John Rambo
John James Rambo is a fictional character in the Rambo franchise. He first appeared in the 1972 novel First Blood by David Morrell, but later became more famous as the protagonist of the film series, in which he was played by Sylvester Stallone. The portrayal of the character earned Stallone widespread acclaim and recognition. The character was nominated for American Film Institute's list 100 Years…100 Heroes and Villains. Following the success of the first movie, the term "Rambo" was occasionally used in media circles to describe a lone wolf who is reckless, uses violence to solve all problems, enters dangerous situations alone, and is exceptionally tough, callous, raw and aggressive.
Creation and background
David Morrell says that in choosing the name Rambo, he was inspired by "the sound of force" in the name of Rambo apples, which he encountered in Pennsylvania. These apples, in turn, were named for Peter Gunnarsson Rambo, who sailed from Sweden to America in the 1640s, and soon the name would flourish in New Sweden. The name Rambo was likely derived from a shortened form of Ramberget plus "bo". Today, many of his descendants can still be found in this region of the US. Morrell also felt that its pronunciation was similar to the surname of Arthur Rimbaud, the title of whose most famous work, A Season in Hell, seemed to him "an apt metaphor for the prisoner-of-war experiences that I imagined Rambo suffering". Furthermore, an Arthur J. Rambo was an actual U.S. soldier in Vietnam, but he never returned. His name can be seen on the Vietnam War Memorial wall in Washington, D.C..He was granted the first name "John" as a reference to the Civil War era song "When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again".
In the novel and first film, Rambo appears as a soldier who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and has difficulty adjusting to normal life. He is shown to be prone to violence because of the torture he suffered at the hands of North Vietnamese soldiers in the Vietnam War. In the next films and novelizations, he is displayed as a man who wants to stay away from conflict but is willing to do anything to save his friends and the people he cares about from any danger. Due to his violent nature, many civil people tend to fear him. However, Colonel Samuel Trautman understands him and the pain and torture he has endured in the war and is the only one able to reason with him when he becomes an outlaw after incapacitating police officers in the town of Hope.
Rambo has a muscular physique due to his time as a soldier in the army and his intense training regimen. He has a high amount of strength and stamina. Rambo is an expert in surviving in dense forests against a large number of enemies due to his experiences in the Vietnam War. He is also an expert in guerrilla tactics, weapons, and hand-to-hand combat. Rambo has black hair and brown eyes. His height is. In the DVD commentary for First Blood, Morell remarks that the inspiration for Rambo was World War II hero Audie Murphy.
In all five films, Rambo is portrayed by Sylvester Stallone. In the animated TV series, the character is voiced by Neil Ross.
Fictional biography
According to Rambo: Last Blood, the character's full name is John Rambo and he was born on July 6, 1947, in Bowie, Arizona, to father Reevis Rambo and mother Helga Rambo, as shown on the graves at Rambo's farm in Rambo: Last Blood. In Rambo: First Blood Part II, he is said to be of Native American and German descent; the character Major Marshall Roger T. Murdock says: "Of Indian and German descent. That's a hell of a combination!" The film's novelization reveals he has an Italian father and a Navajo mother. John's niece, Shirlene, is also well known. Rambo enlisted in the U.S. Army at the age of 17, on August 6, 1964, although he states in Rambo that he was "drafted into Vietnam". After he graduated from Rangeford High School in 1965, his military service began in January 1966. Rambo was deployed to South Vietnam in September 1966. He returned to the U.S. in 1967 and began training with the U.S. Army Special Forces at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, under Colonel Samuel Trautman's tutelage.In late 1969, Rambo was redeployed to Vietnam as a member of a SOG brigade. He became part of a Special Forces long-range reconnaissance patrol unit, commanded by Colonel Trautman. Trautman's team received the code name of Baker Team and usually consisted of eight men. Other known members were Delmar Barry, Joseph "Joey" Danforth, Manuel "Loco" Ortega, Paul Messner, Delbert Krackhauer, Giuseppe "Greasy Cunt" Colletta, and Ralph Jorgenson. In an event that would haunt Rambo for the rest of his life, Danforth died in Rambo's arms, after being fatally wounded by a rigged shoeshine box while their unit was on rest and recuperation time.
