First Blood

Name: First Blood
Genre: Action, Adventure, Thriller, War, Drama
Released: 1982-10-22
Duration: 1 h 33 min
Rating: 7.8
Cast: Sylvester Stallone, Richard Crenna, Brian Dennehy, Bill McKinney, Jack Starrett

This time he's fighting for his life.

First Blood (1982)

Timing: 1:33 (93 min)

7.8/10
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7.5/10
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7.7/10
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Everything about the movie

Video 21

Photo 151

Actors and characters

Video for the film First Blood — Official Lionsgate 40th Anniversary Trailer

1:43

Photo 151

Release date

1982-10-22

Country

United States, Netherlands Antilles

Production

Carolco Pictures, Anabasis N.V., Elcajo Productions, Cinema 84, Orion Pictures

Genre

Action, Adventure, Thriller, War, Drama

Budget

$15 000 000

Box office

$125 212 904

Website

https://www.lionsgate.com/movies/rambo-first-blood

Director

Ted Kotcheff

Actors

Sylvester Stallone, Richard Crenna, Brian Dennehy, Bill McKinney, Jack Starrett, Michael Talbott, Chris Mulkey, John McLiam, Alf Humphreys, David Caruso
All actors and roles (10)

Scenario

Producer

Buzz Feitshans, Mario Kassar, Andrew G. Vajna

Camera operator

Andrew Laszlo

Composer

Jerry Goldsmith

Artist

Wolf Kroeger

Audition

Editing

Joan E. Chapman
Whole Team (84)

Short description

When former Green Beret John Rambo is harassed by local law enforcement and arrested for vagrancy, he is forced to flee into the mountains and wage an escalating one-man war against his pursuers.

