensen uses meth over any other possible substance are cut from the theatrical release, as are some other bits of telling characterization. The first is when Hale Caesar tells Barney Ross to "Shoot Speed Racer in the shoulder." This is both a reference to the animated show and the fact that a popular street name for methamphetamine is speed. The second is when Barney Ross and Tool are discussing Gunner Jensen's dismissal from the team and the latter says "Well, he went full Crankenstein on you." The word is a mixture of Crank and Frankenstein, the former is another street name for Methamphetamine and the latter is perhaps a jab at Jensen's height or grunting demeanor, juxtapositioning it with that of Frankenstein's Monster.

Physical Appearance

Dolph Lundgren, the actor who plays Gunner Jensen, is 6 foot 5 inches tall and weighs around 240 pounds. He's a large man. Gunner Jensen himself differs from the actor in that he has a large Expendables tattoo on his left bicep and another less defined tattoo on his right. However it should be noted that this is not consistent and changed in the second movie. He has a semi-circular scar on the left side of his face and long up-kept blonde hair.

Missions

#	Mission title	Mission image	Mission employer	Mission location	Mission goal	Mission outcome	Media featured in	Notes
1.	Somalia Hostage Rescue		Unknown	Somalia	To rescue hostages from pirates.	Accomplished	The Expendables
2.	Expendables Assassinations		James Munroe	United States of America	To kill Barney Ross and Yin Yang.	Failed	The Expendables