During a mission in November 1971, Rambo's unit came under surprise attack by NVA forces. Delmar, Rambo, and some other surviving members were captured by North Vietnamese forces near the Chinese-Vietnamese border and held at a POW camp, where many other American POWs were imprisoned and repeatedly tortured. Rambo's unit was decimated during the ordeal, but Delmar and Rambo managed to escape captivity in May 1972, and Rambo was immediately redeployed at his own request. At some point in his military career, he also received training in flying helicopters. Rambo finally received his official military discharge on September 27, 1974.
Upon his return to the United States, Rambo discovered that many American civilians hated the soldiers returning from Vietnam, and he claimed that he and other returning soldiers were subjected to humiliation and embarrassment by anti-war "hippies" who threw garbage at them, called them "baby killers", and excluded them from society. His experiences in Vietnam and back home resulted in an extreme case of post-traumatic stress disorder. At the same time, inner questions of self-identity and reflectiveness had commenced to cause Rambo to lash out at society rather than handling difficult situations in a "civilized" manner. First Blood picks up from this point.
''First Blood''
Novel (1972)
In the novel First Blood, Rambo is hitchhiking in Madison, Kentucky. He is picked up by Police Chief Teasle and dropped off at the city limits. Repeatedly coming back, Rambo is arrested by Teasle and driven to the station. He is charged with vagrancy and resisting arrest, and is sentenced to 35 days in jail. Being trapped inside the cold, wet, small cells gives Rambo a flashback to his days as a POW in Vietnam, and he fights off the cops as they attempt to cut his hair and shave him, beating one man and slashing another with the straight razor, killing him. He flees, steals a motorcycle, and hides in the nearby mountains. He becomes the focus of a manhunt that results in the deaths of many police officers, civilians, and National Guardsmen.In a climactic ending in the town where his conflict with Teasle began, Rambo is finally hunted down by Special Forces Colonel Sam Trautman and Teasle. Teasle, using his local knowledge, manages to surprise Rambo and shoots him in the chest, but is himself wounded in the abdomen by a return shot. He then tries to pursue Rambo as he makes a final attempt to escape back out of the town. Both men are essentially dying by this point, but are driven by pride and a desire to justify their actions. Rambo, having found a spot where he feels comfortable, prepares to commit suicide by detonating a stick of dynamite against his body; however, he then sees Teasle following his trail and decides that it would be more honourable to continue fighting and be killed by Teasle's return fire.
Rambo fires at Teasle and, to his surprise and disappointment, hits him. For a moment he reflects on how he had missed his chance of a decent death, because he is now too weak to light the dynamite, but then suddenly feels the explosion he had expected — but in the head, not the stomach where the dynamite was placed. Rambo dies satisfied that he has come to a fitting end. Trautman returns to the dying Teasle and tells him that he has killed Rambo with his shotgun. Moments after, Teasle dies, succumbing to his wounds.
Film (1982)
The film First Blood takes place in December 1981, and begins with Rambo, now a homeless, unemployed drifter, searching for his old friend Delmar Barry. He goes to Barry's home, but is told by his mother that Barry died of cancer brought on by Agent Orange exposure. Rambo realizes that he is the last surviving member of his Special Forces unit. He then travels to the small town of Hope, Washington, where he is quickly spotted by the town's arrogant and abusive sheriff, Will Teasle, due to his long, unkempt hair, army jacket and overall scruffy appearance. Teasle soon picks him up and drives him to the edge of town, refusing to let him have a meal while stressing his prejudged dislike of drifters and "trouble makers". Rambo, still hungry, begins defiantly walking back into town almost immediately after being dropped off, and Teasle, spotting him again, arrests him on the spot this time and takes him to the local police station.When searching Rambo, Teasle discovers a large survival knife under Rambo's jacket. At the station, the Head Deputy Sheriff, Art Galt, beats Rambo and, along with others, harasses him. Rambo begins having flashbacks to his time in Vietnam when he was a tortured POW. When officers attempt to dry shave him, Rambo finally snaps and fights his way out of the station, beating up Galt, Teasle, and every deputy caught in his path while retrieving his knife. Outside, he hijacks a motorcycle from a man driving past the station and flees into the nearby mountains, while being pursued by Teasle in his police car. Teasle crashes his car, and Rambo escapes. Teasle calls in more officers and a helicopter, while Rambo abandons the motorcycle and makes his way into the deep terrain on foot. He finds an old sack near a dumped truck which he uses as an item of clothing. Later, he finds himself at the top of a cliff face whilst trying to escape the advancing policemen and is spotted by the search helicopter with Galt in the passenger's seat. Galt fires at him a number of times with his rifle, forcing Rambo to leap from the cliff, falling through a tree. Galt continues to fire upon the injured Rambo on the ground. Fighting back, Rambo throws a rock and hits the helicopter's windshield, causing the pilot to lose control and Galt to lose his balance and fall to his death. Rambo takes Galt's gun and radio, tends his own injuries, and eventually confronts the lawmen on the cliff above. Rambo shouts to them that Galt's death was an accident, but Teasle tells Rambo not to move or they will shoot. Rambo says he wants no more trouble, and begins to back away, but the men open fire; Rambo flees into the woods with Teasle and his deputies in pursuit.
