As a great philosopher once said “what the world needs now, is love, sweet love”. Apparently Sylvester Stallone disagrees, he things we really need another Rambo movie. Sly did a career spanning interview with MacLeans Magazine recently and revealed that he is not done with the troubled Vietnam veteran. When asked about bringing is other big character, Rocky, back in 2006’s Rocky Balboa he tagged the end of the answer with this.
“I’m dying to do another Rambo. He’s in Arizona on the border. It will involve him going into Mexico. I don’t think Rambo likes Mexicans.”
Um… what? Is that the plot idea? Rambo dislikes a country based on it being more south than the one he is in?
Let’s dive deeper into Sly’s mind to see if we can find the answer. He does talk about the duality of the two characters he’s best known for, Sly breaks down both Rock and Rambo for us.
“Rambo is me before coffee in the morning. Rocky is me after coffee. Rambo has reverted into kind of like an id: primitive, reactive and instinctual, almost like an animal. I love this character because he hasn’t quite been fleshed out. He’s like an errant knight, looking to die in a glorious fashion. He has no desire to go into old age or have a family. Rocky is the antithesis: he cannot live without family. So you’ve got the American Frankenstein monster, then you have the American Dream. In the book, Rambo gets killed. I thought it was not the proper message. There had been close to 200,000 suicides by returning Vietnam vets. I said, “Why don’t we take him right to the edge without annihilating him?” Quentin Tarantino said, “You’re a coward, you should have killed him!” I said, “Quentin, you’re a lunatic. I want to do some sequels, brother.””
So… where is the deep seeded hatred for the country that gave us tacos (the only truly prefect food) come from? Sadly the interviewer never pressed him for answers on that, however he did ask if this possible next Rambo flick would be the one where the shirtless kill machine meets the end he says the character was destined for.
MacLeans: So will you kill him off?
Sly: Yeah.
Hang on now, so after fighting small town American cops, Soviet and Vietnamese troops, the damn Russians again in Afghanistan, and then South East Asian rebels, he will finally meet his end in Mexico? Am I missing something here? The last time the USA was at odds with our friends south of the boarder it was the 19th century. Way to pick a topical conflict, Sly.
The whole article is really worth a read based purely on nostalgia. He makes references to some up coming projects (dismissive wank) and talks about his previous work (nostalgic wank). Before you ask, no, he makes no reference to Stop Or My Mom Will Shoot getting the sequel treatment, I assume he is just waiting for the right random ethnic group to attack in it.