It’s the same pattern that followed Stallone’s Rocky movies: the underdog palooka we came to love in the first film eventually morphs into a world-conquering cartoon, and any future attempts to recapture the modesty of the original film wind up feeling cynical. The new ending turned out to be great for Stallone’s pocketbook – the franchise has four sequels and inspired Gizmo to fight back in Gremlins 2: The New Batch – and it plays better, too, still sobering without having to be so abrupt.īut the Rambo that would emerge three years later in Rambo: First Blood Part II would be a betrayal of the wounded soul at the center of First Blood, a xenophobic fantasy figure who treated Vietnam less as an aching loss than as a war he hadn’t been allowed to win. The director, Ted Kotcheff, at the urging of his star (and the film’s co-writer) Sylvester Stallone, anticipated the reaction enough to conceive of an alternate ending on the spot, one where the hero takes a more dignified perp walk out of the sheriff’s office. As did Kirk Douglas, who was originally cast as Rambo’s creator, Colonel Sam Trautman, before Richard Crenna eventually stepped into the role.
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