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Rambo: First Blood Part II

Rambo: First Blood Part II is a 1985 American action film directed by George P. Cosmatos and co-written by Sylvester Stallone, who also reprises his role as Vietnam War veteran John Rambo. A sequel to First Blood (1982), it is the second installment in the Rambo franchise, followed by Rambo III. It co-stars Richard Crenna, who reprises his role as Colonel Sam Trautman, along with Charles Napier, Julia Nickson, and Steven Berkoff.

Rambo: First Blood Part II
Theatrical release poster
Directed byGeorge P. Cosmatos
Screenplay bySylvester Stallone
James Cameron
Story byKevin Jarre
Based onJohn Rambo
by David Morrell
Produced byBuzz Feitshans
Starring
CinematographyJack Cardiff
Edited by
Music byJerry Goldsmith
Production
companies
Distributed byTri-Star Pictures[2]
Release date
  • May 22, 1985 (1985-05-22) (United States)
Running time
96 minutes[3]
CountryUnited States[4]
LanguageEnglish
Budget$25.5 million[5]
Box office$300.4 million[6]

The film's plot is inspired by the Vietnam War POW/MIA issue. In the movie, Rambo gets released from prison in a deal with the United States government to document the possible existence of missing POWs in Vietnam, but is given strict orders not to rescue any. When Rambo defies his orders, he is abandoned and forced once again to rely on his own brutal combat skills to save the POWs.

Despite mixed reviews, Rambo: First Blood Part II was a major worldwide box office blockbuster, with an estimated 42 million tickets sold in the United States. It has become one of the most recognized and memorable installments in the series, having inspired countless rip-offs, parodies, video games, and imitations. Entertainment Weekly ranked the movie number 23 on its list of "The Best Rock-'em, Sock-'em Movies of the Past 25 Years".[7]

Plot

Three years after the incident in Hope, Washington, former US Army Green Beret John Rambo, now imprisoned at a penal labor facility, receives a visit from his former mission commander and old friend, Colonel Sam Trautman. With the Vietnam War now officially over, the public has become increasingly concerned over news that US POWs have been left in enemy custody in Vietnam. To placate their demands for action, the US government has authorized a solo infiltration mission to confirm the reports. Rambo agrees to undertake the operation in exchange for a pardon.

In Thailand, Rambo is taken to meet Marshall Murdock, the bureaucrat overseeing the operation. He is temporarily reinstated into the US Army and instructed only to take pictures of a suspected POW camp, not to attempt their rescue or engage any enemy personnel. He is told that any POWs are to be retrieved by a better-equipped extraction team upon his return.

During his aerial insertion, Rambo's parachute gets caught in the airplane door, forcing him to cut himself free and jettison most of his equipment, leaving him with only his knives, bow and arrows. He meets his assigned contact, a young female Vietnamese intelligence agent named Co Bao, who arranges for a local band of river pirates to take them upriver. Reaching the army camp, Rambo sees that it is not deserted and sneaks inside, spotting a group of POWs. When he finds one of them tied to a cross-shaped post, suffering from exposure, he frees him against orders and flees with Co and the POW.

During their escape, they are discovered by Vietnamese troops and cut off by an armed gunboat. The river pirates betray the two, intending to hand them over to the Vietnamese troops. But Rambo kills the pirates and destroys the gunboat with an RPG, while the POW and Co Bao swim to safety. Rambo asks Co to stay behind shortly before they reach the Extraction Point. When the approaching rescue helicopter, with Col. Trautman inside, radios back to base that Rambo appears to have found a POW, Murdock orders the crew to abort the rescue. Trautman, held at gunpoint by the side gunner, is powerless to intercept the crew from abandoning Rambo and the POW. Co watches as they are both captured and returned to the Vietnamese camp.

When Trautman confronts him, Murdock reveals that he never intended to save any POWs, explaining that Congress expected Rambo to find nothing, and admitting that even if he did, Murdock would dispose of any photographic evidence or even leave Rambo to die in the jungle. He removes Trautman from the mission to keep him from helping Rambo.

In captivity, Rambo soon realizes that Soviet troops are working with the Vietnamese army. He is interrogated by the local Soviet liaison, Lieutenant Colonel Podovsky, and his right-hand man, Sergeant Yushin. Having learned from intercepted missives that Rambo's extraction was aborted, Podovsky demands that Rambo broadcast a message to Murdock warning against any further POW rescue missions. Rambo refuses, and as Co infiltrates the camp disguised as a prostitute, he is brutally tortured with electric shocks.

After initially refusing to cooperate, Rambo finally relents when the prisoner he tried to rescue is brought in and threatened with eye-gouging. Rambo dials in his secret radio code frequency to contact his base, but uses the opportunity to directly threaten Murdock, then overpowers his Soviet captors and escapes the camp with Co's help. Rambo agrees to take Co to the United States, and they kiss. As they start moving again, a small Vietnamese force attacks the pair and Co is killed during the assault. An enraged Rambo guns down the soldiers and buries Co in the mud.

Rambo snaps and, using his knife and bow, systematically dispatches the numerous Soviet and Vietnamese soldiers sent after him, even using an explosive arrow to blow up the Vietnamese officer who killed Co. After surviving a barrel bomb dropped by Sgt. Yushin's helicopter, Rambo clambers aboard and fights him, throwing him out of the cabin to his death. Faced with Rambo's knife, the pilot quickly jumps out of the cockpit and Rambo takes control. He lays waste to the prison camp using helicopter rockets and machine gun fire, wiping out the remaining enemy forces before extracting all of the POWs and flying towards friendly territory in Thailand.

Podovsky, pursuing in a helicopter gunship, fires at Rambo's chopper, seemingly disabling it. But when the gunship moves in for the kill, Rambo, who had faked the crash of his helicopter, uses a rocket launcher to destroy the gunship, killing Podovsky. After returning to base with the POWs, Rambo uses the helicopter's machine gun to destroy Murdock's office and confronts the terrified bureaucrat with his knife, demanding that Murdock rescue the remaining POWs.

