A five-film marathon may not sound like much, not when Marvel Cinematic Universe-thons currently last two-plus days. But the MCU has only been around for 11 years. The Rambo cycle has been with us for nearly four decades. Rambo: Last Blood — Sylvester Stallone’s alleged last roundelay with his Special Forces super-soldier — is due in theaters on September 20, and to bid the character farewell certain theaters will pull an MCU, running all previous four films back-to-back, leading up to the guy’s big, filmic swan song.
As per Entertainment Weekly, the hoedown will take place at the nation’s Alamo Drafthouse theaters, the specialty chain known for embracing both fanboy and cult film audiences, for serving food and booze, and for its aggressive stance against obnoxious movie theater noise-makers.
Stallone, who turned 73 in July, first essayed John Rambo in 1982, with the more somber (but still rip-roaring) First Blood, in which the long-haired, dirty vet was unfairly targeted by abusive Washington state cops. Pushed to the brink, Rambo escaped to the woods, where he proceeded to take down first local police and then the National Guard, albeit only out of defense.
By 1985’s thoroughly Reaganized Rambo: First Blood Part II — lensed by the beloved cinematographer of such classics as 1947’s Black Narcissus — our hero was sent back to Vietnam to rescue missing POWs and to see if he can “win this time.” In Rambo III, he outran a fireball and fought alongside future American enemies the Mujahideen. (It’s cool; James Bond did the same thing in The Living Daylights.)
Two years after resurrecting his even bigger longtime character with 2006’s Rocky Balboa, Stallone exhumed Rambo, too, for the succinctly named Rambo, ensuring the series became one of the most confusingly titled franchises in film history.
Rambo: Last Blood finds the world traveler in Mexico, which, given today’s climate and Stallone’s classically conservative-ish politics, ought to be…interesting. One can purchase advance tickets to the marathon on Alamo’s site.
(Via EW)
