While First Blood might be surprisingly realistic in its depiction of an army veteran’s struggle against a corrupt police force, the later Rambo movies prove this didn’t last long. The Rambo franchise might have one of the strangest, most ironic, and most regrettable trajectories in cinema history. Rewatching the Rambo movies proves that Sylvester Stallone’s eponymous character became unrecognizable after the first sequel, changing from the tragic antihero of the original movie to a cartoonishly superhuman mᴀss murderer by 2008’s reboot Rambo.

In 1982’s First Blood, Stallone’s Vietnam War veteran John Rambo is mistreated by the corrupt sheriff of a small Southern town and ends up pushed to violence by this injustice. First Blood is a lot like 2024’s Rebel Ridge, pitting a likable, soft-spoken veteran against an odious small-town police force rife with corruption. Stallone’s character tries to avoid violence and de-escalate conflicts early on but, once pushed past his limit, he ends up utilizing his Special Forces training against the police.

First Blood Was A Genuinely Accurate Survival Movie

First Blood Is More Grounded And Realistic Than Later Rambo Installments Imply

In an Insider interview that may surprise some fans of the Rambo franchise, former US Army Special Forces and Delta Force Operator Bob Keller awarded First Blood an almost perfect score when it comes to accuracy. Keller is not quick to compliment the accuracy of Hollywood blockbusters, with many notable тιтles earning less than 6 out of 10 from the hard marker. However, Keller admitted that the adaptation of David Morrell’s novel is pretty unimpeachable in its depiction of a Special Forces soldier using his training out of necessity.

Keller conceded that some moments from First Blood could look “A little hanky,” but nonetheless insisted that “The reality of it, of this guy doing all that stuff to these guys and it being that easy? 100% legit.” This could come as a shock considering Rambo‘s Saturday morning cartoon The Force of Freedom was part of the same movie franchise. However, viewers who question Keller’s claims would do well to revisit the series and see firsthand just how dramatically its tone and content changed between movies.

As early as 1986’s Rambo: First Blood Part II, Stallone’s character had changed considerably. The tortured, psychologically wounded antihero of the original movie became a one-liner-spouting, perpetually shirtless action hero who returned to Vietnam to relitigate America’s bloody invasion and ensure “We get to win this time.” The series only got more far-fetched from thereon out, as Rambo III turned Stallone’s character into a James Bond-esque super-spy sent to the Middle East to intervene in Afghanistan. 2008’s Rambo was a shockingly gory reboot that ramped up the grotesque violence and abandoned any attempts at realism.

The Rambo Sequels Ramped Up The Action Way Too Much

Later Rambo Movies Soon Became Outright Ludicrous

By the time Rambo turned an anti-aircraft gun on soldiers in Rambo’s finale and reduced them to chunks of gore, it was tough to claim that the series felt anything like the elegiac First Blood. 2019’s Rambo: Last Blood was the critical nadir of the franchise, following Rambo as he booby-trapped a ranch and slaughtered an entire Mexican drug cartel in an ultra-violent remix of Home Alone. From Rambo: First Blood Part II onwards, the series became more cartoonish, over-the-top, and detached from reality with each new movie.

As Rambo was alreday taking down helicopters with arrows in Rambo: First Blood Part II, it took a lot for subsequent sequels to up the ante even further. A franchise that began life by critiquing the treatment of American veterans and questioning the invasion of Vietnam ended by reveling in the indestructible Rambo’s indiscriminate murder of one-dimensional, irredeemably evil villains. Tarantino criticized First Blood for softening Morrell’s novel, but it is First Blood’s sequels that completely alter the franchise’s tone and turn Rambo into an unambiguous hero and cheerleader for permanent war.

You Can Easily Forget What The First Rambo Was About After Watching The Sequels

Rambo’s Sequels Completely Undid The Original Movie’s Entire Message

First Blood offers an uncompromising look at small-town corruption in America and raises questions about the Vietnam invasion’s bloody historical footprint. While hardly as antiwar as Platoon or Born on the Fourth of July, First Blood does question the training Rambo received and how his experiences during the war impacted his worldview when he returned home.

Like the First Blood homage Rebel Ridge, the original Rambo movie is more concerned with police corruption than the American military-industrial complex. In contrast, every sequel offers a progressively more positive image of the uncomplicated hero Rambo, and an aggressively pro-conflict depiction of warfare. It is almost impossible to recall First Blood’s criticisms of war when watching Rambo gleefully annihilate Burmese troops or decapitate interchangeable, faceless cartel enforcers. The Rambo sequels reduced their antihero to a cartoon, meaning First Blood’s surprisingly accurate view of the veteran’s experience ended up almost forgotten.

Source: Insider