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Ask the average film goer to describe John Rambo, the character that Sylvester Stallone played across five films, and they’ll probably use words like “ripped,” “violent,” or “carrying a very large gun.” They probably won’t use words such as “PTSD” or “quiet,” even though those are the two best descriptors for the character’s first movie appearance, back in 1982’s First Blood. While that film certainly had its share of thrilling adventure sequences, it also had a sympathetic portrait of a man traumatized by the war in Vietnam and unable to reintegrate into society.
Those qualities were abandoned with the sequel Rambo: First Blood Part II in 1985, giving the franchise its reputation as a jingoistic guilty pleasure. But with the upcoming prequel John Rambo, director Jalmari Helander is trying to recover the character’s more sympathetic roots.
“When I was 11, I saw First Blood for the first time, and it changed my life,” Helander said in a social media post. “Rambo wasn’t just a film to me — it stayed with me growing up and was a defining influence on why I wanted to become a filmmaker. As we begin production on the origin of John Rambo, we’re going back to the beginning. This is Rambo stripped down, raw and real — a survival story about endurance, persistence and lost innocence. It’s an honor to shape this next chapter with deep respect for the character and the legacy, and to bring audiences the start of John Rambo’s journey.”
The two most recent Rambo films, Rambo from 2008 and Rambo: Last Blood from 2019, were both stripped down and raw. But neither of them had any of the depth of the first movie, nor the depth that Helander describes, especially compared to First Blood. The first movie was a relatively small-scale affair, telling the story of how Rambo (Stallone) was simply minding his own business when the local police (lead by Brian Dennehy) decide to harass him. What follows is action set-piece after action set-piece, as Rambo uses his Special Forces skills to decimate the bully cops. But even at its most spectacular, Rambo has a grounded sadness, thanks to Stallone’s quiet, soulful performance and excellent direction by Ted Kotcheff.
John Rambo hopes to bring the title character back to that point. Noah Centineo steps into the title role, presumably to play the character during his days in Vietnam. This version will certainly have plenty of action, showing Rambo at the height of his powers. But it will likely also show the events that left him so mentally scared, leaving him the shell of a man we meet in First Blood.
If Helander and Centineo can handle those events with as much sensitivity as the 1982 film, then the character can once again stand for more than just big-screen action. The name John Rambo can also bring to mind a complex character, somebody who’s more than muscles and mayhem.
John Rambo is now in production.
The post Can the Rambo Prequel Return Depth to the Franchise? appeared first on Den of Geek.
