Here’s our first look at Arnold Schwarzenegger in The Last Stand (plus a detailed plot synopsis)

Arnold Schwarzenegger hasn’t had a lead role in a movie since 2003 (TERMINATOR 3: RISE OF THE MACHINES). I know why he hasn’t, but it’s still just the strangest thought. And even with THE EXPENDABLES 2 coming up in a mere few weeks, that’s still not a leading role. And certainly not in the way he has with THE LAST STAND, notable also for being the English-language debut of Jee-woon Kim (I SAW THE DEVIL; THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE WEIRD).

Today’s picture from THE LAST STAND isn’t anything too spectacular in terms of photography or particularly revelatory about the movie, but it’s a solid shot of Schwarzenegger and further proof that we’re really going to get a movie starring Schwarzenegger again on January 18th, 2013.

And in an interesting reversal for the action star, he’ll be playing a character who “hasn’t had to flex his muscles in a while. So when the gangsters come to town, it’s a big test.” This sentiment has also been echoed by producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura with the observation that “when [the sheriff] leaps and tackles someone, it’s not simple to get back up. You see a new side of [Schwarzenegger]. He doesn’t feel indestructible. You’re rooting for him more because he’s more like us, and he gets up and keeps on going. When he needs to be Arnold, he’s Arnold.”

Here’s a plot synopsis packed full of detail heretofore unkown about where Arnold’s adventures in THE LAST STAND would take him (and us): Schwarzenegger stars as Sheriff Owens, a man who has resigned himself to a life of fighting what little crime takes place in sleepy border town Sommerton Junction after leaving his LAPD post following a bungled operation that left him wracked with failure and defeat after his partner was crippled. After a spectacular escape from an FBI prisoner convoy, the most notorious, wanted drug kingpin in the hemisphere is hurtling toward the border at 200 mph in a specially outfitted car with a hostage and a fierce army of gang members. He is headed, it turns out, straight for Summerton Junction, where the whole of the U.S. law enforcement will have their last opportunity to make a stand and intercept him before he slips across the border forever. At first reluctant to become involved, and then counted out because of the perceived ineptitude of his small town force, Owens ultimately accepts responsibility for one of the most daring face offs in cinema history.

UPDATE: Added new image, thanks to Schwarzenegger.com.