There Would No longer be a Rambo 5

Stallone Reveals that there would No Longer be a fifth RAMBO Movie

EMPIRE had recently talked to Stallone in an interview (for the EXPENDABLES movie), he revealed that there would never be a fifth RAMBO movie anymore. He had this to say:


“I think Rambo’s pretty well done. I don’t think there’ll be any more. I’m about 99% sure.


I was going to do it, I said I’d never talk about this, but I feel that with Rocky Balboa, that character came complete circle. He went home. But for Rambo to go on another adventure might be, I think, misinterpreted as a mercenary gesture and not necessary. I don’t want that to happen.


I’m very happy with the last Burmese episode, because I didn’t pull any punches on it, I wanted it to be what civil war really is – rough. You can’t candy coat it, and where do you go from there? So that’s [Rambo V] going to go.”

Stallone’s not done with Rambo completely, though. He told Empire that he’s at work on a director’s cut of Rambo which will restore twelve minutes to the movie, including a surprising outburst of loquaciousness for the mumbling man of action at the movie’s beginning.

“He does a speech at the beginning of the movie to Julie Benz where he lays out why his life has been a complete disappointment and why war is natural and peace is an accident,” added Stallone. “And how he just feels that his life has been a waste. It’s very important to hear that and I didn’t think so at the time. I’m going to go back and put in some stuff.”

I saw this as a deleted scene on the DVD and I agree that it should have been included in the original version. Stallone said that he was afraid that it was going to sound preachy, but I didn't think so. The scene was beautiful and thought-provoking. Stallone did great with it, and to restore it unto a director's cut of the movie is a great idea.

I must say that this, Not doing the fifth Rambo movie, is one of the most smartest decisions ever made in the world of Hollywood. The fact that it gives much more weight on safeguarding the integrity of a movie franchise rather than just merely cashing in on its marketing power, is something that should be praised and gives the hope that the integrity of Hollywood films are not absolutely doomed to commercial trash.

Ever since the first Rambo movie "First Blood" we all know that its main character John Rambo is just a war veteran who is just looking to find his own peace. Sure, he is a killing machine (even as an old man living in the forests of Southeast Asia), but it is not in a clear willing choice that he is so. His stories are more of being driven to or forced unto the situation. The story of John Rambo gradually faltered a bit on the second movie (Rambo: First Blood 2, which is also my personal favorite movie of the series), and by the third movie, Rambo became a bit of a video game character, impossibly invincible and unstoppable. When the fourth Rambo movie came, it was a pleasant surprise that the characterization of Rambo came back to the same mood as that of First Blood. Sans the violence (which regular audiences might consider too extreme for their senses), the 4th Rambo movie (titled merely "Rambo" in the US and UK cinemas, but titled as "John Rambo" in Philippine cinemas and other parts of the world too) was well-written, well-directed, and had a mature approach to the Rambo series. And this movie also delivered a fitting end to the character of Rambo. Ever since First Blood, Rambo just merely wanted to get home, away from the war he had been into. By the end of "John Rambo" we finally get to see him set foot home. And that is the way it should go for this movie franchise, to close the movie properly with a character having his own happy ending.

To do otherwise would ruin the characterization of Rambo. We do not want Rambo to become this goofy cartoon character or video game character. Rambo was fleshed out well in the first and last movie, there is no need to turn him into something really childish. The story of Rambo has ended. And it was a good end.