Trautman tries to convince Rambo to return home, now that he has been pardoned. When he refuses, Trautman asks Rambo what he wants. An irate Rambo responds that he only wants his country to love its soldiers as much as its soldiers love it. Trautman then asks Rambo how he will live, to which Rambo tersely replies, "Day by day". With that, the film credits roll as Rambo walks off into the distance.

Cast

Production

Development and writing

Development of a sequel to First Blood began when Carolco Pictures sold foreign distribution rights to distributors in Europe and Japan in 1983, initially scheduling the film for a December 1984 release. It was later rescheduled for August 1, 1985.[8] Producers wanted Rambo to have a partner for the POW rescue mission. They allegedly wanted John Travolta to play Rambo's sidekick, but Stallone vetoed the idea.[9] Lee Marvin (who had been considered for the role of Colonel Trautman in the first film) was offered the role of Marshall Murdock, but declined, and the role was given to Charles Napier.

Then up-and-coming screenwriter Kevin Jarre had written a story treatment that was liked by both the producers and Stallone, as Jarre later recalled in an interview in the documentary Tinsel – The Lost Movie About Hollywood:

"I wrote the first draft of "Rambo". And I just did it, I was living on dog food at the time and I, you know, I needed a gig and I wanted to finish a spec script I was writing. And you know, they called, Stallone called me in and they had this idea about what they should do in the sequel to "First Blood" and I said, "Well, how about if maybe he searches for POWs in Southeast Asia and back in Vietnam? He said "Great, let’s do it"

James Cameron was then hired to pen a first draft of the screenplay (Cameron had been recommended by David Giler, who did some uncredited script work on the first film) which he was concurrently writing along with The Terminator and Aliens, both of which he would go on to direct. Cameron's first draft was titled First Blood II: The Mission.[10] According to Cameron, his script had the same basic structure of the first film, but was more violent than its predecessor. Cameron was quoted in an October 1986 issue of Monsterland magazine:

"It was quite a different film from FIRST BLOOD, apart from the continuation of the Rambo character. The first one was set in a small town, it had a different social consciousness from the second one, which was a very broad, stylized adventure. It was a little more violent in its execution than I had in mind in the writing"

Following Cameron’s initial draft, Stallone would take over scriptwriting duties, creating a final draft which differed from previous versions. Jarre would receive sole story credit, while Stallone and Cameron would get credited for the screenplay in the final film.

Stallone later recalled:

I think that James Cameron is a brilliant talent, but I thought the politics were important, such as a right-wing stance coming from Trautman and his nemesis, Murdock, contrasted by Rambo's obvious neutrality, which I believe is explained in Rambo's final speech. I realize his speech at the end may have caused millions of viewers to burst veins in their eyeballs by rolling them excessively, but the sentiment stated was conveyed to me by many veterans. ... [Also] in his original draft it took nearly 30–40 pages to have any action initiated and Rambo was partnered with a tech-y sidekick. So it was more than just politics that were put into the script. There was also a simpler story line. If James Cameron says anything more than that, then he realizes he's now doing the backstroke badly in a pool of lies.[11]

Before filming started, Stallone went through torturous trainings to build the perfect musculature. Writer David J. Moore said in the 2019 documentary film In Search of the Last Action Heroes: "Here's a guy who went against the grain in everything that he ever did. Here's a guy who transformed himself, literally; he chiseled his own body into this statuesque, muscular specimen."[12]: 42:00 

Filming

The film was shot between June and August 1984 on location in the state of Guerrero, Mexico, and Thailand. While vacationing in Acapulco, Ron South was hired on as assistant editor and thus his film career began here. During filming, special effects man Clifford P Wenger, Jr. was accidentally killed during one of the film's waterfall explosions, when he lost his footing and fell to his death.

Music

Rambo: First Blood Part II (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Film score by
Released1985
ProducerJerry Goldsmith
Jerry Goldsmith chronology
Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
(1985)
Rambo: First Blood Part II (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
(1985)
Explorers: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
(1985)

The musical score was composed by Jerry Goldsmith, conducting the British National Philharmonic Orchestra, although Goldsmith also made heavy use of electronic synthesized elements. The main song is sung by Stallone's brother, singer-songwriter Frank Stallone. Record label Varèse Sarabande issued the original soundtrack album.

  1. Main Title (2:12)
  2. Preparations (1:16)
  3. The Jump (3:18)
  4. The Snake (1:48)
  5. Stories (3:26)
  6. The Cage (3:55)
  7. Betrayed (4:22)
  8. Escape from Torture (3:39)
  9. Ambush (2:45)
  10. Revenge (6:14)
  11. Bowed Down (1:04)
  12. Pilot Over (1:52)
  13. Home Flight (3:01)
  14. Day by Day (2:06)
  15. Peace in Our Life – music by Frank Stallone, Peter Schless, and Jerry Goldsmith; lyrics by Frank Stallone; performed by Frank Stallone (3:18)

As released in the United Kingdom by That's Entertainment Records (the British licensee for Varèse Sarabande at the time), the UK version placed "Peace in Our Life" between "Betrayed" and "Escape from Torture", thus making "Day by Day" the final track.

In 1999, Silva America released an expanded edition with the cues in film order.

