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.

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 worldwide box office blockbuster, with an estimated 42 million tickets sold in the United States. It has become one of the most recognized and memorable installments in the series, having inspired countless rip-offs, parodies, video games, and imitations. ''Entertainment Weekly'' ranked the movie number 23 on its list of "The Best Rock-'em, Sock-'em Movies of the Past 25 Years".

Plot

Three years after the incident in Hope, Washington, former US Army Green Beret John Rambo, now imprisoned at a penal labor facility, receives a visit from his former mission commander and old friend, Colonel Sam Trautman. With the Vietnam War now officially over, the public has become increasingly concerned over news that US POWs have been left in enemy custody in Vietnam. To placate their demands for action, the US government has authorized a solo infiltration mission to confirm the reports. Rambo agrees to undertake the operation in exchange for a pardon.

In Thailand, Rambo is taken to meet Marshall Murdock, the bureaucrat overseeing the operation. He is temporarily reinstated into the US Army and instructed only to take pictures of a suspected POW camp, not to attempt their rescue or engage any enemy personnel. He is told that any POWs are to be retrieved by a better-equipped extraction team upon his return.

During his aerial insertion, Rambo's parachute gets caught in the airplane door, forcing him to cut himself free and jettison most of his equipment, leaving him with only his knives, bow and arrows. He meets his assigned contact, a young female Vietnamese intelligence agent named Co Bao, who arranges for a local band of river pirates to take them upriver. Reaching the army camp, Rambo sees that it is not deserted and sneaks inside, spotting a group of POWs. When he finds one of them tied to a cross-shaped post, suffering from exposure, he frees him against orders and flees with Co and the POW.

During their escape, they are discovered by Vietnamese troops and cut off by an armed gunboat. The river pirates betray them, intending to hand them over to the Vietnamese troops. But Rambo kills the pirates and destroys the gunboat with an RPG, while the POW and Co Bao swim to safety. Rambo asks Co to stay behind shortly before they reach the Extraction Point. When the approaching rescue helicopter, with Col. Trautman inside, radios back to base that Rambo appears to have found a POW, Murdock orders the crew to abort the rescue. Trautman, held at gunpoint by the side gunner, is powerless to intercept the crew from abandoning Rambo and the POW. Co watches as they are both captured and returned to the Vietnamese camp.

When Trautman confronts him, Murdock reveals that he never intended to save any POWs, explaining that Congress expected Rambo to find nothing, and admitting that even if he did, Murdock would dispose of any photographic evidence or even leave Rambo to die in the jungle. He removes Trautman from the mission to keep him from helping Rambo.

In captivity, Rambo soon realizes that Soviet troops are working with the Vietnamese army. He is interrogated by the local Soviet liaison, Lieutenant Colonel Podovsky, and his right-hand man, Sergeant Yushin. Having learned from intercepted missives that Rambo's extraction was aborted, Podovsky demands that Rambo broadcast a message to Murdock warning against any further POW rescue missions. Rambo refuses, and as Co infiltrates the camp disguised as a prostitute, he is brutally tortured with electric shocks.

After initially refusing to cooperate, Rambo finally relents when the prisoner he tried to rescue is brought in and threatened with eye-gouging. Rambo dials in his secret radio code frequency to contact his base, but uses the opportunity to directly threaten Murdock, then overpowers his Soviet captors and escapes the camp with Co's help. Rambo agrees to take Co to the United States, and they kiss. As they start moving again, a small Vietnamese force attacks the pair and Co is killed during the assault. An enraged Rambo guns down the soldiers and buries Co in the mud.

Rambo snaps and, using his knife and bow, systematically dispatches the numerous Soviet and Vietnamese soldiers sent after him, even using an explosive arrow to blow up the Vietnamese officer who killed Co. After surviving a barrel bomb dropped by Sgt. Yushin's helicopter, Rambo clambers aboard and fights him, throwing him out of the cabin to his death. Faced with Rambo's knife, the helicopter pilot quickly jumps out of the aircraft and Rambo takes control. He lays waste to the prison camp using helicopter rockets and machine gun fire, wiping out the remaining enemy forces before extracting all of the POWs and flying towards friendly territory in Thailand.

Podovsky, pursuing in a helicopter gunship, fires at Rambo's chopper, seemingly disabling it. But when the gunship moves in for the kill, Rambo, who had faked the crash of his helicopter, uses a rocket launcher to destroy the gunship, killing Podovsky. After returning to base with the POWs, Rambo uses the helicopter's machine gun to destroy Murdock's office and confronts the terrified bureaucrat with his knife, demanding that Murdock rescue the remaining POWs.

Trautman tries to convince Rambo to return home, now that he has been pardoned. When he refuses, Trautman asks Rambo what he wants. An irate Rambo responds that he only wants his country to love its soldiers as much as its soldiers love it. Trautman then asks Rambo how he will live, to which Rambo tersely replies, "Day by day". With that, the film credits roll as Rambo walks off into the distance.