What's left behind the scenes

The film is based on David Morrell's novel "First Blood," written in 1972.
"Rambo" is the name of an apple variety – it was, according to the author of the original book, the apple variety that gave the surname to the main character.
The initially planned budget of $11 million was significantly exceeded. The total cost of the film amounted to almost $17 million, due to the fact that the filming process lasted one month longer.
Sylvester Stallone asked for $3.5 million for the role, but the film's producers persuaded him to agree to $2 million. He received another $1.5 million from the film's television broadcast rights.
Sylvester Stallone disliked the first version of the film so much that the actor even wanted to buy the tape and destroy it. He subsequently agreed with the producers to have his face appear as little as possible in the film – this reduced the runtime by half.
The film was shot in several provinces of British Columbia: Pitt Lake; Pitt Meadows; Golden Ears Provincial Park; Hope; Port Coquitlam; North Vancouver. Many scenes are composed according to the golden ratio, which adds to their expressiveness.
The machine gun used by Rambo in the fight scene with Teasle is an M60.
Nick Nolte, Chris Kristofferson, Jeff Bridges, Robert De Niro, and Michael Douglas turned down the role of Rambo.
Gene Hackman was considered for the role of Sheriff Teasle.
Lee Marvin was a candidate for the role of John Rambo.
An alternative ending was filmed in which Rambo committed suicide. However, test screenings showed that audiences found such an ending too depressing.
Despite the film's reputation for being excessively violent, only one person actually died during filming.
Differences from the book: In the book, the cave where Rambo was hiding was filled with bats. In the film, they were replaced with rats. The scene with which the film begins, where Rambo visits his fellow soldier, is absent in the book. In the book, the helicopter pursuing Rambo explodes. Rambo kills the pilot with a rifle shot. In the book, Teasle participated in the Korean War. Rambo sees a medal in his office that can also be seen in the background in the film. Later, this fact, in Trautman’s opinion, became decisive in the confrontation between the sheriff and Rambo. In the film, Rambo only wounds the sheriff’s deputies with his ingenious traps. In the book, however, these scenes are more grim and violent. They all die at his hands, and a powerful surge of rainwater washes their bodies down the ravine. Only Teasle survives, fleeing rather than being released by Rambo as shown in the film. After the rescue in the book, Teasle constantly experiences discomfort in his chest. He only wants to go far enough to catch Rambo. Even Trautman asks the sheriff to rest, seeing his paleness. In the film, Trautman states that he personally trained Rambo and oversaw his actions in Vietnam. In the book, it is explained that Trautman was the head of the training school and Rambo hadn't even seen him before that, only heard his voice. The ending of the story is almost completely changed in the film. In the book, a shootout takes place in the town center, in which Teasle is killed and Trautman shoots Rambo. In the book, when Rambo runs out of the police station, he is completely naked. And clothing is given to him by moonshiners who were hiding in the forest.
Filming took place from November 16, 1981, to April 16, 1982.
Rambo could have been played by Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman, Clint Eastwood, and John Travolta. Here are the reasons for their refusal of the role: Pacino wanted to portray a completely insane veteran, so the film company rejected his candidacy. Hoffman refused the role due to its violence and played a woman in "Tootsie" (1982). Eastwood stated that he was busy. Stallone didn't allow John Travolta into either the first or second film in the series, not wanting to share the glory. Rumor has it that Travolta couldn't forgive him for stealing a role, and then filmed him in movies that turned him into a caricature, such as "Staying Alive" (1983).
The film is based on David Morrell's 1972 novel First Blood.
According to the author of the original book, the main character's surname was taken from 'Rambo,' which is a variety of apple.
The originally planned budget of 11 million dollars was significantly exceeded. The total cost of the film reached nearly 17 million dollars because the filming process lasted one month longer than expected.
Sylvester Stallone asked for 3.5 million dollars for the role, but the film's producers persuaded him to agree to 2 million. He received another 1.5 million from the film's television broadcast.
Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman, Clint Eastwood, and John Travolta could have played Rambo. Here are the reasons they turned down the role: Al Pacino wanted to portray a completely insane veteran, so the film company rejected his candidacy. Hoffman refused the role due to the violence and instead played a woman in the film 'Tootsie' (1982). Clint Eastwood reported that he was busy. Stallone didn't allow John Travolta into either the first or second film in the series, as he didn't want to share the fame. Rumor has it that Travolta couldn't forgive him for a long time for taking the role away and then casting him in films that turned him into a caricature, such as 'Staying Alive' (1983).
Sylvester Stallone disliked the first cut of the movie so much that the actor even wanted to buy the film and destroy it. Later, he reached an agreement with the producers to have his face appear as infrequently as possible in the film—this reduced the runtime by half.
Nick Nolte, Chris Kristofferson, Jeff Bridges, Robert De Niro, and Michael Douglas all turned down the role of Rambo.
An alternative ending was filmed in which Rambo committed suicide. However, test screenings showed that audiences found such a conclusion too depressing.
Differences from the book: In the book, the cave where Rambo was located was filled with bats; in the movie, they were replaced by rats. The opening scene of the film, where Rambo visits his fellow soldier, is absent from the book. In the book, the helicopter pursuing Rambo explodes, and Rambo kills the pilot with a rifle shot. In the book, Teasle is a veteran of the Korean War. In his office, Rambo sees a medal that can be seen in the background of the film. Later, Trautman believes this specific fact was the deciding factor in the confrontation between the sheriff and Rambo. In the movie, Rambo only wounds the sheriff's deputies with his ingenious traps. In the book, however, these scenes are darker and more brutal; they all die at his hands, and a powerful torrent of rainwater washes their bodies down the ravine. Only Teasle survives, and he escapes rather than being let go by Rambo, as shown in the film. After being rescued in the book, Teasle constantly experiences discomfort in his chest; he only wants to last long enough to catch Rambo. Even Trautman asks the sheriff to rest after noticing his pallor. In the movie, Trautman states that he personally trained Rambo and supervised his actions in Vietnam. In the book, it is explained that Trautman was the head of the training school, and Rambo had never seen him until that moment, having only heard his voice. The ending of the story is almost completely changed in the movie. In the book, there is a shootout in the center of town in which Teasle is killed and Trautman shoots Rambo. In the book, when Rambo runs out of the police station, he is completely naked, and he is given clothes by moonshiners who were hiding in the woods.