  1. Main Title (2:14)
  2. The Map (1:09)
  3. Preparations (1:18)
  4. The Jump (3:19)
  5. The Snake (1:49)
  6. The Pirates (1:29)
  7. Stories (3:27)
  8. The Camp/Forced Entry (2:24)
  9. The Cage (3:57)
  10. River Crash/The Gunboat (3:37)
  11. Betrayed (4:24)
  12. Bring Him Up/The Eyes (2:06)
  13. Escape from Torture (3:41)
  14. Ambush (2:47)
  15. Revenge (6:16)
  16. Bowed Down (1:06)
  17. Pilot Over (1:54)
  18. Village Raid/Helicopter Flight (4:55)
  19. Home Flight (3:02)
  20. Day By Day (2:08)
  21. Peace in Our Life (3:19) – Frank Stallone

Release

Marketing

Unusually for the time, a teaser trailer for the sequel—then titled First Blood Part II: The Mission—was released in 3,000 theaters in the summer of 1984, over a year before the scheduled release date of August 1, 1985, and several months before any footage for the film was completed. Producer Mario Kassar arranged this to capitalize off the popularity of the first film.[13][8] The sequel was also marketed through merchandising, with posters of Rambo selling rapidly. Although the film was rated R and directed at adults, tie-in toys were created for it.[8]

Home media

The video sold 425,000 units, a record for a tape with a retail price of $79.95.[14][15]

Rambo: First Blood Part II was released on DVD on November 23, 2004, and a Blu-ray release followed on May 23, 2008.[16] Rambo: First Blood Part II was released on 4K UHD Blu-ray on November 13, 2018.[17]

Reception

Box office

Rambo: First Blood Part II opened in the United States on May 22, 1985, in a then-record 2,074 theaters, becoming the first film to be released to over 2,000 theaters in the United States, and was the number one film that weekend, grossing $20,176,217. Overall, the film grossed $150,415,432 in the US and Canada, and $149,985,000 internationally, for a worldwide total of $300,400,432.[6] The movie broke various international box office records.[18] It set an opening weekend record in the United Kingdom with a gross of £1,085,513 from 322 screens, surpassing the record set by E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.[19] In France, the film had a record opening day with 269,564 admissions and a record week with 2,075,238 admissions.[20][21]

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 33% based on 45 reviews. The site's consensus is "First Blood Part II offers enough mayhem to satisfy genre fans, but remains a regressive sequel that turns its once-compelling protagonist into just another muscled action berserker."[22] On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 47 out of 100 based on reviews from 15 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[23]

Vincent Canby of The New York Times called the film "almost as opportunistic as the Congressman it pretends to abhor. In spite of everything it says, it's much less interested in the M.I.A. question than it is in finding a topical frame for the kind of action-adventure film in which Mr. Stallone — his torso and his vacant stare — can do what his fans like best. That is, fight, outwit and kill, usually all by himself, dozens of far-better armed but lesser mortals."[24] Variety wrote, "The charade on the screen, which is not pulled off, is to accept that the underdog Rambo character, albeit with the machine-gun wielding help of an attractive Vietnamese girl, can waste hordes of Viet Cong and Red Army contingents en route to hauling POWs to a Thai air base in a smoking Russian chopper with only a facial scar (from a branding iron-knifepoint) marring his tough figure. You never even see him eating in this fantasy, as if his body feeds on itself."[25] Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film three stars out of four and called it "very good at what it does, but what it does isn't always that good", referring to the depiction of the enemy as going "back to the image of the Yellow Peril, to the notion that white is right and other colors are wrong."[26] Michael Wilmington of the Los Angeles Times wrote, "If a character can seemingly do anything, it's hard to feel tension or concern about his fate. (At least Superman had kryptonite.) We are left with nothing but detached aesthetic appreciation: watching Rambo race through several million dollars worth of explosions and aerial attacks, coruscant fireballs billowing everywhere and bodies flying hither and yon. Except for anyone irretrievably into violent power fantasies, this will probably soon pall."[27] Pauline Kael commented in The New Yorker, "The director, George P. Costmatos, gives this near-psychotic material—a mixture of Catholic iconography and Soldier of Fortune pulp—a veneer of professionalism, but the looniness is always there."[28] Paul Attanasio of The Washington Post wrote, "At best, Rambo: First Blood Part II is a crudely effective right-wing rabble-rouser, the artistic equivalent of carpet bombing—you don't know whether to cheer or run for cover. At worst, it's a tribute to Sylvester Stallone, by Sylvester Stallone, starring Sylvester Stallone."[29]

The film is listed in Golden Raspberry Award founder John Wilson's book The Official Razzie Movie Guide as one of The 100 Most Enjoyably Bad Movies Ever Made.[30]

Accolades

Legacy

The film was referenced in the 1985 episode of The Golden Girls, titled "On Golden Girls". Female characters seem to be aroused by John Rambo's muscular physique, and Sophia Petrillo (Estelle Getty) says: "I sat through it twice. You'll love it! He sweats like a pig and he doesn't put his shirt on!"[31][32]

Other media

Sequel

A sequel titled Rambo III, was released in 1988.

Novelization

David Morrell, author of First Blood, the novel the first Rambo film is based on, wrote a novelization called Rambo: First Blood Part II.

Video games

A tie-in video game called Rambo was produced for ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC and Commodore 64. There was also Rambo for NES, as well as a Rambo: First Blood Part II for Sega. MSX and DOS games were based on the film. Sega later adapted some of the battle scenes in the film for the 2008 arcade game, Rambo. In 2014, Rambo: The Video Game, based on the first three Rambo films, was released.

The 1986, run-and-gun shooter arcade hit Ikari Warriors was originally intended by its developer SNK to be an official licensed adaptation of Rambo. However, they were initially unable to acquire the rights to the film. This resulted in the game's title being changed to Ikari, referencing part of the film's Japanese title, Rambo: Ikari no Dasshutsu ("Rambo: The Furious Escape"). After the game made its North American debut at an arcade game expo, they managed to get in touch with Sylvester Stallone about acquiring the rights to the film. However, it was too late by that point, as the game had already become popularly known by its Japanese Ikari title among arcade players in Japan and North America, which led to the game's official release as Ikari Warriors in North America. Stallone was friends with SNK's president at the time, and owned an Ikari Warriors arcade cabinet.[33]