Cast

* Sylvester Stallone as John J. Rambo
* Richard Crenna as Colonel Sam Trautman
* Charles Napier as Major Marshall Roger T. Murdock
* Steven Berkoff as Lieutenant Colonel Sergei T. Podovsky
* Julia Nickson as Agent Co Phuong Bao
* Martin Kove as Michael Reed Ericson
* George Cheung as Lieutenant Tay
* Andy Wood as Banks
* William Ghent as Captain Vinh
* Voyo Goric as Sergeant Yushin
* Dana Lee as Captain Trong Kinh
* Steve Williams as Lifer

Production

Development and writing

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. Producers wanted Rambo to have a partner for the POW rescue mission. They allegedly wanted John Travolta to play Rambo's sidekick, but Stallone vetoed the idea.''We Get to Win This Time'', 2002, Artisan Entertainment Lee Marvin (who had been considered for the role of Colonel Trautman in the first film) was offered the role of Marshall Murdock, but declined, and the role was given to Charles Napier.

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

"I wrote the first draft of "Rambo". And I just did it, I was living on dog food at the time and I, you know, I needed a gig and I wanted to finish a spec script I was writing. And you know, they called, Stallone called me in and they had this idea about what they should do in the sequel to "First Blood" and I said, "Well, how about if maybe he searches for POWs in Southeast Asia and back in Vietnam? He said "Great, let’s do it"

James Cameron was then hired to pen a first draft of the screenplay (Cameron had been recommended by David Giler, who did some uncredited script work on the first film) which he was concurrently writing along with ''The Terminator'' and ''Aliens'', both of which he would go on to direct. Cameron's first draft was titled ''First Blood II: The Mission''. According to Cameron, his script had the same basic structure of the first film, but was more violent than its predecessor. Cameron was quoted in a October 1986 issue of '' Monsterland'' magazine:

"It was quite a different film from FIRST BLOOD, apart from the continuation of the Rambo character. The first one was set in a small town, it had a different social consciousness from the second one, which was a very broad, stylized adventure. It was a little more violent in its execution than I had in mind in the writing"

Following Cameron’s initial draft, Stallone would take over scriptwriting duties, creating a final draft which differed from previous versions. Jarre would receive sole story credit, while Stallone and Cameron would get credited for the screenplay in the final film.

Stallone later recalled:

I think that James Cameron is a brilliant talent, but I thought the politics were important, such as a right-wing stance coming from Trautman and his nemesis, Murdock, contrasted by Rambo's obvious neutrality, which I believe is explained in Rambo's final speech. I realize his speech at the end may have caused millions of viewers to burst veins in their eyeballs by rolling them excessively, but the sentiment stated was conveyed to me by many veterans. ... lsoin his original draft it took nearly 30–40 pages to have any action initiated and Rambo was partnered with a tech-y sidekick. So it was more than just politics that were put into the script. There was also a simpler story line. If James Cameron says anything more than that, then he realizes he's now doing the backstroke badly in a pool of lies.

Before filming started, Stallone went through torturous trainings to build the perfect musculature. Writer David J. Moore said in the 2019 documentary film ''In Search of the Last Action Heroes'': "Here's a guy who went against the grain in everything that he ever did. Here's a guy who transformed himself, literally; he chiseled his own body into this statuesque, muscular specimen."''In Search of the Last Action Heroes''. Gravitas Ventures. 2019.

Filming

The film was shot between June and August 1984 on location in the state of Guerrero, Mexico, and Thailand. While vacationing in Acapulco, Ron South was hired on as assistant editor and thus his film career began here. During filming, special effects man Clifford P Wenger, Jr. was accidentally killed during one of the film's waterfall explosions, when he lost his footing and fell to his death.

Music

The musical score was composed by Jerry Goldsmith, conducting the British National Philharmonic Orchestra, although Goldsmith also made heavy use of electronic synthesized elements. The main song is sung by Stallone's brother, singer-songwriter Frank Stallone. Record label Varèse Sarabande issued the original soundtrack album.

# Main Title (2:12)
# Preparations (1:16)
# The Jump (3:18)
# The Snake (1:48)
# Stories (3:26)
# The Cage (3:55)
# Betrayed (4:22)
# Escape from Torture (3:39)
# Ambush (2:45)
# Revenge (6:14)
# Bowed Down (1:04)
# Pilot Over (1:52)
# Home Flight (3:01)
# Day by Day (2:06)
# Peace in Our Life – music by Frank Stallone, Peter Schless, and Jerry Goldsmith; lyrics by Frank Stallone; performed by Frank Stallone (3:18)

As released in the United Kingdom by That's Entertainment Records (the British licensee for Varèse Sarabande at the time), the UK version placed "Peace in Our Life" between "Betrayed" and "Escape from Torture", thus making "Day by Day" the final track.

In 1999, Silva America released an expanded edition with the cues in film order.

