As a fan of the Rambo franchise, I’m pretty stoked about Sylvester Stallone’s Rambo 5: Last Blood. You’d think that we’d know what to expect to see in a Rambo film, but this next one is going to be very different from the Rambo films that have come before.
During an interview with Deadline, Stallone opened up about the upcoming move and what makes it different from all of the other ones. He explains what this latest story is built around:
“In every film, Rambo never goes home, he goes out the to the jungle or Afghanistan. In the new one, he does come home, but in a way he never arrives. He’s there, but he’s not. That’s what the whole story is built around. As soon as he walks outside his door, he has no more control. The world controls you.”
Having the story start with Rambo at home, trying to live a normal life, is definitely a different and unique way to kick off the story. We’ve never seen the character in this context before. The end of the fourth film saw John Rambo return to his father’s ranch in Arizona, and this next film will pick up years after that.
There’s no doubt that Rambo is dealing with some heavy issues and finds that trying to live a peaceful life after what he he’s gone through comes with its own struggles, and he is still at the mercy of events beyond his control. Stallone continued:
“We pick it up, he’s out in this storm, a horrible storm. He’s trying to rescue people. There’s a flash flood. One guy goes up by horseback, he volunteers to save people. He’s still dealing with survivor guilt, b/c he could save his friends in Vietnam. A result of PTSD. He has a hard time. He has a beautiful ranch, but he lives underground. This is how he deals with his dilemma. There’s something subterranean in Vietnam. He has an adopted family there. His father has passed on. The housekeeper who is 70 has a granddaughter. He’s her surrogate father. [The girl finds her real father in Mexico and heads there.] Bad things happen. There’s going to be some serious vengeance in this movie. A lot of people getting hurt.”
So, to make up for the survivor’s guilt he’s feeling obligated to step up and save people whenever the opportunity presents itself.
Here’s the official synopsis for the film:
Rambo teams up with a journalist to track down and rescue a group of local girls that have been kidnapped by a Mexican sex trafficking ring, after trying to settle down to a quiet peaceful life stateside at the family ranch in Arizona after spending decades abroad.
The movie is being directed by Adrian Grunberg. The movie also stars Paz Vega, who will play Carmen Delgado, “a reporter who covers the Mexican drug trade and teams up with Rambo after her younger half-sister is kidnapped.”
Rambo 5: Last Blood will be released on September 20th.