In popular culture

  • Missing in Action, an American film inspired by Rambo: First Blood Part II[34]
  • Strike Commando, an Italian film described as an imitation of Rambo: First Blood Part II[35]
  • Hot Shots! Part Deux, an American parody film of Rambo: First Blood Part II and Rambo III with the colonel role reprised by Richard Crenna[36]
  • Second Blood, a Kuwaiti action film inspired by Rambo: First Blood Part II[37][38][39]
  • UHF is a 1989 comedy-parody film starring "Weird Al" Yankovic as a low-budget television station manager. Late in the film, Yankovic's character, George Newman, has a fantasy in which he envisions himself as a Rambo-type soldier on mission to rescue Stanley Spadowski (Michael Richards) from a rival station owner's goons, during which Yankovic wears a muscular body suit to imitate Stallone's physique. The fantasy sequence is a parody exaggeration of the action sequences in about the last third of Rambo: First Blood Part II. Stallone himself had initially agreed to make a cameo appearance in the sequence, but ultimately declined to do so.[40]

References

  1. ^ "Los estudios Churubusco, un sendero con historia". Excelsior. September 14, 2015. Retrieved September 14, 2015.
  2. ^ "Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985)". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. Retrieved October 3, 2018.
  3. ^ "RAMBO – FIRST BLOOD PART II (15)". British Board of Film Classification. May 28, 1985. Retrieved October 25, 2014.
  4. ^ "Film #14948: Rambo: First Blood Part II". Lumiere. Retrieved March 21, 2021.
  5. ^ ALJEAN HARMETZ (December 7, 1989). "It's Fade-Out for the Cheap Film As Hollywood's Budgets Soar: It's Fade-Out for Films Once Made on the Cheap". New York Times. p. C19.
  6. ^ a b "Rambo: First Blood Part II". Box Office Mojo. Internet Movie Database. Retrieved October 25, 2014.
  7. ^ . Entertainment Weekly at Wayback Machine. January 30, 2009. Archived from the original on February 3, 2009. Retrieved October 1, 2015.
  8. ^ a b c "Rambo: First Blood Part II". catalog.afi.com. Retrieved June 11, 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  9. ^ We Get to Win This Time, 2002, Artisan Entertainment
  10. ^ BROESKE, P. H. (October 27, 1985). "THE CURIOUS EVOLUTION OF JOHN RAMBO". Los Angeles Times. ProQuest 154252710.
  11. ^ headgeek (December 16, 2006). "Stallone answers December 9th & 10th Questions in a double round – plus Harry's Seen ROCKY BALBOA ..." Aint It Cool News.
  12. ^ In Search of the Last Action Heroes. Gravitas Ventures. 2019.
  13. ^ "US News: BRIEFLY – 'First Blood II' Trailers Filmed." Screen International, no. 451, June 23, 1984, pp. 6.
  14. ^ Bierbaum, Tom (May 21, 1986). "'Future' Cassettes Fail To Approach 500,000-Unit Goal". Variety. p. 1.
  15. ^ Schnurmacher, Thomas (March 29, 1986). "Students put their heads together for new driving service". Montreal Gazette. p. 35. Retrieved February 26, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. ^ "Rambo: First Blood Part II DVD Release Date". DVDs Release Dates. Retrieved November 11, 2018.
  17. ^ "Rambo: First Blood Part II – 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Ultra HD Review | High Def Digest". ultrahd.highdefdigest.com. Retrieved November 11, 2018.
  18. ^ Tasker, Yvonne (October 2, 2012). Spectacular Bodies: Gender, Genre and the Action Cinema. ISBN 9781134873005.
  19. ^ "No shellshock as Rambo III bursts in at the top". Screen International. September 3, 1988. p. 24.
  20. ^ Groves, Don (November 1, 1993). "French B.O. warms up to 'Jurassic'". Variety. p. 14.
  21. ^ Groves, Don (October 28, 1993). "'Jurassic' passes $450 mil o'seas". Daily Variety. p. 30.
  22. ^ "Rambo: First Blood Part II". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved August 24, 2022.
  23. ^ "Rambo: First Blood Part II". Metacritic. Retrieved August 1, 2020.
  24. ^ Canby, Vincent (May 26, 1985). "'Rambo' Delivers A Revenge Fantasy". The New York Times. H11.
  25. ^ "Film Reviews: Rambo: First Blood Part II". Variety. May 22, 1985. 14.
  26. ^ Siskel, Gene (May 22, 1985). "'Rambo': Cinematic soldiering whitewashes Vietnam". Chicago Tribune. Section 5, p. 1, 3.
  27. ^ Wilmington, Michael (May 22, 1985). "Why a 'Rambo II'? For Muddiest of Reasons". Los Angeles Times. Part VI, p. 1, 6.
  28. ^ Kael, Pauline (June 17, 1985). "The Current Cinema". The New Yorker. 117.
  29. ^ Attansasio, Paul (May 22, 1985). "'Rambo': New Blood, Old Moves". The Washington Post. F1.
  30. ^ Wilson, John (2005). The Official Razzie Movie Guide: Enjoying the Best of Hollywood's Worst. Grand Central Publishing. ISBN 0-446-69334-0.
  31. ^ "The Golden Girls quotes". Quotes.net. Retrieved July 21, 2021.
  32. ^ "On Golden Girls S1E6". Oh Shut Up Rose!. Retrieved July 21, 2021.
  33. ^ "「怒」を作った男" [The Man Who Made "Ikari"]. Continue. March 2001.
  34. ^ "War Movie Mondays, Missing in Action Movie Review". The Flick Cast. May 16, 2011. Retrieved July 7, 2012.
  35. ^ Lor. (1991). Variety's Film Reviews 1987–1988. Vol. 20. R. R. Bowker. There are no page numbers in this book. This entry is found under the header "November 25, 1987". ISBN 0-8352-2667-0.
  36. ^ Ebert, Roger (May 21, 1993). "Hot Shots, Part Deux". Rogerebert.com. Retrieved January 13, 2014.
  37. ^ "Kuvajtský profesionál Abdulhadi Al-Khayat: fotografování v posilovně"
  38. ^ "Kuwejcki film inspirowany serią 'Rambo' zyskuje datę premiery"
  39. ^ "Ten actors that almost portrayed John Rambo on screen". Prime Movies. July 28, 2022. Retrieved July 29, 2022.
  40. ^ Cotter, Padraig (February 19, 2022). "Why Stallone Backed Out Of A Cameo In UHF's Rambo Parody Sequence". Screen Rant. from the original on February 19, 2022. Retrieved March 26, 2022.

