The Substitute Franchise and Finding the Right Action Hero

Every action flick needs a good action hero. There needs to be someone to guide the audience through the chaos and mayhem they are about to witness. The action hero must have some action hero qualities. They should be smart or resourceful. They should be strong, but maybe not as strong as their foe. If they are not strong, they should be disciplined or have some other trait to give them an advantage. More important than any personality trait, though… An action hero must be played by the right actor to really bring everything together.

I have seen a few action movies in my day. Some have done a better job than others in the casting department. They nail that lead actor on the first try, solidifying a franchise for a decade or more. Bruce Willis in Die Hard. Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones. Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible. Franchises where you couldn’t imagine anyone but that specific actor in the lead role. Other franchises have taken a little longer to find the right actor to lead them into the promised land.

There are two main franchises that come to mind when I think of finding the right star outside the first movie. I’ll get to the franchise that inspired this post in a minute. First, I want to touch upon The Marine. We all think of John Cena as this big movie star. He has been acting since his days rising through the ranks in WWE. The 2000s were when WWE really branched into the film business, and they wanted the face of their television franchise on the big screen. However, he hadn’t honed his acting craft yet. He wasn’t good in The Marine. Ted DiBiase was even worse in the sequel. WWE eventually hit gold with The Marine 3: Homefront, when The Miz took on the lead role. He was more compelling. He took over the movie in a way that the other wrestlers hadn’t with their starring roles. This isn’t to say John Cena is a bad actor. At that time, however, he wasn’t ready for the role he had.

The Miz stuck around for four films. They varied in quality. His second outing wasn’t great. His third outing, The Marine 5: Battleground, was the best in the franchise. Whatever the case, he was a steadying presence in The Marine movies. The franchise probably wouldn’t have survived beyond the third film if he hadn’t been brought in. They found the right action hero for the series after the first two films missed.

A franchise that did it a little quicker, but still not on the first try, was The Substitute. Tom Berenger starred in the first film as a marine who took a substitute job at a gang-filled high school to find out who attacked his teacher girlfriend. It was an action movie of that 80s and 90s subgenre where a teacher or other authority figure in a school cleaned up the problems to make for a better learning experience. Stuff like The Principal, Only the Strong, and Lean on Me. Only, this had the same sort of vibes as Sniper. It was that mid-90s Tom Berenger influence.

The Tom Berenger influence was also what made The Substitute fall a little flat. It wasn’t so much the vibes that were wrong through most of The Substitute. One of the sequels had a vibes issue, but not the original. It was Tom Berenger, himself. He had the physique to pull off being a marine. However, he never felt like a teacher. Maybe because the character wasn’t a teacher. He pretended to be a teacher for the sake of undercover work. The problem was that Tom Berenger didn’t give off any teacher aura. The actor felt like he would never put himself in the position to be a teacher of anything. That made his character’s playing a teacher feel two layers wrong.

The other issue was that Tom Berenger’s action performance wasn’t good. He did a good job with reactions. There was a one-liner near the end of The Substitute that was perfectly delivered. I could believe it coming out of his mouth. His physical work, though… That didn’t work. Part of that was the editing, part of that was Tom Berenger’s movements. This was supposed to be a physically fit guy, fresh out of the military, doing some unsanctioned undercover work. Yet it felt like I was watching an out-of-shape 50-year-old trying, and failing, to throw solid punches.

When the sequel was in production, Tom Berenger declined to return. Thus, the production was moved to HBO with a new star. Treat Williams took over the franchise as a new character going through almost the same exact situation. He was an ex-soldier whose teacher brother was murdered by a carjacker. To figure out who did it, he became a substitute teacher at the gang-filled high school his brother taught at. That’s essentially an identical plot, only with a murdered brother instead of an injured girlfriend.

The recasting of The Substitute 2: School’s Out cleaned up the issues that Tom Berenger had in his outing. Treat Williams was believable as both a military man and a teacher. His performance as Karl Thomasson didn’t have that same dissociation with teaching that Tom Berenger’s performance as Jonathan Shale had. It felt like Thomasson wanted to teach the students, not that he fell into it. He wanted to help them in their futures rather than just clean the school of the gang problem.

Treat Williams was also a better physical performer than Tom Berenger. He looked like he was swinging and landing hits. He looked like he knew some martial arts, which really helped the action scenes. He also looked like he could take a few lumps. The Substitute 2: School’s Out didn’t feel like it had a man in his 50s who couldn’t fight. The action felt realer. That came from the performance as much as the editing.

Karl Thomasson would be the main character for the remainder of the franchise, The Substitute 3: Winner Takes All and The Substitute 4: Failure is Not an Option. His performances would be as solid through those two films as well. The third had a tonal issue from a new director coming in and trying to inject more comedy into the franchise. Karl took on a steroid scandal in a college football team that involved a comedic group of New York mafia characters. That didn’t work. That wasn’t on Treat Williams, who was still solid through that movie. The fourth got back into what made the second work so well, though, and it really solidified that Treat Williams was the right actor to lead the franchise. It’s a shame that it couldn’t continue beyond The Substitute 4: Failure is Not an Option, a quite solid movie about Karl taking down a racist military unit within a military school.

Treat Williams was one of those occasions where an action franchise found the right star after the first movie. Tom Berenger might be a good lead in some situations. His acting skills perfectly fit the Sniper franchise. Not so much with The Substitute. Swap him out for Treat Williams in the sequel and something special happened.

The Miz was the same case for The Marine. John Cena hadn’t built up his acting skill to pull the lead role off in The Marine. Ted DiBiase Jr. had whatever the opposite of screen charisma was in The Marine 2. When The Miz was brought in for The Marine 3: Homefront, things changed for the better. His natural charisma and his desire to be a professional at his craft helped drive him to excel in his role. It took three movies for the franchise to find the right actor to carry the movies.

