Rambo: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''"NOTHING IS OVER! NOTHING!!''|'''Rambo'''}}

 

 

''First Blood'' deals with Rambo struggling to overcome the trauma he experienced during the Vietnam War. After a mini-war with the entire police station of a small Washington State town, Rambo confronts the sheriff at the station and is about to kill him when Rambo's former commanding officer, Colonel Trautman, tells him that it's over. Rambo replies with "Nothing is over!" and has an emotional breakdown where he tells Trautman about the protesters at the airport, how honor and loyalty mean nothing in the real world, and how his friend Joey was killed by a shoe-shining boy in a suicide attack. With nothing left to live for, Rambo decides to turn himself in to the authorities.

* [[Action Film Quiet Drama Scene]]: In ''First Blood'', Rambo's breakdown and monologue in the end. In ''Rambo: First Blood Part II'', the scene with Rambo and Co on the boat where he tells her he's "expendable". There are several in ''Rambo IV'' between Rambo and Sarah, most notably her pointing out "Maybe you're right, maybe we won't change anything. But trying to save a life isn't wasting your life." Unfortunately, many of these were cut.

* [[Action Girl]]: Co.

* [[Appropriated Title]]: The first movie was actually called ''First Blood''. It wasn't until the sequel, ''Rambo: First Blood Part II'', that the Rambo name was used at all.

* [[The Archer]]: Rambo uses a compound bow to great effect from part 2 onward, primarily for stealthy kills, but he also screws on some high-explosive warheads whenever [[Stuff Blowing Up|shit just needs to get blow'd up]].

** The first movie actually inverts this from the book. In the novel, Rambo kills at least a dozen people. In the movie he kills three people at most - one guy who falls out of a helicopter when Rambo throws a rock at him in self-defense and two cops who he ran off the road (And who quite possibly survived).

* [[Book Ends]]: For the whole series. ''First Blood'' begins with Rambo walking along a lonely road to visit a friend. ''Rambo'' ends with him walking a road which will take him home.

** Which just proves Rambo's words "When you're pushed, killing's as easy as breathing"

* [[Brick Joke]]: A sick one in ''John Rambo''. He warned one of the missionaries not to look the Burmese in the eye. He does this later after he is captured and is then fed to pigs.

** In addiction, as said in a [[Cracked]] article: "''First Blood is a poignant tale about the American institutions' failure to reintegrate war veterans into society, and about how we shouldn't chase them with dogs and helicopters for absolutely no reason. We agree, movie!''"

* [[But Thou Must]]: At the beginning of the NES version, Commander Trautman gives Rambo a mission that may be difficult. If the player chooses, "I feel safer in prison," the commander won't take no for an answer and will keep repeating that until the player chooses, "I'm not afraid of death."

* [[Dead Little Sister|Dead Little Buddy]]: Rambo's friend Joey (killed in Vietnam) in the first movie; Co (the Vietnamese woman he loves) in the second.

* [[Defiant to The End]]: The mercenaries in the fourth movie.

** Supposedly, the Christmas decorations were already up when they began shooting, and they left them both for the ironic quality and to worldlessly remind the viewer that Rambo is on the lam in a wifebeater and jeans during a very cold time of the year.

* [[Depraved Homosexual]]: The [[Big Bad]] of part 4 is a paedophile.

* [[Divorced Installment]]: For the ''Rambo'' Master System game, Sega's license was only applicable for the American version, so when it ended up being released in Japan and Europe, it was relabeled ''Ashura'' and ''Secret Commando'' respectively, with all use of Rambo imagery and theme music taken out.

* [[Electric Torture]]: Effectively shows just ''how'' [[Badass]] Rambo is by having him take hours of an ''entire camp's'' electricity and still be alive afterward.

* [[Evil Counterpart]]: Murdock for Troutman.

* [[Fighting for A Homeland]]/[[La Résistance]]: The Afghans in the third movie; the Karen warriors in the fourth.

* [[More Dakka]]: Rambo practically thrives on this.

* [[A Nazi By Any Other Name]]: The Burmese army from the fourth film.

** The writers probably named Marshall Murdock after him.

** In addition, Charles Napier, who played the Marshall in Rambo, even appeared on The A-team twice.

** Hell, Rambo himself; supposedly from "Arizona" but has a thick Brooklyn accent.

* [[Novelization]]: Notable here mostly because David Morrell, who wrote the original ''First Blood'' novel, went on to pen the novelizations of the two movies that followed, specifically noting and then tossing aside the rather egregious [[Canon Dis Continuity]] that emerged from the fact {{spoiler|Rambo died in the book, but lives on in the films}}.

* [[Off With His Head]]: Done via forged machete ''and'' [[Your Head Asplode|.50 BMG bullets]] in ''Rambo''.

** Even in the first movie, John Rambo is considered a one man army. Observe:

{{quote| '''Teasle:''' Are you telling me that 200 of our men against your boy is a no-win situation for us? <br />

'''Teasle:''' What?<br />

'''Trautman:''' A good supply of body bags. }}

* [[Only Sane Man]]: Mitch, the young red-haired cop in ''First Blood'', is the only one to express dismay when Galt [[Jerkass|starts messing with Rambo]]. He's the lowest ranking officer, though, so no one listens to him. For his part, he does get off lighter than the rest of the cops, as Rambo disables Mitch by simply stabbing him in a non-vital area (the ass) that's mostly healed by the next time we see him.

* [[Person of Mass Destruction]]: Rambo again.

* [[Red Shirt]]: Averted in ''Rambo''. The mercs are quite capable of holding their own, {{spoiler|and only one of them definitively dies in the finale}}.

* [[Revised Ending]]: The ending of ''First Blood'' was changed not because they were hoping for sequels, it was changed because they felt the film was bleak enough as it was. Apparently, the original author said he was okay with the change. Said original ending can be seen in a flashback in part 4. {{spoiler|Troutman shoots Rambo in the gut}}.

* [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]]: The reason Rambo does anything, really.

* [[Ruthless Modern Pirates]]: Rambo pwns some Burmese river pirates in the fourth movie.

* [[Scars Are Forever]]: Rambo's scar on his face, a product of torture from part 2. The scars on his back and chest obtained during his stint as a POW in Vietnam also count.

* [[Scenery Gorn]]: The destroyed Karen village in part 4.

* [[Shirtless Scene]]: Of course. Averted in the fourth film, though.

* [[Shouting Shooter]]

* [[Spared By the Adaptation]]: The originally filmed ending to ''First Blood'' was much closer to the novel by David Morrell, which had {{spoiler|John Rambo forcing Trautman to kill him}}. However, due to Rambo's more sympathetic portrayal in the film, a new ending was filmed {{spoiler|which had Rambo being arrested instead}}, making the sequels possible. [[Adaptation Displacement|Due to the relative obscurity of the novel]], not many are aware that {{spoiler|Rambo was supposed to die in the first film}}.

* [[Stuff Blowing Up]]: All over the place, natch. An entire boat blows up in the river scene in ''Pt. II'', and that's just getting starting.

* [[Stuffed Into the Fridge]]: {{spoiler|Co's fate in the second movie.}}