Amongst all the massive blockbuster expected out this year, we must remember that a box office behemoth of its own from the ’80s is coming back this year for the last time. Rambo at one point was huge and you’d have had a far easier time selling a Rambo sequel to a studio than you would an Iron Man or a Thor movie, how times change.
As a fan of Rambo back when I was but a young lad in the 80’s it’s a movie franchise that hasn’t aged too well. I always loved First Blood and First Blood: Part 2 as a kid, though even then I could see Rambo 3 was utter garbage. Yet as an adult I struggle to sit through anything other than the first movie any more. (Watched both within the last few months)
When Sylvester Stallone made John Rambo we thought that would be the final swansong for the biggest action character of the ’80s. So like many, I was surprised when it was announced that Lionsgate was pushing ahead with Rambo: Last Blood. We know Last Blood will be the final Rambo movie because Stallone has already said he is done with the character after this, could that possibly mean ending the movie with the characters death, who knows?
We have known for some time that Last Blood had finished filming, but other than 2019, we had no release date. This has now been rectified and thanks to a report by Variety we know that Rambo: Last Blood will release on September 20th. That’s 37 years since First Blood was released and Stallone is now 73 years old, it probably is time to hang up the red bandana and hunting knife.
Last Blood will follow the story of a John Rambo who has settled in Arizona, being dragged back into a violent world when a friend’s daughter is kidnapped by a drug cartel, pretty sure that’s the plot to around 700 movies at my current count. I am going to be honest, I am not sure Rambo will work back in the US against drug cartels, Rambo always worked best for me in the jungle and the whole living out the land shtick. Yet, maybe I will be pleasantly surprised when Last Blood arrives later in the year.