After Sylvester Stallone launched one lucrative Hollywood franchise with Rocky, he launched another one with First Blood. Audiences took a shine to Vietnam War veteran John J. Rambo, and after his initial appearance on the run from a small-town police force, he became an unstoppable killing machine who traveled the world, gunning down droves of henchmen.
There have since been five Rambo movies, culminating in 2019’s Last Blood, which promised to conclude the story, but left it open-ended in case Stallone ever wants to return to the role. These are some awesome action movies, with jaw-dropping set pieces and compelling characters.
Character: John J. Rambo
Rocky Balboa is undoubtedly Sylvester Stallone’s most iconic role, but John J. Rambo is a close second. The actor has said that he didn’t intend to make First Blood a political statement, but Rambo has been praised as a symbol of the mistreatment of Vietnam War veterans.
In the sequels, Rambo became a quintessential reluctant hero. He never wants to spring into action, but always ends up agreeing to help when he hears about the people in danger.
Action Sequence: The Helicopter Assault In First Blood
Although Rambo was later characterized as a ruthless killing machine, he was reluctant to kill anyone in First Blood. The police manhunt drives him into the woods, where he scales a cliff overlooking a creek. The only character who dies indirectly as a result of Rambo’s actions in the movie is a sadistic cop on board a helicopter who removes his safety harness to get a better shot of Rambo.
As the cop keeps shooting at Rambo, he’s forced to jump from the cliff into a tree below. He injures his arm but uses his other to launch a rock at the helicopter. The pilot loses control and the unharnessed shooter falls out and dies.
Character: Sheriff Will Teasle
If Rambo represents all the soldiers who came back from Vietnam and were met with antipathy, Sheriff Teasle represents the antipathetic institutions responsible for that social climate.
Character actor Brian Dennehy gives a terrific performance as Teasle, whether he’s chewing out Rambo or dealing with egg on his face as his attempts to contain the situation keep backfiring.
Action Sequence: Hijacking A Truck In First Blood
When the National Guard is brought out to the woods, they chase Rambo into an abandoned mine and then blow up the entrance to trap him inside. But he manages to find another way out and sees a supply truck holding an M60 machine gun and ammunition on its way back to town.
He hijacks the truck à la Indiana Jones, giving himself a huge advantage in his one-man crusade against small-town law enforcement.
Character: Sarah Miller
Sarah Miller, played by Dexter’s Julie Benz, is a sixth-grade teacher who travels to Burma with a church group in the hopes of helping the victims of the local militia.
She’s the only member of the group who actually tries to make conversation with Rambo, and is the one who convinces him to take them up the river to their destination.
Action Sequence: Rescuing Trautman In Rambo III
The main conflict in Rambo III sees Rambo heading to Afghanistan to liberate Colonel Trautman after he’s captured behind enemy lines. He effortlessly infiltrates the base where Trautman is being held and saves him just as he’s about to be tortured with a flamethrower.
Rambo and Trautman free a couple of other prisoners on their way out and manage to escape in the most spectacular way possible aboard a Hind gunship helicopter, which they promptly crash.
Character: Major Marshall Murdock
Major Marshall Murdock is the truly hateable CIA bureaucrat in charge of the mission in First Blood Part II. For starters, he claims to have served in the Marines, but Rambo pokes holes in his story and realizes he’s lying.
Although he claims to care about liberating POWs, Murdock turns out to be expecting Rambo to die on the mission. Not only does Rambo liberate all the POWs; he then returns to Murdock’s office with an attack helicopter to scare him straight.
Action Sequence: Liberating The POWs In First Blood Part II
In the stunning finale of First Blood Part II, Rambo hijacks Yushin’s helicopter and uses it to destroy the prison camp and all its guards before liberating the POWs and heading to Thailand. Rambo fakes a crash to throw off Podovsky, then heads back to base.
There, he tears up Murdock’s office with the helicopter’s machine guns, before confronting a terrified Murdock with an impassioned speech about the way soldiers are treated by the government.
Character: Colonel Sam Trautman
Colonel Trautman is the commanding officer who turned Rambo into a killing machine. When he gets the call that his soldier has taken on an entire town’s police force, he quips that the cops are the ones in trouble.
Richard Crenna always shared terrific chemistry with Sylvester Stallone in realizing Rambo and Trautman’s father-son dynamic on-screen.
Action Sequence: The Last Stand In Rambo (2008)
The fourth Rambo movie, simply titled Rambo, initially set a record for its on-screen body count. A huge contributing factor in this is the final battle, which sees Rambo getting at the helm of an M2 .50-cal. heavy machine gun and obliterating legions of Burmese henchmen.
The gory violence occasionally borders on the horrific, but it’s still easy to root for Rambo, given the true-to-life evils he’s fighting against.