When you watch an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, you can count on two things: 1) that the stunts will be out of this world and 2) that you’ll laugh as Arnold emerges from near-death experiences relatively unscathed. And FUBAR, Schwarzenegger’s first foray into TV, is no exception. He plays Luke Brunner, a ringleader of a team of secret agents who fly in the face of danger — and have a blast doing it.

“His bread and butter is action and comedy,” says comedian Fortune Feimster, who plays CIA agent Roo. “Some of his most iconic movies, he got more into comedy and people were like, ‘Oh my God, he’s so funny.’ When you meld those two together, you have something really special, because not every action star can do comedy, and not every comedian can do action.”

🤐 SPOILER ALERT 🤐 

But artfully threading the needle through action and comedy is a difficult balance — just like Luke trying to protect his daughter, Emma (Monica Barbaro), while accepting her need for independence as a (surprise!) fellow operative. So how did the FUBAR team pull off making the stunts funny and heartfelt? It all stemmed from the character development woven into every action scene. “Action for action’s sake is not what I like at all,” says creator Nick Santora. “I really enjoy when there’s action that has comedy and character development wrapped into it.”

FUBAR handles serious topics like family drama and each character’s inner turmoil while still remaining lighthearted in tone. “Our show doesn’t take itself too seriously, which I think is really important,” says Travis Van Winkle, who plays CIA agent Aldon.

One of the most high-stakes action scenes was a stunt on a train, which required a certain level of magnetism to get right. The stunt was early in the series when Luke and Emma are struggling to work together, so they’re mandated to attend therapy sessions with Dr. Pfeffer (Scott Thompson). He gives them electromagnetic vests to wear as a metaphor for their relationship — the vests repel when they don’t listen to each other. “But if you just let all that go, you’re stuck together like tacos and Tuesday,” he says, as they smack together into a hug.

“Stuck together like tacos and Tuesday.”

Surprisingly, that setup scene where they slam into each other was a stunt sequence in itself. “Because it’s really hard to mimic that magnet effect in perfect timing, they had ropes and they just pulled us together,” explains Barbaro. “They had another rope to stop us from hitting too hard, and then they’d release when we were supposed to release. They removed those ropes out of the scene with special effects.”

Adds Schwarzenegger, “I felt really sorry for myself that I had to be smacked into Monica 15 times in a row.” But that all tees up the epic train stunt in Episode 3, where Luke and Emma wear the vests to stay connected to each other in order to complete a mission. The only way Emma won’t fly off the top of the train is if she stays bonded to her dad on the inside of the train. It’s the ultimate test of trust — knowing the other one can do their job while realizing it’s OK to ask for help, too.

Luke and Emma Put Their Magnetic Vests to the Test

“When we wrote in the magnetic vests, we knew that they would work,” says Santora. “I fought hard for it, because I knew that would be visually interesting, doing the gag on the train, and I knew that it would play on both ends, on the action end and on the heart end.”

The fact that Barbaro was a trained dancer was a boon for Santora, who commends her ability to perform so many of her own stunts. “It always helps to have had a dance background,” says Barbaro. “So yeah, I was really climbing on a train top with a bunch of fans in my face. It was pretty wild.”

Christos Kalohoridis/Netflix

A chip off the old block, Barbaro is now “bonded for life” to her stunt double, Ana Shepherd, who trained her and ensured her safety the whole way through. “She did exactly what I always do, become friends with the stunt team because they’re going to save your ass there,” says Schwarzenegger.

And yes, Schwarzenegger was really upside down, filming his portion on a separate day than Barbaro. “There were moments where we shot upside down, but I would say the majority was lying flat and just tilting the camera, making believe it’s upside down,” he says.

Christos Kalohoridis/Netflix

“But the thing is, you have to imagine being held up by a magnet that connects our two vests and how difficult it is to move — for her to move along that high-speed train that goes 160 miles an hour and for me to move simultaneously underneath that roof. That’s the key thing here.”

And it wasn’t just a difficult stunt for the father-daughter duo. Feimster says that although she and Van Winkle weren’t bound together by magnetic vests, the train scene was one of her hardest days on set. “Because the stakes were so high, they had to keep being like, ‘The world’s going to explode!’ Keeping that intensity for hours was definitely challenging for me.”

But the beauty of FUBAR is that everyone at one point or another got in on the action — even Milan Carter, who plays the squad’s “guy in the chair,” Barry. “I’ve never done stunts in my life,” he says. But as Feimster is quick to add, “We always wanted to be in any action scene. We were always chomping at the bit. Anytime the action went on without us, we were like, ‘Ah, come on!’ ”

Get in on all the action now that FUBAR is streaming on Netflix.

Additional reporting by Stephan Lee and Phillipe Thao.

FUBAR Season 1 TrailerSaving the world runs in the family.