Sylvester Stallone tools up for his final battle as John Rambo in the new poster for Rambo: Last Blood. Thirty-seven years after Sly originated the role of troubled ex-Vietnam war veteran John Rambo, the actor is gearing up to play the character one more time in September's Last Blood. Written by Stallone and Matthew Cirulnick (Absentia), and directed by Adrian Grunberg (Get the Gringo), Last Blood follows Rambo as he battles Hugo Martinez (Sergio Peris-Mencheta), the head of a violent Mexican cartel that kidnapped his friend's daughter.
The Rambo: Last Blood teaser trailer that dropped in May was reminiscent of films like Unforgiven and Logan, in terms of both its western vibe and the way it showed Rambo attempting to make up for a lifetime of violence by using his deadly skills for one last noble cause. Last Blood unsurprisingly received an official R rating this week and promises to be as grisly and visceral as any of the other Rambo movies before it. That's certainly the tone that the new poster gives off, too.
Lionsgate has now released the latest Rambo: Last Blood one-sheet online for everyone to check out. For more on that, take a look in the space below.
Judging by the poster, Rambo will be as ready for war as he ever was in the upcoming sequel. The character has certainly traveled a long, hard road to get to where he is in the film - but, then again, the same thing could be said for Last Blood itself. Indeed, there were reports about a fifth Rambo movie being green-lit as far back as 2009, just one year after Rambo - which was originally meant to end the franchise - opened in theaters. However, in the decade that followed, Stallone went back and forth several times over about whether he was officially retired from playing Rambo or not. In the meantime, a Rambo TV series and film reboot were both put into development before being cancelled, and Sly even considered making Rambo 5 a sci-fi action movie that would've pitted Rambo against a mysterious creature (loosely based on the 1989 novel, Hunter).
That's all in the past now, though, and Last Blood has since either finished or nearly finished post-production ahead of its September theatrical release. It will certainly be interesting to see how the sequel is received in light of its seemingly political storyline, despite Sly's ongoing insistence that the Rambo movies (as often as they're accused of being jingoistic and conservative in their outlook) were never meant to be a political statement, and neither is Last Blood. Depending on how things play out, it could end the franchise on a high note... or leave fans wishing that Rambo really had just battled "The Predator" in Rambo: Last Blood instead.
Source: Lionsgate
