50 Fun Facts About Rambo

Rambo fought in Vietnam as a member of which elite US force?

The Green Berets: his old commander warns the sheriff that Rambo was trained to ignore pain, live off the land and "eat things that would make a billy goat puke".

Which future TV detective plays Deputy Mitch in First Blood?

David Caruso plays Mitch, the youngest deputy and the only one to protest as the others beat their prisoner. He broke through eleven years later in NYPD Blue, then led CSI: Miami.

Who wrote the 1972 novel First Blood?

David Morrell, then a graduate student at Penn State, drew on students who had come back from Vietnam. In his novel the manhunt ends with both Rambo and the police chief dead.

Rambo: First Blood Part II was the second-biggest US release of 1985, behind which film?

Back to the Future took about $210 million in US cinemas to the Rambo sequel's $150 million, with Stallone's own Rocky IV third. The sequel, the series' biggest hit, was also voted Worst Picture at the Razzies.

Which Rambo film did Stallone direct himself?

Rambo (2008) is the one Stallone calls the best action film he has made, "because it's the most truthful". It was so violent that he said he never expected cinemas to show it.

Who plays Rambo's former commanding officer across the first three films?

Richard Crenna was a late replacement, hired after the first actor cast had left the production. He later sent up his own colonel in the 1993 spoof Hot Shots! Part Deux.

Who plays Sheriff Will Teasle in First Blood?

Brian Dennehy's sheriff runs Rambo out of town as a drifter, then jails him for walking back. In the novel the lawman is a Korean War veteran himself, a generation older than the soldier he hunts.

In which state is the small town of First Blood set?

Washington on screen, though the novel is set in Kentucky and the cameras never left Canada: the forests, canyon and town are all in British Columbia.

What killed Rambo's army friend Delmar Barry before First Blood begins?

Cancer from Agent Orange, the defoliant sprayed in Vietnam, killed Delmar Barry. It leaves Rambo the last of his team, as he tells his old commander over the radio: "They're all gone, sir."

What does Rambo throw at a helicopter during the First Blood manhunt?

A rock: it hits the windshield, the helicopter lurches and the deputy leaning out to shoot Rambo falls to his death. The sheriff never saw who fired first, and the search becomes a vendetta.

In First Blood, what are the deputies about to do when Rambo snaps and fights his way out of jail?

Shave him dry: the straight razor brings back his torture as a prisoner of war, and he beats his way through the station, takes back his knife and escapes on a stolen motorcycle.

What mission is Rambo offered in First Blood Part II?

Photographing a POW camp in Vietnam, and nothing more: he is told not to engage or rescue anyone. The mission is a sham, and when he brings a prisoner out the official in charge calls off his helicopter.

Who plays the corrupt official Marshall Murdock in Rambo: First Blood Part II?

Charles Napier plays the bureaucrat who leaves Rambo behind enemy lines. Captured and told to radio a warning home, Rambo tells him instead: "Murdock, I'm coming to get you."

In First Blood Part II, what does Rambo make from a strip of Co Bao's dress after she is killed?

A headband: Co, his contact in the jungle, is shot moments after he agrees to take her to America. He ties on the red strip, hangs her good-luck pendant round his neck and goes back for the prisoners.

Which future blockbuster director wrote the first draft of Rambo: First Blood Part II?

James Cameron drafted it while also writing The Terminator and Aliens. Stallone rewrote most of it; Cameron said their one meeting was a lunch where Stallone told him to put a girl in it.

In which country does Rambo remain at the end of Part II?

Thailand: the mission's base is there, and Rambo walks away from it rather than go home. Asked how he will live, he answers, "Day by day."

In which country is Rambo III mainly set?

Afghanistan, where his old commander is captured on a supply run to the rebels. The war was already winding down: Soviet troops had begun to withdraw ten days before the film opened in May 1988.

What is Rambo doing when his old colonel finds him at the start of Rambo III?

Helping build a temple: he lives at a Buddhist monastery, fixing things for his keep, and hands the monks the prize money he wins at stick fighting.

Which missiles is the colonel's Rambo III mission meant to deliver?

Stinger missiles, the shoulder-fired weapons that let the rebels hit back at Soviet aircraft. One brutal commander is keeping them out of his region, so the colonel goes in, and is captured at the border.

Asked in Rambo III whether Rambo thinks he is God, his captured commander says God would have what?

Mercy, the prisoner tells his Soviet interrogator, is what God would have and Rambo won't. The studio liked the reply enough to put it on the poster.

What is the name of the young boy who helps Rambo in Rambo III?

Hamid, a war orphan, sneaks into the raid on the Soviet fort against Rambo's wishes and is shot in the leg. He rides back with the rebel cavalry for the final battle.

In which country is the 2008 film Rambo mainly set?

Burma, whose military rulers banned the film. Copies circulated anyway: when the comedian Zarganar was tried in 2008, discs of it seized from his house were used as evidence against him.

How does Rambo make a living at the start of Rambo (2008)?

Catching snakes, which he sells in a nearby village; he also hires out his boat on the river. The boat is why the missionaries come to him: they want a ride upriver into a war zone.

Who plays missionary Sarah Miller in Rambo (2008)?

Julie Benz plays the missionary who talks Rambo into the trip after he has turned her fiancé down several times. Her question about his family is what finally sends him home at the end.

Which ethnic group are the missionaries trying to help in Rambo (2008)?

The Karen have been fighting for a state of their own since 1949. In the film a Karen rebel guides the rescue party to the prison camp, and his comrades turn the final battle.

