We’ve come a long way from First Blood‘s psychological look into a Vietnam veteran named John Rambo being pushed to the breaking point, as the newest trailer for Rambo: Last Blood shows. The trailer is crammed full of action, explosions, and Sylvester Stallone threatening to hurt people.
The new, and reportedly final, Rambo film sees Stallone reprise the role as Rambo is living out his life peacefully on a farm somewhere in America (perhaps Arizona, based on the conclusion of the previous film). However, when a friend’s daughter is kidnapped, he heads to Mexico to rescue her only to come up against an evil cartel. As the Rambo: Last Blood trailer shows — seasoned with plenty of flashbacks to previous films — things get a little out of hand, and Rambo must once again go up against insurmountable odds and defeat an entire army on his own.
It’s telling that the movie trailer would choose flashbacks from the second film over the first, as First Blood Part II is when the character went from tortured veteran to action hero. Not that there was much doubt, but this seemingly confirms that the film is going to lean more towards the later Rambo movies instead of the original. This is a sharp contrast to how the Rocky franchise has evolved by going back to the personal, character-driven drama of the original movie and avoiding over-the-top boxing fights.
Paz Vega, Sergio Peris-Mencheta, Adrianna Barraza, Yvette Monreal, and Joaquin Cosio also star in Rambo: Last Blood, which releases on Sept. 20, 2019.