External links

rambo, first, blood, part, this, article, about, 1985, film, video, game, master, system, video, game, rambo, redirects, here, confused, with, raambo, 1985, american, action, film, directed, george, cosmatos, written, sylvester, stallone, also, reprises, role,. This article is about the 1985 film For the video game see Rambo First Blood Part II Master System video game Rambo 2 redirects here Not to be confused with Raambo 2 Rambo First Blood Part II is a 1985 American action film directed by George P Cosmatos and co written by Sylvester Stallone who also reprises his role as Vietnam War veteran John Rambo A sequel to First Blood 1982 it is the second installment in the Rambo franchise followed by Rambo III It co stars Richard Crenna who reprises his role as Colonel Sam Trautman along with Charles Napier Julia Nickson and Steven Berkoff Rambo First Blood Part IITheatrical release posterDirected byGeorge P CosmatosScreenplay bySylvester StalloneJames CameronStory byKevin JarreBased onJohn Ramboby David MorrellProduced byBuzz FeitshansStarringSylvester Stallone Richard Crenna Charles Napier Steven BerkoffCinematographyJack CardiffEdited byMark Goldblatt Mark HelfrichMusic byJerry GoldsmithProductioncompaniesCarolco Pictures Anabasis Investments N V Estudios Churubusco 1 Distributed byTri Star Pictures 2 Release dateMay 22 1985 1985 05 22 United States Running time96 minutes 3 CountryUnited States 4 LanguageEnglishBudget 25 5 million 5 Box office 300 4 million 6 The film s plot is inspired by the Vietnam War POW MIA issue In the movie Rambo gets released from prison in a deal with the United States government to document the possible existence of missing POWs in Vietnam but is given strict orders not to rescue any When Rambo defies his orders he is abandoned and forced once again to rely on his own brutal combat skills to save the POWs Despite mixed reviews Rambo First Blood Part II was a major worldwide box office blockbuster with an estimated 42 million tickets sold in the United States It has become one of the most recognized and memorable installments in the series having inspired countless rip offs parodies video games and imitations Entertainment Weekly ranked the movie number 23 on its list of The Best Rock em Sock em Movies of the Past 25 Years 7 Contents 1 Plot 2 Cast 3 Production 3 1 Development and writing 3 2 Filming 4 Music 5 Release 5 1 Marketing 5 2 Home media 6 Reception 6 1 Box office 6 2 Critical response 6 3 Accolades 6 4 Legacy 7 Other media 7 1 Sequel 7 2 Novelization 7 3 Video games 7 4 In popular culture 8 References 9 External linksPlot EditThree years after the incident in Hope Washington former US Army Green Beret John Rambo now imprisoned at a penal labor facility receives a visit from his former mission commander and old friend Colonel Sam Trautman With the Vietnam War now officially over the public has become increasingly concerned over news that US POWs have been left in enemy custody in Vietnam To placate their demands for action the US government has authorized a solo infiltration mission to confirm the reports Rambo agrees to undertake the operation in exchange for a pardon In Thailand Rambo is taken to meet Marshall Murdock the bureaucrat overseeing the operation He is temporarily reinstated into the US Army and instructed only to take pictures of a suspected POW camp not to attempt their rescue or engage any enemy personnel He is told that any POWs are to be retrieved by a better equipped extraction team upon his return During his aerial insertion Rambo s parachute gets caught in the airplane door forcing him to cut himself free and jettison most of his equipment leaving him with only his knives bow and arrows He meets his assigned contact a young female Vietnamese intelligence agent named Co Bao who arranges for a local band of river pirates to take them upriver Reaching the army camp Rambo sees that it is not deserted and sneaks inside spotting a group of POWs When he finds one of them tied to a cross shaped post suffering from exposure he frees him against orders and flees with Co and the POW During their escape they are discovered by Vietnamese troops and cut off by an armed gunboat The river pirates betray the two intending to hand them over to the Vietnamese troops But Rambo kills the pirates and destroys the gunboat with an RPG while the POW and Co Bao swim to safety Rambo asks Co to stay behind shortly before they reach the Extraction Point When the approaching rescue helicopter with Col Trautman inside radios back to base that Rambo appears to have found a POW Murdock orders the crew to abort the rescue Trautman held at gunpoint by the side gunner is powerless to intercept the crew from abandoning Rambo and the POW Co watches as they are both captured and returned to the Vietnamese camp When Trautman confronts him Murdock reveals that he never intended to save any POWs explaining that Congress expected Rambo to find nothing and admitting that even if he did Murdock would dispose of any photographic evidence or even leave Rambo to die in the jungle He removes Trautman from the mission to keep him from helping Rambo In captivity Rambo soon realizes that Soviet troops are working with the Vietnamese army He is interrogated by the local Soviet liaison Lieutenant Colonel Podovsky and his right hand man Sergeant Yushin Having learned from intercepted missives that Rambo s extraction was aborted Podovsky demands that Rambo broadcast a message to Murdock warning against any further POW rescue missions Rambo refuses and as Co infiltrates the camp disguised as a prostitute he is brutally tortured with electric shocks After initially refusing to cooperate Rambo finally relents when the prisoner he tried to rescue is brought in and threatened with eye gouging Rambo dials in his secret radio code frequency to contact his base but uses the opportunity to directly threaten Murdock then overpowers his Soviet captors and escapes the camp with Co s help Rambo agrees to take Co to the United States and they kiss As they start moving again a small Vietnamese force attacks the pair and Co is killed during the assault An enraged Rambo guns down the soldiers and buries Co in the mud Rambo snaps and using his knife and bow systematically dispatches the numerous Soviet and Vietnamese soldiers sent after him even using an explosive arrow to blow up the Vietnamese officer who killed Co After surviving a barrel bomb dropped by Sgt Yushin s helicopter Rambo clambers