Los Angeles — The veteran action stars of "The Expendables 2" say a stuntman's on-set death served as a reminder of the danger behind building big-screen thrills.

Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger star in the film, which plays as a throwback to their 1980s heyday. The actors emerge unscathed from massive, bloody shootouts to crack wry one-liners, including some recycled from their own decades-old blockbusters.

The film was also distinctively old-school in its approach to action, using minimal computer effects in favor of stunt work and real explosions. Stuntman Kun Liu, 26, was killed during one such sequence while filming at a dam last year in Bulgaria.

Mixed martial arts fighter-turned-actor Randy Couture said the death during the second-unit shoot "changed the mood on the movie for a couple weeks, for sure."

Stallone, who also co-wrote the script, told reporters this week in London that there had been deaths during...