How Schwarzenegger And Stallone's Rivalry Fueled A Golden Age Of Action Movies
When hard-bodied action heroes emerged on-screen in the 1980s, they were a far cry from the heroes of the previous decade, who tended to be fast-talking, suit-wearing scoundrels. At the top of the muscled, oil-slicked heap were the two most bankable stars of their day: Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone.
In the Netflix documentary series "Arnold," Stallone explained how a new type of hero was taking shape, one less reliant on verbal innuendo, and he and Schwarzenegger were uniquely equipped to become the poster boys. "You actually relied upon your body to tell the story. Dialogue was not necessary," Stallone said. "I saw that there was an opportunity, because no one else was doing this except some other guy from Austria, who doesn't need to say much."
What resulted was a contentious rivalry between the two stars that manifested as an escalating game of one-upmanship. When Stallone made his John Rambo debut in "First Blood," Schwarzenegger made his own military action flick with "Commando." As Stallone's suite of '80s "Rambo" and "Rocky" movies featured increasingly bigger muscles and thrills, Schwarzenegger clapped back with "Predator."
"Sly and I were at war," Schwarzenegger recalled. "We competed about everything. The body being ripped and oiled up. Who is more vicious? Who is more tough? Who uses bigger knives? Who uses bigger guns?"
Schwarzenegger credits Stallone with giving him the push he needed
Schwarzenegger and Stallone's rivalry was famously contentious. "We were incredibly antagonistic," Stallone said in his former foe's docuseries. "We couldn't stand to be in the same room. People had to separate us." That contention played out on the screen, albeit across separate projects. Following the trajectory of their work through the decade was like observing some violent, multi-million dollar battle. "We became incredibly competitive, like Ali and Frazier, or great warriors that are traveling the same course," Stallone recalled. "There was only room for one of us."
The rivalry didn't only churn out classic action fare. At the peak of their hatred for one another, Schwarzenegger tricked Stallone into starring in the comedy dud "Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot" after falsely claiming he wanted the project for himself.
Nowadays, Stallone and Schwarzenegger's beef is a thing of the past, and the stars have become good friends. Hindsight being 20/20, Schwarzenegger even credits his pal with pushing his career forward. "Without Stallone, I maybe wouldn't have been as motivated in the '80s to do the kind of movies that I did and to work as hard as I did," the actor admitted.
Stallone is also humbler than he was 30-plus years ago, and he concedes that Schwarzenegger was the victor of their years-long competition. "He was superior," Stallone confessed. "He just had all the answers. He had the body. He had the strength. That was his character."