Armed with every weapon they can get their hands on, the Expendables are the world's last line of defense and the team that gets called when all other options are off the table.
The Expendables are sent to Libya to prevent mercenary Suarto Rahmat (Iko Uwais) from stealing detonators for nuclear warheads on behalf of a mysterious terrorist named Ocelot (Andy García). Rahmat and his forces had attacked an old chemical factory which was operational under Gaddafi's regime, but now is being used as a makeshift storage facility for his nuclear accessories, guarded by factions of the Libyan army.
Rahmat's private army is very well equipped and even has air cover from predatory drones. The Libyan forces are no match for Rahmat.CIA operative Marsh sends in the Expendables to retrieve the nuclear detonators. Marsh says that Ocelot is planning an international incident by pairing the detonators with nuclear warheads. Many years ago, the CIA hired Barney to expose Ocelot's identity. But Ocelot ambushed Barney and almost killed his entire team. Rumors persisted that Barney created the myth of Ocelot to bury his own mistakes.The Expendables team is led by Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone) and formed by members Lee Christmas (Jason Statham), Toll Road (Randy Couture), and Gunner Jensen (Dolph Lundgren), with new members Easy Day (Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson) and Galan (Jacob Scipio).
As soon as the Expendable's plane enters Libyan airspace, they are shot at with SAMs. Barney manages to land his plane, deploy the ground teams and takes off into the air again. Their age shows as Jensen takes 2 shots at Rahmat with his sniper rifle and misses due to his poor eyesight. However, they are incapacitated when all of their vehicles are destroyed in the ensuing fight.
When Barney's plane runs out of flares, Christmas tries to save Barney by abandoning pursuit of Rahmat and taking out the SAM sites targeting Barney's plane.
When Rahmat shoots their plane down with a large caliber gun, the team finds what appears to be Barney's burned corpse in the wreckage, identified solely by his ring.
Rahmat escapes with the detonators in a helicopter.At Barney's memorial service, CIA operative Marsh (Andy García) reveals that the team will pursue Ocelot and Rahmat, but without Christmas, who jeopardized the mission trying to save Barney.
Christmas is replaced by Gina (Megan Fox), his former lover, who also brings an operative named Lash (Levy Tran) into the team. The team travels to Asia to stop Rahmat from taking delivery of the other nuclear materials to assemble a warhead, but is secretly tracked by Christmas, who had slipped Gina a tracking device earlier. Barney's apparent death opened a sealed file which states that there is an eyewitness that could identify Ocelot. Marsh now knows the identity of the witness.Marsh says Ocelot plans to provoke World War III by letting the nuclear warheads explode in the Russian Far East, transporting them on a ship disguised as an American aircraft carrier. As the Expendables and Marsh board the ship, they are ambushed and taken hostage. Marsh is taken away to negotiate a prisoner-exchange for the eyewitness. Rahmat offers to release Marsh in exchange for the witness who can identify Ocelot.Meanwhile, Christmas travels to Thailand to recruit former Expendable Decha (Tony Jaa), who has turned towards pacifism but agrees to bring him to the ship to avenge Barney. As Christmas fights his way through the ship, Decha has a change of heart and helps him rescue the rest of the team. The team finds a nuclear bomb on board and the only way to disarm it is with a kill switch which works on a short range only. The team speculates that Rahmat would have the kill switch on his person.They launch an attack on Rahmat's forces, during which Christmas fights and kills him. Before dying Rahmat says that he does not have the kill switch and only Ocelot has it. However, Toll has been heavily wounded and needs immediate medical care.During the prisoner exchange, Marsh is revealed to be Ocelot when he kills the witness, hoping to financially profit from igniting World War III. The ship was headed for Russian waters where detonating the warhead would be perceived as an act of war against the Russian people by the Americans.Christmas starts by blowing up the helicopter on which the witness was brought in on the ship, and which was Marsh's escape vehicle.
Marsh responds by throwing the detonator in the ocean which makes sure that the bomb is going off. While the team leaves on Decha's boat (which was being towed behind the ship) to save Toll, Christmas stays behind to turn the ship around to avoid a global conflict by steering the ship out of Russian waters.Marsh directs all of his remaining forces to the bridge to try and turn the ship back around. But all the soldiers are neutralized by a mysterious helicopter gunship.
Christmas confronts Marsh, who is killed by Barney, who surprises everyone by revealing that he faked his death, hoping to lure Ocelot out of hiding. Barney rescues Christmas off the ship and then blows the ship apart forcing it to sink under the water.
They escape the nuclear explosion on the helicopter and celebrate with the team.
Storyline
A new generation of stars join the world's top action stars for an adrenaline-fueled adventure in Expend4bles. Reuniting as the team of elite mercenaries, Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren, Randy Couture, and Sylvester Stallone are joined for the first time by Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson, Megan Fox, Tony Jaa, Iko Uwais, Jacob Scipio, Levy Tran, and Andy Garcia. Armed with every weapon they can get their hands on and the skills to use them, The Expendables are the world's last line of defense and the team that gets called when all other options are off the table. But new team members with new styles and tactics are going to give "new blood" a whole new meaning. — Lionsgate