Not all action franchises start with the right actor in the lead role. They could be lacking the talent to take on that kind of role. Their skills could be in different areas. One-liners, but not the physical stuff. A threatening presence, but nothing behind it. A change might need to be made to find someone to push the franchise forward. It’s either that or have no franchise. Where would the fun be in that? You always get some crazy stuff as a franchise grows longer and longer. We wouldn’t have that in The Substitute or The Marine without the change in lead actors. If the change works, it works. I’m all for it. If it finds a franchise the perfect action hero, it’s well worth it.

Now it’s time for some notes:

• I brought up The Marine franchise a couple times in this post. I might as well link to all of them. The Marine. The Marine 2. The Marine 3: Homefront. The Marine 4: Moving Target. The Marine 5: Battleground. The Marine 6: Close Quarters.
• I also want to link to all the Sniper movies I’ve covered. Sniper. Sniper 2. Sniper 3. Sniper: Reloaded.
• Another movie I mentioned in this post was Only the Strong.
• The star of The Substitute was Tom Berenger. He has shown up in a few Sunday “Bad” Movies. He was in Sniper, Sniper 2, and Sniper 3.
• Treat Williams was the star of The Substitute 2: School’s Out, The Substitute 3: Winner Takes All, and The Substitute 4: Failure is Not an Option.
• Robert Radler directed The Substitute 3: Winner Takes All and The Substitute 4: Failure is Not an Option.
• Robert Harvey was in The Substitute 3: Winner Takes All. He’s been a mainstay in Sunday “Bad” Movies, being featured in five other movies. He was in Jack and Jill, Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star, Sandy Wexler, Amityville: A New Generation, and Ringmaster.
• The newest member of the Sunday “Bad” Movies five timers’ club is Ernie Hudson. He appeared in The Substitute after appearing in Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2, Beverly Hills Chihuahua 3: Viva La Fiesta!, God’s Not Dead 2, and Battledogs.
• Luis Guzmán reappeared in Sunday “Bad” Movies with The Substitute. He was also in Beverly Hills Chihuahua, Sandy Wexler, and The Adventures of Pluto Nash.
• William Forsythe was another supporting actor in The Substitute. He was in Sunday “Bad” Movies in Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo, Stone Cold, and God’s Not Dead: We the People.
• One of the villains in The Substitute 4: Failure is Not an Option was played by Simon Rhee, who was in Alex Cross, Kung Pow: Enter the First, and 3 Musketeers.
• Glenn Plummer was in The Substitute and was, apparently, an extra in The Substitute 2: School’s Out. He was a major part of Showgirls and Showgirls 2: Penny’s From Heaven.
• The Substitute 3: Winner Takes All featured George Fisher, who was in Jingle All the Way and Gotcha!
• A surprise in The Substitute 3: Winner Takes All was Claudia Christian, who showed up in Never on Tuesday and Maniac Cop 2.
• Money Train featured three actors from The Substitute franchise. Vincent Laresca was in The Substitute, Lawrence Gilliard Jr. was in The Substitute 2: School’s Out, and Bill Nunn was in The Substitute 4: Failure is Not an Option.
• The Substitute and Drop Zone both featured Steve DuMouchel.
• Kurt James Stefka was in both The Substitute and Road House.
• David Hayes returned to Sunday “Bad” Movies in The Substitute after appearing in Hell Comes to Frogtown.
• Rodney A. Grant appeared in Wild Wild West and The Substitute.
• Cop and a Half and The Substitute both had an actor, the same actor, named Mike Benitez.
• You probably didn’t recognize Bryan Friday or his cool name in The Substitute. You also probably didn’t know he was in Abduction. But he was in both.
• Robert Rusler had roles in both Amityville: A New Generation and The Substitute.
• Now moving onto the sequel, The Substitute 2: School’s Out featured Eugene Byrd, who was in Anacondas: Hunt for the Blood Orchid.
• Owen Stadele returned to Sunday “Bad” Movies in The Substitute 2: School’s Out. He was first in Airborne.
• There was a surprising actor return from Elves. D.L. Walker appeared in that Christmas classic, as well as The Substitute 3: Winner Takes All.
• James Black was in Godzilla and The Substitute 3: Winner Takes All.
• Alvin and the Chipmunks featured Erin Chambers, who was in The Substitute 3: Winner Takes All.
• The last actor from The Substitute 3: Winner Takes All who was a returning Sunday “Bad” Movies feature was Rebecca Staab from the 1994 version of The Fantastic Four.
• Now we’re onto the final movie of the franchise, The Substitute 4: Failure is Not an Option. Patrick Kilpatrick played the villain. He was also in The Toxic Avenger.
• Tim Abell had roles in both Mega Shark vs. Kolossus and The Substitute 4: Failure is Not an Option.
• Finally, The Substitute 4: Failure is Not an Option featured J. Don Ferguson, who was in Maximum Overdrive.
• Have you seen any of The Substitute movies? What did you think? Share your thoughts in the comments, or let me know on Bluesky or Threads.
• If there’s a movie you think I should check out for Sunday “Bad” Movies, drop the title in the comments. Or hit me up on Bluesky or Threads and let me know there.
• Coming up next, I don’t know yet. It’ll be something Christmas themed. I know that much. I just have to decide what movie I want to watch and write about. After the holidays, there will be a post about As Gouda As It Gets. But that’s for after the holidays. We’re getting into December, and I need to check out at least one holiday movie for the blog. I’ll see you whenever I write that post.