The men catch up to Rambo and release tracking dogs. Rambo shoots two and their owner in the leg with his last bullets, and kills the other dog with his knife. The men begin to flank out and pursue Rambo, but Rambo easily disables them using guerrilla tactics. Rambo severely wounds each man, but does not kill any of them. Using a deputy as bait, Rambo jumps out of the brush and grabs Teasle, putting his knife to his throat. He threatens Teasle with further action if the police do not leave him alone. Teasle refuses to back down, and the State Police and National Guard are called in to assist in the hunt. Colonel Samuel Trautman soon arrives, taking credit for training Rambo. He is surprised to find any of the deputies still alive, and warns Teasle that it would be safer to let Rambo go and find him after the situation has calmed down. Still refusing to give in, Teasle asks Trautman to try and contact Rambo on his stolen radio to get a fix on his position. Trautman identifies himself and calls out the names of Rambo's Vietnam company, which gets Rambo to respond. Rambo declines to turn himself in and tells Trautman, "They drew first blood, not me". Rambo is eventually cornered by the National Guard in an abandoned mine entrance. Teasle gets word that Rambo is trapped, and gives an order not to fire. The inexperienced guardsmen ignore this, and fire a rocket at him. The blast collapses the mine entrance, sealing him inside. The men assume Rambo is dead, but unknown to his pursuers, Rambo has instead escaped into the mine tunnels.
Rambo eventually finds an old exit vent, near a main road from out of which the troops are clearing. Rambo hijacks a passing Army truck and returns to town, crashing it into a gas station; he blocks the highway to anyone in pursuit by igniting the spilled fuel. Now heavily armed with an M60 machine gun, Rambo destroys power transformers, knocking out the town's electricity. By this time, Teasle has received word of Rambo's escape from the cave and orders the town's population to remain indoors for safety. Rambo sees Teasle on the station roof after destroying a gun shop and makes his way to the police station, taking out the police station's power before making his way inside. Teasle spots Rambo and fires at him, but misses. Rambo shoots back at Teasle through the ceiling, critically injuring him. Teasle falls through the skylight onto the floor. Rambo steps over him, prepared to kill him. Before Rambo can shoot Teasle, Colonel Trautman appears and tells him that there is no hope of escaping alive. Now surrounded by the police, Rambo rages about the horrors of war, the hateful insults from antiwar protesters when he returned home, and his inability to hold down a steady job. Breaking down, he then weeps as he recounts witnessing the gruesome death of his friend Joey Danforth. He reveals to Trautman how they were in a bar, talking about his friend's Chevy and driving to Las Vegas in it, when a boy came in with a booby-trapped shoeshine box. Rambo had gone into the bar to buy beers when the box suddenly exploded, tearing his friend's lower body off. Rambo then turns himself in to Trautman, and, escorted by Trautman, is placed under arrest by the State Police.
There is an alternative ending where Rambo wants to die and tells Trautman to kill him. Trautman does not respond. Soon after, Rambo hands a gun to Trautman, who proceeds to pull the trigger and shoot Rambo in the stomach; Rambo subsequently dies of his wounds. Trautman then walks away, leaving Rambo's body in the station.