Rambo V: Sylvester Stallone Talks Rambo's Past In Instagram Post
Sylvester Stallone is very, very excited to be playing John J. Rambo one last time.
As he's done several times in recent months, the star took to Instagram to share new images along with text that gives us a deeper insight into the backstory of the iconic character whose story he'll be closing out with Rambo V: Last Blood.
Introduced in 1982's First Blood, Rambo was never given much of a detailed history beyond being a Green Beret (you know... they're "real badasses"), and the fact that he was trained to ignore pain, ignore weather, live off the land, and eat things that would make a billy goat puke. Sly's latest Instagram post, depicting the one-man army as a fresh-faced young man not yet molded into the ultimate killing machine, contained some surprisingly specific details about Rambo's time in the military, while also alluding to the fact that for him, war is more of a constant state of mind than anything else. A second photo, most likely taken on-set, showed Sly in character looking as if he's either nursing a serious headache, about to open up a king-sized can of whoopass, or perhaps both.
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Sly Stallone (@officialslystallone) on Feb 10, 2019 at 6:53pm PST
For those unaware, the saga of Rambo was one of the more reliable action franchises of the '80s, despite the fact that First Blood was obviously never intended to launch a series. The first flick was adapted from a novel of the same name by David Morrell in which a mysterious, traumatized Vietnam vet is pursued by police through the forests of the Northwest for the petty crime of vagrancy, which does not end well for the police. In the novel, Rambo commits suicide at the end, a fate almost shared by the character in the movie (Stallone, in fact, had to talk director Ted Kotcheff into cutting poor Rambo a break after the final scene had already been shot in keeping with the source material). Although the film received mixed reviews, it absolutely cleaned up at the box office, and the character transitioned from put-upon anti-hero to full on indestructible agent of death for 1985's Rambo: First Blood Part II, which saw Rambo returning to Vietnam on a "fact-finding" mission in which he ended up basically taking on anyone with a gun in the entire country. That film did bonkers box office and rendered "Rambo" shorthand for "badass" for the rest of the decade and beyond; 1988's Rambo III moved the action to Afghanistan, and seemingly served as an end to the series.
But then, fully two decades later, came 2008's simply-titled Rambo, directed by Stallone and finding our hero minding his own business as a snake catcher in Thailand (we've all been at that point in our lives) before being forced back into action to protect a group of missionaries from corrupt Burmese soldiers. While the flick's reviews were thoroughly mixed, fans mostly found it to be a satisfactory continuation of Rambo's story, and were also blown away (no pun intended) by its absolutely insane level of violence.
Now comes Rambo V, and throughout its production, Stallone has popped up on Instagram to offer set photos sketching out the flick's story. Among them: a cowboy hat-sporting Rambo looking intense in a rainstorm; our hero in similar garb riding a horse; Rambo wielding his all-time favorite weapon, a bow and arrow (explosive arrow tips optional); and a short series highlighting the new film's co-stars.
Helping to fill in some more details is the official synopsis, which was released online last November and explains the cowboy hat. It is as follows: "[Rambo finds himself] living on a ranch in Arizona, deeply troubled and wrestling with PTSD as he picks up casual work wherever he can. When long-time family friend and estate manager Maria informs Rambo that her grand-daughter has gone missing after crossing into Mexico for a party, he sets off with her to find the youngster. What ensues is a violent descent into hell as Rambo uncovers a sex-trafficking ring. He teams up with a journalist whose half-sister has also been kidnapped and must deploy all his skills to save the girls and bring down a vicious crime lord."
As we all know, being deeply troubled and wrestling with PTSD has never kept Rambo from kicking massive amounts of ass in the past; we don't see any reason why this final outing will be any different. While no official release date has been set, Rambo V: Last Blood is expected to hit screens sometime this year; we'll be here to report additional details as they become available.