‘Rambo’ Prequel: Here’s Sylvester Stallone’s Idea for Another Movie After ‘Last Blood’
The story would explore Rambo’s life before 1982’s “First Blood.”
Someone other than Sylvester Stallone playing John Rambo? Another Rambo movie, even though Rambo: Last Blood just launched? It’s totally possible, if Stallone ever produces a prequel idea for the movie franchise that he described to Screen Rant.
That’s right: Sly came up with an idea for I Was a Teenage Rambo.
That wasn’t actually the title, we made that up. But if you read the story description the actor, director, and writer gave to SR, you can see the logic behind the joke:
I always thought of Rambo when he was 16 or 17 – I hope they can do the prequel – he was the best person you could find. He was the captain of the team; he was the most popular kid in school; super athlete. He was like Jim Thorpe, and the war is what changed him. If you saw him before, he was like the perfect guy.
For Stallone, then, John Rambo was a high school golden boy twisted into a vengeful rage machine by the horrors of the Vietnam War.
It’s a pretty dark hero’s journey if you think about it, but it’s true that the character Stallone describes still has his own morality right to the end—he may excel at creatively killing his foes, but he’s always the one on the side of justice.
Then again, if reviews of Last Blood are any indication, interest in another Rambo movie of any kind might be diminished for a while. It’s currently got a miserable critics’ score of 28% on Rotten Tomatoes. Critical barbs like these abound:
- “Rambo has always been a monster, but in his old age, he has become something even worse: no fun.” – AV Club
- “Mercifully, it only runs 89 minutes.” – SSG Syndicate
- “An unwatchable piece of excrement.” – ReelViews
Oof. To make matters worse, Rambo: Last Blood was brutally beaten by no less than Downton Abbey at the weekend box office.
Sadly, it’s a safe bet we won’t see Teen Rambo anytime soon.
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