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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.

This article is about the 1985 film. For the video game, see Rambo: First Blood Part II (Master System video game).

Rambo: First Blood Part II

  • May 22, 1985 (1985-05-22) (United States)

96 minutes[3]

United States[4]

English

$25.5 million[5]

$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 global blockbuster, with an estimated $150 million sold in the United States, becoming the second highest grossing film at the domestic box office and the third highest grossing film worldwide in 1985. It has become one of the most recognized installments in the series, having inspired countless rip-offs, parodies, video games and imitations. In 2009, 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[edit]

Three years after the events in Hope, Washington, former U.S. Army Green Beret John Rambo is imprisoned at a penal labor facility. He is met by Colonel Sam Trautman, his commanding officer during the Vietnam War. Trautman explains that the U.S. government is under pressure because of reports that POWs are still being held in Vietnam. To placate the public, a solo infiltration mission has been approved. Rambo agrees to take the mission in exchange for a pardon.


Rambo and Trautman arrive in Thailand, where they meets helicopter pilot Ericson, his partner Lifer, and Marshall Murdock, the bureaucrat overseeing the operation. He is instructed to take pictures of a suspected POW camp, but not to engage enemy personnel or attempt a rescue. Rambo confides to Trautman that he is the only person involved whom Rambo trusts.


During his aerial insertion, Rambo's parachute gets caught. He is forced to cut himself free and jettison most of his gear, leaving him only with knives and a bow and arrow. His assigned contact, Vietnamese intelligence agent Co Bao, arranges for local river pirates to take them upriver. Rambo reaches the Vietnamese camp, which is commanded by Captain Vinh and Lieutenant Tay. Rambo confirms the presence of POWs. Against orders, he frees a POW named Banks.


Rambo, Co, and Banks attempt to withdraw, but the river pirates betray them as a Vietnamese gunboat closes in. Rambo kills the pirates and disables the gunboat with an RPG. Shortly before reaching an extraction point, Rambo and Banks separate from Co. Under mortar attack, they are spotted by Trautman aboard a rescue helicopter with Ericson and Lifer. Trautman informs base, but Murdock responds by ordering Ericson to abort the rescue. Lifer prevents Trautman from interfering as the crew abandons Rambo and Banks, who are captured by the Vietnamese. Confronted by Trautman upon his return to base, Murdock reveals that the mission was a sham. Any evidence of POWs would have been ignored, as the discovery would have forced the United States to expend resources securing their release.


At the POW camp, Rambo finds that the Vietnamese are being assisted by the Soviet military. Soviet liaison Lieutenant Colonel Podovsky and his right-hand man, Sergeant Yushin, abuse and interrogate Rambo. Podovsky demands that he broadcast a message to Murdock discouraging further rescue missions. Rambo refuses and is tortured with electric shocks. He finally relents when Banks is brought in and threatened with eye-gouging. Rambo dials in a secret radio frequency to contact his base and uses the opportunity to threaten Murdock. He then overpowers his captors and escapes the camp with the help of Co, who has infiltrated the camp. Co attends to Rambo's wounds, the two kiss, and Rambo agrees to take her to the United States. They immediately encounter enemy soldiers, and Co is fatally shot by Lieutenant Kay. Rambo returns fire, then promises a dying Co that he will remember her. He buries her, cutting a red headband from her dress and donning her necklace.


Rambo stealthily kills the soldiers pursuing him and kills Tay with an explosive-tipped arrow. Yushin attacks him from a helicopter. When it comes close to the ground, Rambo emerges from a pool of water and climbs on board. He throws Yushin to his death, hijacks the helicopter, and uses it to attack the POW camp. He frees Banks and several other POWs. They board the captured helicopter, but they are pursued by Podovsky in a Mil Mi-24 attack helicopter. Rambo fakes a crash to trick Podovsky, then kills him by destroying his helicopter with a rocket launcher.


Rambo and the POWs return to base. Rambo hits Ericson for abandoning him, then angrily fires a machine gun into the mission control room. He threatens Murdock and demands that other POWs be rescued. Trautman tries to convince Rambo to return to a peaceful life at home. Rambo refuses, saying he wants the U.S. to care about its soldiers before walking away.

Production[edit]

Development 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]


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

Rambo: First Blood Part II (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

1985

Release[edit]

Marketing[edit]

Unusually for the time, a teaser trailer for Rambo: First Blood Part II—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 on the popularity of the first film.[15][8] The film 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.[16][17]


Rambo: First Blood Part II was released on DVD on November 23, 2004. A Blu-ray release followed on May 23, 2008.[18] Rambo: First Blood Part II was released on 4K UHD Blu-ray on November 13, 2018.[19]

Reception[edit]

Box 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 $20.2 million. Overall, the film grossed $150.4 million in the US and Canada, and $150 million internationally, for a worldwide total of $300.4 million.[6] The film broke various international box office records.[20] It set an opening weekend record in the United Kingdom with a gross of £1.1 million from 322 screens, surpassing the record set by E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982).[21] In France, the film had a record opening day with 269,564 admissions and a record week with 2,075,238 admissions.[22][23]

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."[24] 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".[25]


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."[26] 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."[27] 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."[28] 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."[29] 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."[30] 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."[31]


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.[32]

, an Italian film described as an imitation of Rambo: First Blood Part II[36]

Strike Commando

, an American parody film of Rambo: First Blood Part II and Rambo III with the colonel role reprised by Richard Crenna[37]

Hot Shots! Part Deux

, a Kuwaiti action film inspired by Rambo: First Blood Part II[38][39][40]

Second Blood

In , a 1989 comedy-parody film, low-budget television station manager George Newman has a fantasy in which he envisions himself as a Rambo-type soldier on mission to rescue Stanley Spadowski from a rival station owner's goons. The fantasy sequence is a parody of action sequences in Rambo: First Blood Part II. Stallone had initially agreed to make a cameo appearance in the sequence, but ultimately declined to do so.[41]

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