Are ‘FUBAR’ and ‘True Lies’ Connected? Here’s What Arnold Had to Say About It

FUBAR is an action-comedy thriller TV show with Arnold Schwarzenegger starring in a television series for the first time. This action movie icon portrays Luke Brunner, an elderly CIA operative who successfully hid his true profession from his family. If this storyline sounds familiar and reminds you of some of Arnold’s previous projects, there is a good reason for that. Many fans noticed that FUBAR had a ‘vibe’ similar to the movie ‘True Lies,’ released almost thirty years ago. So, there have been some speculations that FUBAR and ‘True Lies’ might be connected. Let’s see if that is true and what Arnold himself had to say about it.

FUBAR and ‘True Lies’ are not connected. There are similarities in the overall theme, but the characters are different, and the storyline is not connected in any way. However, FUBAR’s executive producer did draw inspiration for FUBAR’s Luke Brunner from ‘True Lies’s main character, Harry Tasker.

Even though FUBAR and ‘True Lies’ are not connected, Arnold Schwarzenegger portrays ‘not to mess with’ spies in both projects. In FUBAR, he is Luke Brunner, a semi-retired CIA operative, and in ‘True Lies,’ he is 30 years younger and portrays Harry, a double agent at the peak of his strength. Let’s see more in detail the similarities between FUBAR and ‘True Lies and Arnold’s thoughts on the subject.

Both FUBAR and True Lies take us into the world of espionage

Arnold Schwarzenegger is an action movie icon. As an actor, he mostly gained popularity as a star actor in many action movies in the 1980s and 1990s. Some of his most iconic movies include ‘The Terminator’ movies, ‘Predator,’ ‘Commando,’ ‘Total Recall,’ and ‘True Lies.’

‘True Lies’ is an action-comedy, and Arnold portrays Harry Tasker, a government operative who lives a double life. On duty, he is a dangerous and capable spy, but his wife and daughter think he is a salesman who must travel a lot because of his work. From this alone, we can conclude that Harry is leading a life as a spy unknown to his family and has a family, a wife, Helen, and a daughter Dana.

In the movie, Helen experiences a midlife crisis, so Harry decides to stage a spy mission to provide her with a much-needed adventure. However, things don’t go as planned. The movie is entertaining and fun, so it is no wonder that many fans still remember it today, even though it was released almost 30 years ago in 1994.

FUBAR shows some similarities to the movie. It is a TV show and a spy action thriller with a dose of humor. In this one, Arnold portrays Luke Banner, an elderly CIA operative that spent his entire career working for the CIA and is now ready to retire. His job estranged him from his wife and his daughter, his wife divorced him, and he doesn’t get to see his daughter often. So he intends to remedy that once he retires.

The agency needs him to do one last job to extract another agent from harm’s way. There he learns that his daughter is also a CIA agent. They have to work together, dealing with father-daughter issues and generational differences. All of that leads to an unusual but entertaining team-up.

Comparing ‘True Lies’ and FUBAR, it is not unusual to think they might be connected. In both movies and the show, Arnold portrays a special agent, has a wife and a daughter, leads a double life, and the timeline fits perfectly. Coincidence or not, let’s see what Arnold thinks.

FUBAR’s executive producer suggested what kind of character Arnold should play

Arnold Schwarzenegger spent his entire career starring in action-packed movies, with fights, gunshots, and explosions being his thing. That’s what he does best; he can show off all his talents in projects like that. With that in mind, the idea of FUBAR was born.

Arnold said that he discussed it with David Ellison, FUBAR’s executive producer, and they wanted to create a character that would show his real age and where all his talents would be put to good use. And that is how the idea of a secret agent retiring emerged. Regarding Arnold’s age, it makes perfect sense to do something like that.

But the idea was not the original one. David Ellison was inspired by the movie ‘True Lies’ and Harry Tasker, Arnold’s character in the movie. However, they decided not to continue the storyline from 30 years ago and decided to create new characters and a new family around Luke Brunner. And that makes these two projects unconnected, even though FUBAR is loosely based on the movie.

In one of the recent interviews with Jake Hamilton, Arnold said he is very happy that he got to portray the character from ‘True Lies.’ He enjoyed the combination of humor and action, so he was thrilled when he was offered to star in FUBAR, which has a similar tone. ‘It was an absolute heaven for me,’ he said.

FUBAR will be available to stream on Netflix on May 25, with all eight episodes released simultaneously.