Sylvester Stallone's director's cut of Rocky IV makes a number of alterations to the movie, with the Italian Stallion's brother-in-law Paulie (Burt Young) having a noticeably more minor role in the film. The movie sees Stallone's famed boxer Rocky Balboa battle the fearsome Russian boxer Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren) after his killing of Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) in the ring. In terms of both stakes and international scale, the Rocky franchise reached its then-peak with 1985's Rocky IV.

Decades later, Rocky IV remains one of the most recognized and iconic entries in the series, possibly even more so now with the Creed movies focusing on Rocky mentoring Apollo's son Adonis (Michael B. Jordan). Creed II even brought Drago back into the series, with his son Viktor (Florian Munteanu) facing Adonis in the ring. With Rocky IV having such an undeniable legacy, Stallone's announcement that he would be assembling and releasing his director's cut, titled Rocky IV: Rocky vs. Drago, excited many moviegoers eager to revisit Rocky's most challenging fight.

RELATED: Stallone's Original Fate For Ivan Drago After Rocky IV Was Way Darker

The new version of Rocky IV includes numerous new scenes, and focuses more sharply on Apollo's decision to fight Drago. It also drops other scenes from the original version, including Paulie's robot, well-known as the most bizarre element of Rocky IV, and arguably the entire Rocky film franchiseAs a side effect of the robot's absence, Paulie now has a more tertiary presence in Rocky IV. That isn't to say that Paulie's been excised altogether from Rocky IV. He still travels to Russia with his brother-in-law during his pre-fight training to face Drago, among a few other scenes. Still, Paulie's not in Rocky vs. Drago to the same extent that he was in the original.

Rocky IV Paulie Robot pic

The film being Stallone's director's cut, he may simply have felt that Paulie wasn't as crucial to the story as other characters. Both Apollo and Adrian's roles are notably more expanded upon, with more context given to Apollo's motivation for the infamously fatal fight. The Russian boxer Drago is also more humanized—a welcome change from the robot-like killing machine he was before, while Apollo's death and Rocky's fight with Drago also have new material added, along with other tweaks, additions, and subtractions.

Paulie's more secondary role is largely a byproduct of the robot being entirely removed from Stallone's cut. As previously mentioned, the robot was a weird plot device to work into a Rocky movie, and the source of decade's worth of jokes. While there isn't a night-and-day difference between the two versions of Rocky IV, Stallone's director's cut presents the fourth movie in the series through a new lens with a much less goofy tone that makes it a worthwhile experience for lovers of the long-running Rocky film series. Because of his ties to the robot, Paulie ends up being the character from Rocky IV now most on the periphery, but this was ultimately inevitable in Stallone's decision to remove the movie's most eyebrow-raising aspect.

NEXT: Rocky 4 Director's Cut: Every New Scene Explained

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