Movies - First Blood

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	Movies - First Blood

First Blood is the first film featuring the character of troubled Vietnam War veteran John Rambo. It starred Sylvester Stallone as Rambo, Brian Dennehy as Sheriff Will Teasle, and Richard Crenna as Col. Samuel Trautman.

Based on a 1972 David Morrell book of the same name, the film (which differs from the book in many areas) was directed by Ted Kotcheff, produced by Mario Kassar and Andrew G. Vajna, and released on Friday, October 22, 1982.

Taglines:

This time he's fighting for his life."
"A one man war."

Plot

The film centers around a drifter named John Rambo, a former member of an elite Special Forces unit in Vietnam and Medal of Honor winner who cannot acclimate himself to civilian life. As a result, he wanders the country as drifter.

Rambo hopes to catch up with one of his comrades, who, unknown to Rambo, had died of cancer the previous summer due to exposure to the controversial defoliant Agent Orange that was used in Vietnam. The news hits Rambo very hard; the death of his friend means that he is the last of his unit alive. Shortly after he runs afoul of Will Teasle, the heavy-handed sheriff of a small Washington State mountain resort town called Hope. Teasle sees Rambo walking through town, assumes his is a vagrant and gives him a ride out of the area. Rambo, angry over how Teasle treated him and standing in the rain, turns and starts walking back to town. Teasle arrests him for vagrancy and resisting arrest. He is assaulted by members of the police force during his criminal processing. One man in particular, Galt, is especially brutal, hitting the prisoner with a billy club, ordering him to be sprayed with a fire hose. When they attempt to shave Rambo with a dry straight razor it triggers the training he received in the Special Forces and memories of torture at the hands of the Vietnamese military. He severely assaults the men and escapes from Sheriff Teasle into the mountains on a stolen motorcycle.

A helicopter is flown in at Teasle's request with one of his deputies, Galt, on board. As Rambo hangs precariously from a cliff, Galt shoots at him with a rifle. In desperation, Rambo jumps into the gorge and a tree breaks his fall. As Galt continues to shoot, Rambo hurls a rock, hitting the windshield of the helicopter, causing the pilot to momentarily lose control and throwing Galt into the gorge, killing him. Shortly after Galt's body is spotted by Teasle and his men at the top of the gorge, Rambo attempts to turn himself in but runs away when the posse opens fire.

Teasle finds out from one of his deputies that Rambo is a Green Beret. He is also a war hero and recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor. The news does little to soften Teasle's obsession with capturing Rambo. Galt was his friend and Teasle intends that Rambo be held accountable for his death. The small band of deputies venture into the woods. In a tense sequence, Rambo stalks and wounds every man using guerrilla tactics such as camouflage and booby traps. After incapacitating the deputies, Rambo captures Teasle, holds his combat knife to his throat and tells him to defuse the situation by calling off his manhunt. Rambo promises the sheriff "a war you won't believe."

The national guard is then called in by the sheriff. As the sheriff oversees the organization of another assault on Rambo, Rambo's former commanding officer, Col. Sam Trautman, arrives and begins to involve himself in the manhunt for Rambo. Trautman explains that Rambo has been trained in the deadliest of combat techniques and can possibly take on a force of several hundred soldiers single-handed. He has also been trained to survive under impossible means, making use of anything available or eating what most would consider inedible. Trautman gravely warns the sheriff that he cannot win against Rambo

A squad of Army reservists led by Lt. Clinton Morgan, tracks Rambo to the mine entrance he'd been camped out in and he orders a shoulder-fired missile launched at Rambo. Everyone believes that Rambo was killed in the resulting cave-in, however, Rambo survives and spends several hours crawling through a maze of tunnels in the mine. He finds an exit near the main road leading back to Hope. As a convoy passes by, Rambo hijacks the last truck which is carrying an M60 machine gun. Rambo blasts through a roadblock and drives into Hope. Setting a gas station aflame as a distraction, he shoots out the town's telephone junction boxes as well as the power lines. He also sets fire to the local sports store, causing all it's ammunition and gunpowder to explode.

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Movies - First Blood

Plot

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