Talk:First Blood

I am pretty sure the weapon used by Brian Dennehy's character (the Sheriff) was an HK 33 or 93 given the curved nature of the magazine on the weapon.

Yes, you are correct...HK93.

Widescreen

I'm sorry this page has widescreen pics but I made this page before I knew to crop out the black bars. It is a real pain to crop out the bars by resaving and uploading them. I ought to know, I did it for the Quigley Down Under page. -GM

Thanks for fixing the widescreen bars AQ11, I was acutally going to do this just after I did TRK for MT2008 but you beat me to it. - Gunmaster45

Rambo's M16

Where does Rambo get his M16? First he's laying in the Rocks watching the National Guardsmen go by, then he's got one slung over his back when he finds the civilian out hunting.

- Probably stole one from one of Teasle's deputies when he ambushed them. I thought he did have it slung when he came out of the water (but just hard to see). If not, him not having it on his back in one shot and having it in another is probably just continuity error. StanTheMan 19:54, 18 June 2010 (UTC)

Title

Isn't the title of the movie just "First Blood?" That's how it's listed in IMDB. --funkychinaman 12:34, 18 June 2010 (UTC)
Yes it is, but I think it's called Rambo: First Blood internationally.

That may be true, but aren't we supposed to go by however it is in IMDb? --funkychinaman 04:46, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

If you type First Blood in the search box, you'll be redirected to this movie page. The title is explained in the summary on the actual movie page. --Ben41 08:19, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

Alternate Ending

Anyone who's read David Morrell's novel "First Blood" knows of the changes in this movie from the novel. The alternate ending is not far off from the ending of the novel, where Trautman kills a wounded Rambo who also has a broken rib from a cliff fall into a tree; although Trautman's shot is from a shotgun a few feet away and blows John Rambo's head off. But virtually everything else has been changed or reversed; the location, characters living and dying, personalities. Trautman is asked at the end of the novel how he feels about killing his friend, and he replies "better than knowing he was suffering".

They apparently wanted to make the movie into a statement for Vietnam Vets as well as try to create a franchise, because in the book not only does John Rambo die at the end, so does Sheriff Teasel who was shot similtaneously by Rambo. And not only do both of them die, but Rambo kills all the deputies, the dog handler, and all the dogs and severely wounds one of the town's people who comes out with a gun. The location is changed from Kentucky to Washington State, so the scene in the book where Rambo meets a moonshiner and his son who gives him shoes, clothes and a .30-30 Winchester is gone (because in Rambo's escape from the jail basement and the sadistic cop he eventually shoots out of the helicopter, spraying blood and brains on the pilot and freaking him out so much he crashes at the low level in the canyon he's flying). In the novel, Rambo guts a deputy in the basement after beating the snot out of the sadistic one. His only crime is being an apparent "vagrant" in the Kentucky town and trying to get something to eat, and not liking being run out of town before he gets it. The only survivor in the woods is Sheriff Teasel who survives by crawling on hands and knees through thick sticker bushes, and who, as written by David Morrell, is not the arrogant, violence prone red-neck that Brian Dennehy portrays him as, but is a decent guy who is a Korean War veteran (the book was published in 1972), who's father was killed mistakenly in a hunting accident and the dog handler had become a surrogate father to him as a child. Rambo is not the "I don't want to kill anyone so don't make me do it" guy of the film, he is a hardened Special Forces operative who suffered terribly for a short time as a POW, and a flashback to that due to the brutality inflicted on him in the jail basement is what sets him off. He kills without emotion, without remorse; screw with him and you die--sometimes quicky and somtimes painfully, but you die. Also in the movie, along with the Model 94 Winchester the moonshiner gives him, Rambo is carrying a Colt Python that he recovers off the deputy's body that he shot from the helicopter door; and Sheriff Teasel is not armed with a Model 66 but with a Browning Hi-Power, which he shoots Rambo with at the end of the book as Rambo shoots him with the .357 Magnum. He dies seconds after Rambo, watching Trautman's ejected shotgun shell twirl through the air and hit the ground. There's almost a metaphysical bond that develops, where Teasel can get inside Rambo's head and "see what he's thinking" in anticipating his moves. Harleyguy 30 July 2010 16:38

Minus the wierd metaphysical bond, that sounds better than the actual movie. Is it written well? Because if it is I just might have to pick it up.

It's a good book; I'd recommend it. However, it doesn't appear that Morrel knows too much about guns. -SasquatchJim

I didn't read First Blood, but I read the novelization of First Blood Part II, also by David Morrell (who, in the foreward, acknowledges that yeah, Rambo did die in the original, but he's going to write it anyway) and in that book, he had Rambo make a big deal about the weapon he'd take on his mission. Originally, Rambo was issued a modern assault rifle with all the bells and whistles (I don't remember exactly, it was a long time ago) but Rambo specifically asks for an AK, and then cites some very good reasons why (ammo availability, confusing the enemy, etc.) So Morrell must've done a lot of research between these two books. The movie glosses over the whole thing, with Rambo bringing that MP5 without any complaints. --funkychinaman 17:43, 13 October 2010 (UTC)

• In Kirk Douglas's autobio he said he was offered the Trautman role but would only do it if Rambo died at the end. As the producers were thinking of sequels, that was not on and they got Richard CrennaFoofbun 08:15, 13 October 2010 (UTC)