Sylvester Stallone's John Rambo ups the bodycount in first 'Last Blood' trailer

Ethan Alter
·Senior Writer, Yahoo Entertainment
Updated

Nearly four decades ago, Vietnam vet John Rambo had his first blood drawn on American soil. Now, he’s making sure that other people are doing the bleeding. Due in theaters on Sept. 20, Rambo: Last Blood concludes the five-film franchise that became a symbol of ’80s action movie excess after the relatively serious and stripped-down original. And based on this blood-drenched first trailer, Last Blood has been made in the spirit of the sequels, which means an ultra-high body count and plenty of ultra-violence. (Watch the trailer above.)

After taking his one-man war into the Burmese jungles in 2008’s Rambo, John returned stateside to live on the Rambo family ranch in Arizona. At that point, he assumed his fight was over, but his retirement is curtailed when the daughter (Yvette Monreal) of a close friend (Adriana Barraza) is kidnapped by a vicious Mexican drug cartel. It falls to Rambo to venture south of the border on a rescue mission that inevitably follows him home. So, much like Kevin McAllister, he transforms his house into one big death trap to greet his guests. At the same time, he’s still willing and able to get up close and personal with his signature bowie knife when there’s a bad guy in need of skewering.

Having already announced that Creed II was his “last rodeo” as Rocky Balboa, Stallone seems poised to end John Rambo’s career once and for all with the pointedly named Last Blood. (As fans know, the franchise almost began and ended with First Blood; that film’s original conclusion had the character committing suicide instead of living to fight another day ... and another day.) Mortality is very much on Rambo’s mind in the trailer, which notably omits to explicitly identify Mexican cartel members as his foes — a plot point that’s already raised some eyebrows for its political implications. That’s par for the course with a franchise that’s previously depicted Rambo re-fighting the Vietnam War and taking on the Soviet Union in Afghanistan.

While being honored at the Cannes Film Festival recently, Stallone made a point of saying that Rambo has been embraced by politicians — including Ronald Reagan — even though that wasn’t intentional on his part. “It took on a life of its own,” he noted. “I’m not a political animal and I never wanted to be. I just thought, this is an interesting story about alienation. ... But oh my God, once President Reagan went, ‘I saw Rambo, and he’s a Republican!’”

Politics aside here’s how the Last Blood trailer is playing on Twitter.

One question: does Rambo get to retire for real this time?

Rambo: Last Blood slays in theaters on Sept. 20.

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