WWE's Undertaker Appeared In This Notorious Sci-Fi Movie Flop

Mark Calaway, better known as The Undertaker, hasn't taken the typical path for some of the biggest wrestlers from WWE's roster. Unlike Dave Batista ("Guardians of the Galaxy"), John Cena (in the excellent "Peacemaker"), or Dwayne Johnson, once the highest-paid actor ("Fast & Furious"), just to name the upper echelons of the wrestler-to-actor pipeline, The Undertaker has rarely made a film appearance. In 1991, he made one of his only on-screen appearances as Hutch, an intergalactic bounty hunter in Hulk Hogan's mildly amusing yet terrible, "Suburban Commando."

In the film, Calaway is sent to eliminate Shep Ramsey (Hogan), but ultimately fails. He's done away with in comical fashion, including a full "Looney Tunes" style hole in the wall through which he's rammed with his jet boots. Calaway is on screen for about five minutes in total across the whole movie, mainly featuring in the fight scene between him and Hogan.

"Suburban Commando" was poorly received and hasn't been looked on fondly since then. The semi-star-studded cast of Christopher Lloyd ("Back to the Future") and Shelley Duvall ("The Shining") couldn't prop this movie up. In a scathing one-star review, Roger Ebert said that he never tires of going to the movies, even if it is his job; however, leaving the cinema, he was "feeling kind of tired going to the movies." The movie also failed commercially, attracting $8 million against its $11 million budget.

Hulk Hogan, or Terry Bollea, was known for embellishment of the truth or outright lying about certain events in history. The long-time wrestler had made various claims, like being scouted to play bass for Metallica, or during his trial against Gawker Media, had to admit under oath that he doesn't have a 10-inch member. He also did this for "Suburban Commando" and The Undertaker as well, stating on X in 2020, that he had discovered Calaway while filming and referred him to Vince McMahon. Undertaker had already been signed at that point in time.

It was around this time that Hogan was attempting to make a movie career for himself, but wasn't successful. Aside from a classic cameo in "Gremlins 2" and appearing in "Rocky III," movies where he was the star were all poorly received family affairs, apart from the surprisingly violent "No Holds Barred." He would go on to star in other films like "Mr. Nanny" and "The Secret Agent Club" throughout the 1990s. The Undertaker, meanwhile, focused on his wrestling career, staying with WWE from his signing in 1990 until today.

While "Suburban Commando" might have been ragged on for years, it did create a short-lived, very niche meme. Doug Walker, better known as "The Nostalgia Critic" on YouTube, proliferated the in-joke through his review of the movie, and subsequent reviews, with Christopher Lloyd's line of "I was frozen today!" being used to end an argument, confuse, or just a simple mid-00s internet non-sequitur.

Hulk Hogan and The Undertaker would cross paths again in 1991. The young 'Taker was then head of WWE's (then WWF) Vince McMahon's next big project and would beat Hogan for the world championship, a year after debuting at the same pay-per-view event, "Survivor Series." This match has become notorious as an example of Hulk Hogan trying to keep his spot at the top of the pile.

During the match, The Undertaker performed his tombstone piledriver on Hogan, in which the other wrestler is held upside down and "dropped" on their head. In reality, Calaway cushions the fall by pressing the head on top of his thighs or holding the head between them as he falls. Hogan claims that he was held too tightly and suffered an injured neck because of it. The Undertaker retired from wrestling in 2020, opening up more via podcasts and documentaries since retiring the stoic character.

He now runs WWE's creative for its latest acquisition, Mexican wrestling federation, AAA. He has returned to the WWE ring intermittently, including to stop The Rock from interfering at "Wrestlemania." Hogan passed away in 2025 from a heart attack. After years of landing on his backside and wrestling nearly into his 60s, Hogan's body was in an awful state. Multiple surgeries and lifelong injuries finally caught up with him, as he died at the age of 71.