aboard and fights him throwing him out of the cabin to his death Faced with Rambo s knife the pilot quickly jumps out of the cockpit and Rambo takes control He lays waste to the prison camp using helicopter rockets and machine gun fire wiping out the remaining enemy forces before extracting all of the POWs and flying towards friendly territory in Thailand Podovsky pursuing in a helicopter gunship fires at Rambo s chopper seemingly disabling it But when the gunship moves in for the kill Rambo who had faked the crash of his helicopter uses a rocket launcher to destroy the gunship killing Podovsky After returning to base with the POWs Rambo uses the helicopter s machine gun to destroy Murdock s office and confronts the terrified bureaucrat with his knife demanding that Murdock rescue the remaining POWs Trautman tries to convince Rambo to return home now that he has been pardoned When he refuses Trautman asks Rambo what he wants An irate Rambo responds that he only wants his country to love its soldiers as much as its soldiers love it Trautman then asks Rambo how he will live to which Rambo tersely replies Day by day With that the film credits roll as Rambo walks off into the distance Cast EditMain article List of Rambo characters Sylvester Stallone as John J Rambo Richard Crenna as Colonel Sam Trautman Charles Napier as Major Marshall Roger T Murdock Steven Berkoff as Lieutenant Colonel Sergei T Podovsky Julia Nickson as Agent Co Phuong Bao Martin Kove as Michael Reed Ericson George Cheung as Lieutenant Tay Andy Wood as Banks William Ghent as Captain Vinh Voyo Goric as Sergeant Yushin Dana Lee as Captain Trong Kinh Steve Williams as LiferProduction EditDevelopment and writing Edit Development of a sequel to First Blood began when Carolco Pictures sold foreign distribution rights to distributors in Europe and Japan in 1983 initially scheduling the film for a December 1984 release It was later rescheduled for August 1 1985 8 Producers wanted Rambo to have a partner for the POW rescue mission They allegedly wanted John Travolta to play Rambo s sidekick but Stallone vetoed the idea 9 Lee Marvin who had been considered for the role of Colonel Trautman in the first film was offered the role of Marshall Murdock but declined and the role was given to Charles Napier Then up and coming screenwriter Kevin Jarre had written a story treatment that was liked by both the producers and Stallone as Jarre later recalled in an interview in the documentary Tinsel The Lost Movie About Hollywood I wrote the first draft of Rambo And I just did it I was living on dog food at the time and I you know I needed a gig and I wanted to finish a spec script I was writing And you know they called Stallone called me in and they had this idea about what they should do in the sequel to First Blood and I said Well how about if maybe he searches for POWs in Southeast Asia and back in Vietnam He said Great let s do it James Cameron was then hired to pen a first draft of the screenplay Cameron had been recommended by David Giler who did some uncredited script work on the first film which he was concurrently writing along with The Terminator and Aliens both of which he would go on to direct Cameron s first draft was titled First Blood II The Mission 10 According to Cameron his script had the same basic structure of the first film but was more violent than its predecessor Cameron was quoted in an October 1986 issue of Monsterland magazine It was quite a different film from FIRST BLOOD apart from the continuation of the Rambo character The first one was set in a small town it had a different social consciousness from the second one which was a very broad stylized adventure It was a little more violent in its execution than I had in mind in the writing Following Cameron s initial draft Stallone would take over scriptwriting duties creating a final draft which differed from previous versions Jarre would receive sole story credit while Stallone and Cameron would get credited for the screenplay in the final film Stallone later recalled I think that James Cameron is a brilliant talent but I thought the politics were important such as a right wing stance coming from Trautman and his nemesis Murdock contrasted by Rambo s obvious neutrality which I believe is explained in Rambo s final speech I realize his speech at the end may have caused millions of viewers to burst veins in their eyeballs by rolling them excessively but the sentiment stated was conveyed to me by many veterans Also in his original draft it took nearly 30 40 pages to have any action initiated and Rambo was partnered with a tech y sidekick So it was more than just politics that were put into the script There was also a simpler story line If James Cameron says anything more than that then he realizes he s now doing the backstroke badly in a pool of lies 11 Before filming started Stallone went through torturous trainings to build the perfect musculature Writer David J Moore said in the 2019 documentary film In Search of the Last Action Heroes Here s a guy who went against the grain in everything that he ever did Here s a guy who transformed himself literally he chiseled his own body into this statuesque muscular specimen 12 42 00 Filming Edit The film was shot between June and August 1984 on location in the state of Guerrero Mexico and Thailand While vacationing in Acapulco Ron South was hired on as assistant editor and thus his film career began here During filming special effects man Clifford P Wenger Jr was accidentally killed during one of the film s waterfall explosions when he lost his footing and fell to his death Music EditRambo First Blood Part II Original Motion Picture Soundtrack Film score by Jerry GoldsmithReleased1985ProducerJerry GoldsmithJerry Goldsmith chronologyBaby Secret of the Lost Legend Original Motion Picture Soundtrack 1985 Rambo First Blood Part II Original Motion Picture Soundtrack 1985 Explorers Original Motion Picture Soundtrack 1985 The musical score was composed by Jerry Goldsmith conducting the British National Philharmonic Orchestra although Goldsmith also made heavy use of electronic synthesized elements The main song is sung by Stallone s brother singer songwriter Frank Stallone Record label Varese Sarabande issued the original soundtrack album Main Title 2 12 Preparations 1 16 The Jump 3 18 The Snake 1 48 Stories 3 26 The Cage 3 55 Betrayed 4 22 Escape from Torture 3 39 Ambush 2 45 Revenge 6 14 Bowed Down 1 04 Pilot Over 1 52 Home Flight 