Sylvester Stallone officially wraps on Rambo V: Last Blood

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Last week Sylvester Stallone announced his sweet goodbye to playing Rocky Balboa on the big screen, and now he’s officially shot his last scene as John Rambo in RAMBO V: LAST BLOOD. Given the (current) title we can assume this will be his last outing as this character too, and in an Instagram post, Stallone gave his thoughts on the series that started close to 40 years ago and turned him into an action star. It's all very bittersweet, and it's okay if you get choked up. 

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In that Instagram post, he wrote the caption, “It’s a long long road that has been traveled …thank you for the support…”

“Well that was it, that was my final shot on RAMBO V: LAST BLOOD – at least that’s what they’re calling it, thus far. It’s been an amazing journey, it really has. This character was presented to me in 1980, and no one wanted to do it. As a matter of fact, I was the 11th choice. People looked at this as sort of almost  a cursed project; I looked at it and said, “This is an amazing opportunity.”

Directed by Adrian Grunberg (GET THE GRINGO) and written by Stallone and Matt Cirulnick, this new Rambo outing finds John Rambo leaving the jungle and donning some cowboy boots, saddling up and heading to Mexico to take on the drug cartels and save a friend’s daughter. Stallone has been active in posting about the movie on social media, teasing some poster art, an image of him in his horse-ridin’ duds and some big-ass knives. Seriously, these would make Dundee squirm. 

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Along with playing Rocky, Rambo was the character that defined Stallone through the 80s, starring in FIRST BLOOD, RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD PART II and RAMBO III. Also like the boxing saga he put the character on hold through the 90s, resurrecting him later in the 00s, in this case for the ultra-violent RAMBO. All four movies combined made over $700 million at the box office, and RAMBO V: LAST BLOOD will mark the final, blood-stained, uber-manly chapter sometime next year.

These two characters across these two franchises not only defined Stallone's career for a time but also who he was to his fans. Youg moviegoers probably loved going to see Stallone in these big, blood-pumping, machismo flicks, so this is really coming to an end of an era for a ton of people. Hopefully, this final outing is more LOGAN than ROCKY V, so here's to waiting eagerly for that first trailer.