base in Thailand in retribution for the government’s abandonment of its own soldiers. Falling into the clutches of Vietnamese troops and their eeeeevil Soviet allies, Rambo is freed by rebel Co (Julia Nickson), his love interest, whose death post-escape sets Rambo on a rampage he steals a Soviet helicopter, levels the Vietnamese and Soviet camp, saves the remaining POWs, and wrecks up the U.S. Making matters worse, Murdock (Charles Napier), the government suit overseeing the operation, kiboshes Rambo’s extraction and reveals he never meant to save the POWs at all. The mission only requires some easy recon, but he can’t help himself spotting one of the POWs tied like Jesus to the cross, Rambo defies orders and the mission goes to hell in a ham sandwich. Trautman offers Rambo a pardon if he goes to Vietnam to track a group of U.S. Prison gives him much-needed structure and routine. Moving as the image of Rambo weeping in Trautman’s arms is, it’s not enough for a Get Out of Jail Free card - so when First Blood Part II opens, we find him pulling heavy duty labor behind bars. Rambo goes on a tear and nearly kills Teasle, until Trautman intervenes and persuades him to surrender peacefully (what passes for peacefully, anyway) He comforts Rambo as he breaks down over his grief and past trauma in the film’s most powerful scene. Teasle ignores him and keeps pushing Rambo, which in the pantheon of Very Bad Ideas™ ranks up there with giving Jason Voorhees a machete. Not that Teasle cares.Īs the situation spirals out of hand, Rambo’s erstwhile CO, Trautman (Richard Crenna), arrives to talk Rambo down. Teasle arrests him and surrenders him to his officers for hazing, but this triggers Rambo’s PTSD he fights them off, flees into the woods, and in the ensuing manhunt, non-fatally dispatches Teasle’s deputies, save for one who dies in a helicopter accident. Rambo ain’t taking that, and runs right back in. Teasle thinks Rambo’s a bum and runs him out of town. We feel for Rambo - more so when he wanders into Hope, Washington, and runs afoul of Sheriff Teasle (Brian Dennehy). We meet Rambo as a scruffy drifter traveling to see his old Special Forces pal, who turns out to have died from Agent Orange exposure. The best film of the series is its most empathetic. A recap of every Rambo movie First Blood (1982)
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