3 01 Day by Day 2 06 Peace in Our Life music by Frank Stallone Peter Schless and Jerry Goldsmith lyrics by Frank Stallone performed by Frank Stallone 3 18 As released in the United Kingdom by That s Entertainment Records the British licensee for Varese Sarabande at the time the UK version placed Peace in Our Life between Betrayed and Escape from Torture thus making Day by Day the final track In 1999 Silva America released an expanded edition with the cues in film order Main Title 2 14 The Map 1 09 Preparations 1 18 The Jump 3 19 The Snake 1 49 The Pirates 1 29 Stories 3 27 The Camp Forced Entry 2 24 The Cage 3 57 River Crash The Gunboat 3 37 Betrayed 4 24 Bring Him Up The Eyes 2 06 Escape from Torture 3 41 Ambush 2 47 Revenge 6 16 Bowed Down 1 06 Pilot Over 1 54 Village Raid Helicopter Flight 4 55 Home Flight 3 02 Day By Day 2 08 Peace in Our Life 3 19 Frank StalloneRelease EditMarketing Edit Unusually for the time a teaser trailer for the sequel then titled First Blood Part II The Mission was released in 3 000 theaters in the summer of 1984 over a year before the scheduled release date of August 1 1985 and several months before any footage for the film was completed Producer Mario Kassar arranged this to capitalize off the popularity of the first film 13 8 The sequel was also marketed through merchandising with posters of Rambo selling rapidly Although the film was rated R and directed at adults tie in toys were created for it 8 Home media Edit The video sold 425 000 units a record for a tape with a retail price of 79 95 14 15 Rambo First Blood Part II was released on DVD on November 23 2004 and a Blu ray release followed on May 23 2008 16 Rambo First Blood Part II was released on 4K UHD Blu ray on November 13 2018 17 Reception EditBox office Edit Rambo First Blood Part II opened in the United States on May 22 1985 in a then record 2 074 theaters becoming the first film to be released to over 2 000 theaters in the United States and was the number one film that weekend grossing 20 176 217 Overall the film grossed 150 415 432 in the US and Canada and 149 985 000 internationally for a worldwide total of 300 400 432 6 The movie broke various international box office records 18 It set an opening weekend record in the United Kingdom with a gross of 1 085 513 from 322 screens surpassing the record set by E T the Extra Terrestrial 19 In France the film had a record opening day with 269 564 admissions and a record week with 2 075 238 admissions 20 21 Critical response Edit On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 33 based on 45 reviews The site s consensus is First Blood Part II offers enough mayhem to satisfy genre fans but remains a regressive sequel that turns its once compelling protagonist into just another muscled action berserker 22 On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 47 out of 100 based on reviews from 15 critics indicating mixed or average reviews 23 Vincent Canby of The New York Times called the film almost as opportunistic as the Congressman it pretends to abhor In spite of everything it says it s much less interested in the M I A question than it is in finding a topical frame for the kind of action adventure film in which Mr Stallone his torso and his vacant stare can do what his fans like best That is fight outwit and kill usually all by himself dozens of far better armed but lesser mortals 24 Variety wrote The charade on the screen which is not pulled off is to accept that the underdog Rambo character albeit with the machine gun wielding help of an attractive Vietnamese girl can waste hordes of Viet Cong and Red Army contingents en route to hauling POWs to a Thai air base in a smoking Russian chopper with only a facial scar from a branding iron knifepoint marring his tough figure You never even see him eating in this fantasy as if his body feeds on itself 25 Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film three stars out of four and called it very good at what it does but what it does isn t always that good referring to the depiction of the enemy as going back to the image of the Yellow Peril to the notion that white is right and other colors are wrong 26 Michael Wilmington of the Los Angeles Times wrote If a character can seemingly do anything it s hard to feel tension or concern about his fate At least Superman had kryptonite We are left with nothing but detached aesthetic appreciation watching Rambo race through several million dollars worth of explosions and aerial attacks coruscant fireballs billowing everywhere and bodies flying hither and yon Except for anyone irretrievably into violent power fantasies this will probably soon pall 27 Pauline Kael commented in The New Yorker The director George P Costmatos gives this near psychotic material a mixture of Catholic iconography and Soldier of Fortune pulp a veneer of professionalism but the looniness is always there 28 Paul Attanasio of The Washington Post wrote At best Rambo First Blood Part II is a crudely effective right wing rabble rouser the artistic equivalent of carpet bombing you don t know whether to cheer or run for cover At worst it s a tribute to Sylvester Stallone by Sylvester Stallone starring Sylvester Stallone 29 The film is listed in Golden Raspberry Award founder John Wilson s book The Official Razzie Movie Guide as one of The 100 Most Enjoyably Bad Movies Ever Made 30 Accolades Edit Award Category Subject ResultAcademy Award Best Sound Editing Frederick Brown NominatedRazzie Award Worst Picture Buzz Feitshans WonWorst Actor Sylvester Stallone WonWorst Screenplay WonJames Cameron WonWorst Original Song Frank Stallone Peace in Our Life WonWorst Supporting Actress Julia Nickson NominatedWorst New Star NominatedWorst Director George Cosmatos NominatedLegacy Edit The film was referenced in the 1985 episode of The Golden Girls titled On Golden Girls Female characters seem to be aroused by John Rambo s muscular physique and Sophia Petrillo Estelle Getty says I sat through it twice You ll love it He sweats like a pig and he doesn t put his shirt on 31 32 Other media EditSequel Edit Main article Rambo III A sequel titled Rambo III was released in 1988 Novelization Edit David Morrell author of First Blood the novel the first Rambo film is based on wrote a novelization called Rambo First Blood Part II Video games Edit A tie in video game called Rambo was produced for ZX Spectrum Amstrad CPC and Commodore 64 There was also Rambo for NES as well as a Rambo First Blood Part II for