10 Things You Didn’t Know About Exterminator 2

1984’s Exterminator 2 is a movie that gets lost in the Cannon shuffle. The film was released on the same day as Ninja III: The Domination and just two months prior to the release of Missing in Action, so it is easy to see how this one could slip through the cracks.

But fortunately it was not forgotten by the fine folks at Shout Factory, who not only released Exterminator 2 on DVD and Blu-Ray, but included a commentary in the special features with Director Mark Buntzman and the man who played X, the main antagonist in the film, Mario Van Peebles.

Exterminator 2 was a big role for Mario Van Peebles early on in his career and the movie would serve as the foundation of the friendship between Mario Van Peebles and Mark Buntzman as the two would work together again and Buntzman was even the godfather to one of Van Peeble’s children. Both men had a lot of interesting things to share as they reminisced about Exterminator 2 and now I’ll share some of their behind the scenes memories as I present, 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Exterminator 2…

1. Mario Van Peebles originally auditioned for the role of Be Gee, the friend and sidekick to Robert Ginty’s John Eastland. Director Mark Buntzman felt that MVP had too much charisma to be the sidekick and that he should come back and audition for the role of the villain. The Be Gee role ultimately went to Frankie Faison. 

2. Scott “Slo-motion” Randolph was performing on the streets of New York City when Buntzman approached him about being in a movie. Randolph, who had no prior acting experience,didn’t believe Buntzman was really a director. Buntzman eventually proved he was legit and Randolph would be cast as Eyes, X’s roller skating henchman in the film. 

3. One first time actor who knew exactly who Mark Buntzman was, was the guy who played the Head Mafioso… David Buntzman aka Mark Buntzman’s father. 

4.Mario Van Peebles designed his own wardrobe for the film. He described X’s look as Road Warrior meets Grace Jones and he described the character of X as a “street Jim Jones. 

5. Most of the film was shot in New York City by Mark Buntzman, but the scene that features the demise of X was shot in Los Angeles by Buntzman’s co-writer, William Sachs. Coincidentally, The Terminator was filming their big industrial themed climax right next door at the same time.

6. Even though Irwin Keyes’ character was killed in the first Exterminator (which Mark Buntzman produced), Buntzman enjoyed working with Keyes so much that he brought him back for the sequel as a completely different character. 

7. There is an extended breakdancing sequence in the film when our hero John Eastland (Robert Ginty) and his love interest Caroline (Deborah Geffner) are taking a stroll through Central Park. This would mark the first time breakdancing had appeared in a Canon film. Mark Buntzman claims that he is the one who convinced Menahem Golan to do an entire movie about breakdancing and Golan did… but he did so without Buntzman. That movie was of course the huge Cannon hit, Breakin’, which managed to beat Exterminator 2 (and Beat Street) to theaters. 

8. Mark Buntzman wanted to use the Eddy Grant song “Electric Avenue” in the movie, but Cannon was not willing to pay for the rights. 

9. Robert Ginty, who early on in his career had aspirations of being a Shakesperian actor, hated wearing the welding mask and actually only wore it for one shot in the film. The rest of the time it was Ginty’s stunt double that was filmed wearing the mask. 

10. Another difficult aspect of the shoot for Ginty was the love making scene between his character John Eastland and Caroline. Ginty had just gotten married two days prior so he was uncomfortable being in bed with another woman. Side note: If you are ever asked what day the Exterminator 2 love scene was shot, you should answer November 28th, 1983.