The good thing is there’s no need to be alarmed upon hearing that Arnold Schwarzenegger has had emergency open-heart surgery. The former governor of California and 70-year old movie star was in the hospital to have a pulmonic valve replaced. It was put into place in 1997 after it was determined that he had a congenital heart defect that made the valve a necessity. During the time he spent under however there was an emergency team on hand just in case they were needed, as is standard. But thankfully the valve was replaced with a less-invasive catheter valve and Arnold was in good health the last time anyone got a solid report. In fact he was in good spirits when he woke, as his first words were “I’m back.”
Obviously those words are more than fitting for a man that’s seemed unstoppable when it comes to his cinematic productions and a rock-solid career that’s spanned decades now. Schwarzenegger has for a long time been the gold standard in what it means to be an action hero no matter who’s attempted to take the lead in such prominent genre. He might have taken several steps back in the last couple of decades but his name is still synonymous with action and the ability of any star to rise in the action film genre is usually measured against Arnold’s past accomplishments in one way or another. After all he’s made his appearance with many individuals throughout the years be it a cameo or recurring role such as in The Expendables. He even gave the Rock his blessing, sort of, in the Rundown when he passed him on his way out, a symbolic movement no doubt that a lot of people took to mean many different things. But whether you accept it or not, the former California governor has been an icon that has passed the torch to the next generation of movie stars. Strangely though there’s only be one successor that seems to have stood out from the rest, and that would be Dwayne Johnson.
The only problem with that is the fact that while Dwayne Johnson is a great actor and great at action, he hasn’t really found his foil as Arnold found his in Sylvester Stallone all those years ago. If you missed it the two have been trading jabs back and forth throughout the years regarding their movies and their fame. It kind of seems as they aged that it finally came to a head and their mutual respect showed through in movies like The Escape Plan and The Expendables movies. In the films they can’t really stand each other and for a lot of years that attitude was the unvarnished truth. But in this day and age they’re the old men that have finally found a way to show that respect and forget what came before.
Arnold’s sticking around for a while folks, as the operation went fine and he’s bound to be back on his feet eventually and being the guy we all love. C’mon, you can’t stop the Terminator.
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