Rambo: First Blood Part II

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Rambo: First Blood Part II
Rambo: First Blood Part II movie poster
Directed byGeorge P. Cosmatos
Sylvester Stallone (uncredited)[1]
Written byCharacters:
David Morrell
Story:
Kevin Jarre
Screenplay:
Sylvester Stallone
James Cameron
Produced byBuzz Feitshans
StarringSylvester Stallone
Richard Crenna
Charles Napier
Stephen Berkoff
Julia Nickson-Soul
CinematographyJack Cardiff
Edited byLarry Bock
Mark Goldblatt
Mark Helfrich
Gib Jaffe
Frank E. Jiminez
Music byJerry Goldsmith
Peter Schless
Distributed byTriStar Pictures
Release dates
United States May 22, 1985
Running time
94 min.
Country United States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$44,000,000 (est.)

Rambo: First Blood Part II, released on May 22, 1985, is the second movie in the Rambo series. It has Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) released from prison by Federal order to document the possible existence of POWs in Vietnam, under the belief that he will find nothing and the government can sweep the issue under the rug.

The movie, which had a (then) enormous budget of $44 million, became a huge box-office success. Earning just over $150 million in North America and just under that amount in the rest of the world, it was the second most successful movie of 1985 in North America, behind Back to the Future and just ahead of Rocky IV, giving Stallone two of three top grossing movies of that year. This film captured the attention of President Ronald Reagan and he lauded Stallone for portraying Rambo as a symbol of the U.S. Army.

The movie was also criticized for being a mindless action film and it was selected as worst picture at the 1985 Golden Raspberry Awards. It also topped the categories worst actor (Sylvester Stallone), worst screenplay (by Sylvester Stallone and James Cameron), and worst "original" song ("Peace in Our Life").

Rambo: First Blood Part II was ghost-directed by George P. Cosmatos, who later directed the movie Cobra with Sylvester Stallone and Brigitte Nielsen. It was later revealed that Stallone had most of the directorial control on Rambo.[1]

Rambo: First Blood Part II follows First Blood and is followed by Rambo III.

Plot

Rambo is released from prison after the events of the first film, and is flown to a staging area in Thailand, and is sent into Vietnam to search for American POWs shortly therafter. Rambo, with the assistance of a local woman, Co Bao (Julia Nickson-Soul), finds American POWs in Vietnam and tries to escape with one. However, during the extraction, Marshall Murdock (Charles Napier), in charge of the operation, orders that Rambo be abandoned, and all documentation of POWs be destroyed, much to Colonel Trautman's (Richard Crenna) dismay. Trautman criticizes Murdock for what he had done, but Murdock ignores him. Rambo is taken into captivity by the Vietnamese soldiers, and is tortured by the Soviet Red Army. With the help of Co (who is later killed), Rambo escapes, nearly destroys the Vietnamese and Soviet armies, and flies back to Thailand with the rescued POWs. He then threatens Murdock to find the remaining POWs, or Rambo will find him. In the end, Rambo tells Trautman that he deeply wants his country to love him as much as he loves it.

Influences

Many things from Rambo: First Blood Part II (and the Rambo series in general) inspired parts of the Metal Gear Solid series. For instance, the scene where Rambo parachutes into the jungle and in the process loses his weapons and gear is similar to the beginning of Metal Gear Solid 3. Rambo also confronts Russians in a jungle where he was sent in by himself on a secret mission ala MGS3. Rambo is tortured with electricity and will not submit; a scene depicted in Metal Gear Solid and Metal Gear Solid 3. The MSX portrait of Colonel Roy Campbell from Metal Gear 2 was based on Col. Samuel Trautman from the Rambo movies as well. According to Hideo Kojima, the creator of the MGS series, the two greatest influences for the main character of Solid Snake are Rambo and Snake Plissken from Escape from New York. [citation needed]

In addition, Flippy, a green war veteran bear from Happy Tree Friends, contains several references to Rambo in his character.

In the opening scene of the film Gremlins 2, Gizmo sees a brief scene on a TV set from First Blood Part II and hears Rambo says "To survive a war, you got to become war." This sticks with Gizmo throughout the film when he has been abused one too many times by the Gremlins and starts learning how to fight back, forging a weapon similar to Rambo's grenade bow and arrow with common office supplies and fashioning himself a headband similar to what Rambo wore.

Trivia

  • During the early 1980s James Cameron wrote three screenplays simultaneously: The Terminator, Aliens, and the first draft of Rambo: First Blood Part II[citation needed]. While Cameron would continue with The Terminator and with Aliens, Sylvester Stallone eventually took over the script of Rambo: First Blood Part II, creating a final draft which differed radically from Cameron's initial version [1]. Cameron has said that he wrote the action and Stallone wrote the politics.
  • Rambo kills no fewer than 61 people during the running time of the film (not to mention the untold loss of life in the village and prison camp, which are both destroyed by Rambo during the course of the movie). According to the script, Rambo had 59 confirmed kills during the entire Vietnam conflict.

References

  1. ^ a b Beck, Henry Cabot. "The "Western" Godfather". True West Magazine. October 2006.
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