The film stars an ensemble cast consisting of Jason Statham, Sylvester Stallone, Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson, Megan Fox, Dolph Lundgren, Tony Jaa, Iko Uwais, Randy Couture and Andy Garcia.

The Expendables are sent to Libya to prevent mercenary Suarto Rahmat from stealing nuclear warheads for a mysterious terrorist named Ocelot.

The team is led by Barney Ross and formed of members Lee Christmas, Toll Road, and Gunner Jensen, with Easy Day and Galan as their recruits.

When Rahmat shoots their plane down, the team finds what appears to be Barney's burned corpse in the wreckage, identified solely by his ring.

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.

Meanwhile, Christmas travels to Thailand to recruit former Expendable Decha, who has turned towards pacifism but agrees to bring him to the ship to avenge Barney.

While the team leaves on Decha's boat to save Toll, Christmas stays behind to turn the ship around to avoid a global conflict.

[14] In December 2016, Sylvester Stallone announced that the fourth installment would be the final film in the series, while a scheduled tentative release date was set for 2018.

[16] In January 2018, after vocal support from other cast members (including Arnold Schwarzenegger), Stallone announced his return to the series with a post to his social media platforms; confirming new developments on the fourth movie.

[18] In November 2020, the president of Millennium Media, Jeffrey Greenstein, stated that the studio was continuing to work on The Expendables 4 after various delays within the industry worldwide due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

[22] Production was tentatively scheduled to begin by April 2019, though it wasn't until July of that year that Stallone announced that he was continuing to work on the script for the project.

[25] By April of the same year, Sylvester Stallone revealed his first choice for the villain was Jack Nicholson, while mentioning his interest in convincing Clint Eastwood to join the production.

[34] On the other hand, Terry Crews, who had starred in all previous films, refused to appear in any new entries after claiming he was sexually assaulted by Stallone's agent, Adam Venit, alleging he was pressured by producer Avi Lerner to drop the case if he wanted to stay in the series.

[a] When asked why they chose this title, producer Les Weldon stated that it had always been the filmmakers' desire while retaining The Expendables's brand identity.

The website's consensus reads: "Solid work from Jason Statham and some halfway decent set pieces aren't enough to make up for Expend4bles' lackluster action and cheap-looking effects.

[69][70] Simon Thompson of IGN voiced similar complaints, stating: "the special effects, [...] look either unfinished or just so bad that it's sad, [...] like they were ripped from the graphics package of a mid-to-low-budget video game from the early 2000s".

Thompson called the "clunky and uninspired dialogue" awful, concluding that the film was overall a "crushing disappointment that lacks any of the nostalgia, charisma, and charm that made the franchise appealing".

[71] Todd McCarthy of Deadline criticized that the movie was lazily executed, feeling that especially the final battle was an exact copy of Meg 2, another 2023 action film starring Statham.