# Main Title (2:14)
# The Map (1:09)
# Preparations (1:18)
# The Jump (3:19)
# The Snake (1:49)
# The Pirates (1:29)
# Stories (3:27)
# The Camp/Forced Entry (2:24)
# The Cage (3:57)
# River Crash/The Gunboat (3:37)
# Betrayed (4:24)
# Bring Him Up/The Eyes (2:06)
# Escape from Torture (3:41)
# Ambush (2:47)
# Revenge (6:16)
# Bowed Down (1:06)
# Pilot Over (1:54)
# Village Raid/Helicopter Flight (4:55)
# Home Flight (3:02)
# Day By Day (2:08)
# Peace in Our Life (3:19) – Frank Stallone

Release

Marketing

Unusually for the time, a teaser trailer for the sequel—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 off the popularity of the first film. The sequel 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.

Home media

The video sold 425,000 units, a record for a tape with a retail price of $79.95.

''Rambo: First Blood Part II'' was released on DVD on November 23, 2004, and a Blu-ray release followed on May 23, 2008. ''Rambo: First Blood Part II'' was released on 4K UHD Blu-ray on November 13, 2018.

Reception

Box office

''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 $20,176,217. Overall, the film grossed $150,415,432 in the US and Canada, and $149,985,000 internationally, for a worldwide total of $300,400,432. The movie broke various international box office records. It set an opening weekend record in the United Kingdom with a gross of £1,085,513 from 322 screens, surpassing the record set by ''E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial''. In France, the film had a record opening day with 269,564 admissions.

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of based on 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." 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. Ron South loved the film.

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." ''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." 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." 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." 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." 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."

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.

Accolades

Legacy

The film was referenced in the 1985 episode of ''The Golden Girls'', titled " On Golden Girls". Female characters seem to be aroused by John Rambo's muscular physique, and Sophia Petrillo (Estelle Getty) says: "I sat through it twice. You'll love it! He sweats like a pig and he doesn't put his shirt on!"

Other media

Sequel

A sequel titled ''Rambo III'', was released in 1988.

Novelization

David Morrell, author of ''First Blood'', the novel the first ''Rambo'' film is based on, wrote a novelization called ''Rambo: First Blood Part II''.

Video games

A tie-in video game called ''Rambo'' was produced for ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC and Commodore 64. There was also ''Rambo'' for NES, as well as a '' Rambo: First Blood Part II'' for Sega. MSX and DOS games were based on the film. Sega later adapted some of the battle scenes in the film for the 2008 arcade game, ''Rambo''. In 2014, '' Rambo: The Video Game'', based on the first three ''Rambo'' films, was released.

The 1986, run-and-gun shooter arcade hit ''Ikari Warriors'' was originally intended by its developer SNK to be an official licensed adaptation of ''Rambo''. However, they were initially unable to acquire the rights to the film. This resulted in the game's title being changed to ''Ikari'', referencing part of the film's Japanese title, ''Rambo: Ikari no Dasshutsu'' ("Rambo: The Furious Escape"). After the game made its North American debut at an arcade game expo, they managed to get in touch with Sylvester Stallone about acquiring the rights to the film. However, it was too late by that point, as the game had already become popularly known by its Japanese ''Ikari'' title among arcade players in Japan and North America, which led to the game's official release as ''Ikari Warriors'' in North America. Stallone was friends with SNK's president at the time, and owned an ''Ikari Warriors'' arcade cabinet.

In popular culture

* ''Missing in Action'', an American film inspired by ''Rambo: First Blood Part II''
* '' Strike Commando'', an Italian film described as an imitation of ''Rambo: First Blood Part II''
* ''Hot Shots! Part Deux'', an American parody film of ''Rambo: First Blood Part II'' and ''Rambo III'' with the colonel role reprised by Richard Crenna
* ''Second Blood'', a Kuwaiti action film inspired by ''Rambo: First Blood Part II''
* ''UHF'' is a 1989 comedy-parody film starring "Weird Al" Yankovic as a low-budget television station manager. Late in the film, Yankovic's character, George Newman, has a fantasy in which he envisions himself as a Rambo-type soldier on mission to rescue Stanley Spadowski (Michael Richards) from a rival station owner's goons, during which Yankovic wears a muscular body suit to imitate Stallone's physique. The fantasy sequence is a parody exaggeration of the action sequences in about the last third of ''Rambo: First Blood Part II''. Stallone himself had initially agreed to make a cameo appearance in the sequence, but ultimately declined to do so.

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Rambo First Blood Part II
1985 films
1980s English-language films
Vietnamese-language films
1980s action films
1980s adventure films
American action films
American anti-communist propaganda films
American sequel films
Cold War films
Films about missing people
Films set in 1985
Films set in prison
Films set in Thailand
Films set in the United States
Films set in Vietnam
Films shot in Mexico
Golden Raspberry Award winning films
Rambo (franchise)
Films about United States Army Special Forces
TriStar Pictures films
Carolco Pictures films
StudioCanal films
Films scored by Jerry Goldsmith
Films directed by George P. Cosmatos
Films with screenplays by James Cameron
Films with screenplays by Sylvester Stallone
Vietnam War films
Films produced by Buzz Feitshans
1980s American films