Rambo was originally supposed to have a much sadder ending – until Sylvester Stallone threatened to quit

Will Smith in The Matrix, Mel Gibson as Gladiator – in many cases a single decision changed film history forever. This also applies to Rambo. One of the biggest cult films in the action genre was supposed to have a completely different ending. But Sylvester Stallone hated it. And he prevailed. Sylvester Stallone didn’t want to disturb war veterans with Rambo

As Digital Spy quotes from the Netflix documentary Sly, Stallone explains:

In the original script shoot me Colonel Trautmann [Richard Crenna] at the end and I die in slow motion. I said to director [Ted Kotcheff]: This is not good. I don’t want Vietnam veterans to see me get shot and think, ‘Aha, so there’s no hope for me.’

Check out the trailer for Rambo here:

In the first Rambo film, Vietnam War veteran Rambo is harassed by the police in a mountain town until he retaliates with brutal force. Ultimately, only his former superior Colonel Trautmann can do it make you turn yourself in to the police.

As Stallone’s description suggests, he apparently refused to continue working on Rambo unless the ending was changed. Despite massive pressure from producers, the actor didn’t give in: “At that time They lost 20,000 veterans a month to suicide. I didn’t want any part of that.”

Of course, a living protagonist also had the advantage that the action film could be expanded into a franchise. The last part of the series was released with Rambo: Last Blood in 2019. Sylvester Stallone now wants to appoint Ryan Gosling as his successor.

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