What is the mercenary sniper called in Rambo (2008)?

School Boy, played by Matthew Marsden, is the one hired gun who stays behind with Rambo and the missionary when the rest keep to their schedule and leave. His rifle covers the final rescue.

The 2008 film Rambo ends with Rambo walking home to his father's farm in which state?

Arizona: he walks up a gravel drive past a rusted mailbox marked "R. Rambo". He goes because a missionary asked whether he had family back home, and he answered that his father might still be there.

In Last Blood, what has Rambo built beneath his family ranch?

A network of tunnels, which critics likened to the Viet Cong's: Rambo now fights the way his old enemy did. He lures the cartel's gunmen underground and picks them off among his traps.

What is the name of Maria Beltran's granddaughter in Last Blood?

Gabriela goes to Mexico to confront the father who abandoned her, against Rambo's advice. He tells her he never wanted a child, and that night she is drugged and kidnapped by a cartel.

What is the job of Carmen Delgado, who helps Rambo hunt the cartel in Last Blood?

Journalist: Carmen, played by Paz Vega, has been investigating the cartel's two leaders since her sister died at their hands. She nurses the beaten Rambo at her home, then points him to the first brother.

Who called Last Blood "a mess" and said he was embarrassed to have his name on it?

Rambo's original author posted that verdict on the day the film opened. He then told Newsweek he had left the cinema feeling "degraded and dehumanized".

Which actor plays the young Rambo in the prequel film shot in 2026?

Noah Centineo plays Rambo as a young soldier, before First Blood. Stallone had wanted to play the part himself with the help of AI, but said he procrastinated too long.

Which 2022 one-man-army action film made the Rambo prequel director's name?

Sisu pits one old gold prospector, once a Finnish commando, against a retreating Nazi platoon. Its director, Jalmari Helander, names First Blood as an inspiration and says he has been Rambo's biggest fan since he was 11.

What was the subtitle of Rambo's 1986 animated series?

The Force of Freedom was also the name of the team Rambo led in it. The show and its toys sold an R-rated killer to children, and Stallone said the merchandise embarrassed and infuriated him.

Who composed the scores for the first three Rambo films?

Jerry Goldsmith wrote the theme for First Blood, and it outlasted the film: it came back in both sequels he scored and was even licensed for the children's cartoon.

In First Blood Part II, what does Rambo use to kill the officer who shot Co?

An explosive arrow. The bow is nearly all Rambo has to fight with: he snagged on the jump from the plane and had to cut most of his gear loose, landing with only his knives and the bow.

By his own account, Rambo's creator took the name from a variety of which fruit?

Apple: he says his wife brought home Rambo apples while he was stuck for a name. He also heard in it the French poet Rimbaud, who wrote A Season in Hell.

In the 2007 British comedy Son of Rambow, what do two schoolboys set out to do?

Make their own Rambo film: a boy from a strict religious home, never allowed television, sees First Blood by accident and becomes the stuntman in a classmate's home-video epic.

Which fighting game added Rambo as a DLC character voiced by Stallone?

Mortal Kombat 11 added Rambo in 2020, with Stallone recording his lines from home over Zoom. His old rival Schwarzenegger lent the game's Terminator only his face: another actor did the voice.

Who directed First Blood?

Ted Kotcheff turned down the sequel after reading the script. In his film, he said, Rambo kills nobody; the follow-up seemed to celebrate a war he thought one of the stupidest in history.

Which actor was originally cast as Trautman before walking away from First Blood?

Kirk Douglas kept asking for other characters' lines, the director recalled: "Kirk Douglas should have this line." Told to play the script as written or go, he answered, "Kirk's leaving."

In which Canadian town were First Blood's town scenes shot?

Hope, British Columbia, played the film's town of the same name. In 2020 it unveiled a wood carving of Rambo, and Stallone said he was very proud of it.

Why was First Blood's original ending changed?

A hostile test screening in Las Vegas: as its director tells it, when Rambo died a voice in the silence called for him to be strung up from a lamp post. The comment cards loved the film and hated the ending.

First Blood was the first in-house production of which film company?

Carolco Pictures was a foreign-sales outfit until its founders bought First Blood as their first production. Rambo's profits built the studio of Terminator 2 and Basic Instinct, bankrupt in 1995.

First Blood was the first Hollywood blockbuster released in which country, in 1985?

It sold 76 million tickets there, a record for a foreign film until 2018.

What did Rambo III, then the costliest film ever, cost?

$60 million, give or take: about four times First Blood's $15 million, and enough to take the record Superman had held since 1978. It then earned less than the cheaper Part II.

What was the working title of Rambo (2008), kept for its release in many countries?

John Rambo was Stallone's title until he began to fear that it echoed Rocky Balboa and would make people think this was the last Rambo film. Countries where First Blood had been released as Rambo kept it.

Where was the jungle war of Rambo (2008) filmed?

Chiang Mai, Thailand, with the real conflict just over the frontier. Stallone said that while they were filming near the border, shots were fired over the crew's heads.

Which organisation pointed Stallone to the war zone where the fourth Rambo film is set?

The United Nations: wanting a war the news was ignoring, Stallone asked where the world's worst abuses were and got an answer he had barely heard of. The producers agreed after touring refugee camps.

Which 2013 Jason Statham film grew out of an abandoned fourth Rambo script?

Stallone dropped the DEA-agent premise as premature, then revised it for Statham.