First Blood

1982
R
1h 33m

IMDb RATING

7.7/10

282K

YOUR RATING

POPULARITY

Play trailer2:21

One-Person Army Action Action Adventure Thriller

A veteran Green Beret is forced by a cruel Sheriff and his deputies to flee into the mountains and wage an escalating one-man war against his pursuers.A veteran Green Beret is forced by a cruel Sheriff and his deputies to flee into the mountains and wage an escalating one-man war against his pursuers.A veteran Green Beret is forced by a cruel Sheriff and his deputies to flee into the mountains and wage an escalating one-man war against his pursuers.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.7/10

282K

YOUR RATING

POPULARITY

1,598

584

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 1 win & 4 nominations

Shingleton
(as David Crowley)

Don MacKay

Preston
(as Don Mackay)

Charles A. Tamburro

Pilot
(as Chuck Tamburro)

David Petersen

Trooper

Craig Huston

Radio Operator
(as Craig Wright Huston)

Patrick Stack

Lt. Clinton Morgen

Stephen E. Miller

Guardsman #1

Raimund Stamm

Guardsman #2

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Storyline

Edit

Did you know

Edit

Trivia
The large piece of rotten canvas that Rambo finds in the woods and cuts into a makeshift coat was in fact not a movie prop, but a real piece of rotten canvas found by the film crew during the movie's production. Since there was only one piece, Sylvester Stallone joked about how the canvas became a treasured prop on the set. After filming ended, Stallone kept the rotten canvas and still has it in his possession to this very day.

Goofs
When Sheriff Teasle (Brian Dennehy) gets out of his squad car to arrest Rambo, he has a visible twitch in the blinking of his eyes. In an interview, Dennehy related to talk show host Merv Griffin that he took Rambo's knife out of the sheath and then, while handling the knife, accidentally jammed it into his hand, but Dennehy continued with the scene even though the pain was causing his eyes to visibly twitch.

Quotes
Trautman: [1:24:53] You did everything to make this private war happen. You've done enough damage. This mission is over, Rambo. Do you understand me? This mission is over! Look at them out there! Look at them! If you won't end this now, they will kill you. Is that what you want? It's over Johnny. It's over!
Rambo: Nothing is over! Nothing! You just don't turn it off! It wasn't my war! You asked me, I didn't ask you! And I did what I had to do to win! But somebody wouldn't let us win! And I come back to the world and I see all those maggots at the airport, protesting me, spitting. Calling me baby killer and all kinds of vile crap! Who are they to protest me, huh? Who are they? Unless they've been me and been there and know what the hell they're yelling about!
Trautman: It was a bad time for everyone, Rambo. It's all in the past now.
Rambo: For *you*! For me civilian life is nothing! In the field we had a code of honor, you watch my back, I watch yours. Back here there's nothing!
Trautman: You're the last of an elite group, don't end it like this.
Rambo: Back there I could fly a gunship, I could drive a tank, I was in charge of million dollar equipment, back here I can't even hold a job *parking cars*!

Alternate versions
NBC edited 3 minutes from this film for its 1985 network television premiere.

Connections
Edited into Tough Guise: Violence, Media & the Crisis in Masculinity (1999)

Soundtracks
It's a Long Road
Music by Jerry Goldsmith
Lyrics by Hal Shaper
Arranged by David Paich and Marty Paich
Produced by Bruce Botnick
Sung by Dan Hill

User reviews602

Review

Featured review

In war, a hero, in peace, forsaken.

This is a truly unique movie that quickly became obscured due to the later sequels. It tells the story of a man who survived one hell, only to return home despised and forsaken because of it. There was a time when America didn't quite know what to think of the lost war, and so it was forgotten - and the men who came out of it as well. Rambo finds he cannot survive this war, because it is still going on within him.

Finally, pushed too far by a small town sheriff, Rambo returns to the only thing he can relate to. War. Yet it is a war he almost mercifully wages on the macho egotistical deputies and week end warriors that pursue. To potentially misquote Rambo :

"I coulda killed them all, I could have killed you. In town you're the law, out here it's me. Let it go..."

KL-6
Sep 28, 1999
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