Sega MSX and DOS games were based on the film Sega later adapted some of the battle scenes in the film for the 2008 arcade game Rambo In 2014 Rambo The Video Game based on the first three Rambo films was released The 1986 run and gun shooter arcade hit Ikari Warriors was originally intended by its developer SNK to be an official licensed adaptation of Rambo However they were initially unable to acquire the rights to the film This resulted in the game s title being changed to Ikari referencing part of the film s Japanese title Rambo Ikari no Dasshutsu Rambo The Furious Escape After the game made its North American debut at an arcade game expo they managed to get in touch with Sylvester Stallone about acquiring the rights to the film However it was too late by that point as the game had already become popularly known by its Japanese Ikari title among arcade players in Japan and North America which led to the game s official release as Ikari Warriors in North America Stallone was friends with SNK s president at the time and owned an Ikari Warriors arcade cabinet 33 In popular culture Edit Missing in Action an American film inspired by Rambo First Blood Part II 34 Strike Commando an Italian film described as an imitation of Rambo First Blood Part II 35 Hot Shots Part Deux an American parody film of Rambo First Blood Part II and Rambo III with the colonel role reprised by Richard Crenna 36 Second Blood a Kuwaiti action film inspired by Rambo First Blood Part II 37 38 39 UHF is a 1989 comedy parody film starring Weird Al Yankovic as a low budget television station manager Late in the film Yankovic s character George Newman has a fantasy in which he envisions himself as a Rambo type soldier on mission to rescue Stanley Spadowski Michael Richards from a rival station owner s goons during which Yankovic wears a muscular body suit to imitate Stallone s physique The fantasy sequence is a parody exaggeration of the action sequences in about the last third of Rambo First Blood Part II Stallone himself had initially agreed to make a cameo appearance in the sequence but ultimately declined to do so 40 References Edit Los estudios Churubusco un sendero con historia Excelsior September 14 2015 Retrieved September 14 2015 Rambo First Blood Part II 1985 AFI Catalog of Feature Films Retrieved October 3 2018 RAMBO FIRST BLOOD PART II 15 British Board of Film Classification May 28 1985 Retrieved October 25 2014 Film 14948 Rambo First Blood Part II Lumiere Retrieved March 21 2021 ALJEAN HARMETZ December 7 1989 It s Fade Out for the Cheap Film As Hollywood s Budgets Soar It s Fade Out for Films Once Made on the Cheap New York Times p C19 a b Rambo First Blood Part II Box Office Mojo Internet Movie Database Retrieved October 25 2014 The Action 25 Films The Best Rock em Sock em Movies of the Past 25 Years Entertainment Weekly at Wayback Machine January 30 2009 Archived from the original on February 3 2009 Retrieved October 1 2015 a b c Rambo First Blood Part II catalog afi com Retrieved June 11 2021 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint url status link We Get to Win This Time 2002 Artisan Entertainment BROESKE P H October 27 1985 THE CURIOUS EVOLUTION OF JOHN RAMBO Los Angeles Times ProQuest 154252710 headgeek December 16 2006 Stallone answers December 9th amp 10th Questions in a double round plus Harry s Seen ROCKY BALBOA Aint It Cool News In Search of the Last Action Heroes Gravitas Ventures 2019 US News BRIEFLY First Blood II Trailers Filmed Screen International no 451 June 23 1984 pp 6 Bierbaum Tom May 21 1986 Future Cassettes Fail To Approach 500 000 Unit Goal Variety p 1 Schnurmacher Thomas March 29 1986 Students put their heads together for new driving service Montreal Gazette p 35 Retrieved February 26 2022 via Newspapers com Rambo First Blood Part II DVD Release Date DVDs Release Dates Retrieved November 11 2018 Rambo First Blood Part II 4K Ultra HD Blu ray Ultra HD Review High Def Digest ultrahd highdefdigest com Retrieved November 11 2018 Tasker Yvonne October 2 2012 Spectacular Bodies Gender Genre and the Action Cinema ISBN 9781134873005 No shellshock as Rambo III bursts in at the top Screen International September 3 1988 p 24 Groves Don November 1 1993 French B O warms up to Jurassic Variety p 14 Groves Don October 28 1993 Jurassic passes 450 mil o seas Daily Variety p 30 Rambo First Blood Part II Rotten Tomatoes Retrieved August 24 2022 Rambo First Blood Part II Metacritic Retrieved August 1 2020 Canby Vincent May 26 1985 Rambo Delivers A Revenge Fantasy The New York Times H11 Film Reviews Rambo First Blood Part II Variety May 22 1985 14 Siskel Gene May 22 1985 Rambo Cinematic soldiering whitewashes Vietnam Chicago Tribune Section 5 p 1 3 Wilmington Michael May 22 1985 Why a Rambo II For Muddiest of Reasons Los Angeles Times Part VI p 1 6 Kael Pauline June 17 1985 The Current Cinema The New Yorker 117 Attansasio Paul May 22 1985 Rambo New Blood Old Moves The Washington Post F1 Wilson John 2005 The Official Razzie Movie Guide Enjoying the Best of Hollywood s Worst Grand Central Publishing ISBN 0 446 69334 0 The Golden Girls quotes Quotes net Retrieved July 21 2021 On Golden Girls S1E6 Oh Shut Up Rose Retrieved July 21 2021 怒 を作った男 The Man Who Made Ikari Continue March 2001 War Movie Mondays Missing in Action Movie Review The Flick Cast May 16 2011 Retrieved July 7 2012 Lor 1991 Variety s Film Reviews 1987 1988 Vol 20 R R Bowker There are no page numbers in this book This entry is found under the header November 25 1987 ISBN 0 8352 2667 0 Ebert Roger May 21 1993 Hot Shots Part Deux Rogerebert com Retrieved January 13 2014 Kuvajtsky profesional Abdulhadi Al Khayat fotografovani v posilovne Kuwejcki film inspirowany seria Rambo zyskuje date premiery Ten actors that almost portrayed John Rambo on screen Prime Movies July 28 2022 Retrieved July 29 2022 Cotter Padraig February 19 2022 Why Stallone Backed Out Of A Cameo In UHF s Rambo Parody Sequence Screen Rant Archived from the original on February 19 2022 Retrieved March 26 2022 External links Edit Wikiquote has quotations related to Rambo First Blood Part II Rambo First Blood Part II at IMDb Rambo First Blood Part II at AllMovie Rambo First Blood Part II at the American Film Institute Catalog Rambo First Blood Part II at Box Office Mojo Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Rambo First Blood Part II amp oldid 1135387793, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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