Rambo and Rocky are Sylvester Stallone’s two most iconic characters. However, the actor has already been sued after changing the outcome of the original film.
The movie that started it all has a very different tone from its sequels. It’s dark and contemplative and has a lot to say about the psyche of a man who endured the horrors of war.
For that reason, he was willing to risk a legal battle, and potentially his career, to keep this film’s ending.
We reveal, below, what the original ending of Rambo would have been like and how Sylvester Stallone managed to put his ending in the film; check out!
Fight for the end of Rambo
In the final moments of Rambo, the titular character is cornered during a confrontation with the police. His friend, Colonel Sam Trautman (Richard Crenna), is there to support him as he vents about the trauma he suffered while serving in the Vietnam War.
He surrenders and is taken into custody, but that’s not how the movie was originally going to end. The intended conclusion would have Rambo either being killed by Trautman or committing suicide, which Stallone was vehemently against.
“That is not the message. Is the only way out to die?’” Stallone asked in an interview with Tom Power.
According to Stallone (via Looper), director Ted Kotcheff was not happy with his attempt to change the ending. After taking out his frustration on set, he sued Stallone for committing himself to Rambo’s survival.
Stallone eventually grudgingly filmed the death scene, although test audiences despised it, so Stallone’s version was chosen.
About the author
Guilherme Coral
Refugee from a galaxy far, far away, I landed on this planet in sector 2814 by mistake. Thanks to my passion for films and series, I was taken to the Cinema and Audiovisual course and I am currently venturing into the Faculty of Journalism.