Movies

Has ‘Rambo 5’ Nuked The Shark By Adding A Sci-Fi Plot?

By  · Published on September 5th, 2009

I know there are naysayers among you who think the headline above is redundant, who think Sylvester Stallone’s Rambo series has been a joke since the first sequel. We can all agree that First Blood is a damn fine film and that the two sequels that followed are rubbish, but last year’s Rambo? That movie kicked all kinds of ass, and it did so with bloody style and glee. It also made money which is why a fifth film in the franchise was predictably greenlit as well. Variety recently ran a story claiming that the film’s plot centered around a kidnapping on the US/Mexican border and John Rambo’s mission to save the girl while killing truck-loads of drug lords and Mexicans. But now a new plot has surfaced, and it comes straight from the horse’s mouth… see Stallone’s Rocky nickname was “The Italian Stallion”… ah screw it, by way of Harry Knowles and AICN.

Harry apparently had a spontaneous (?) conversation with Stallone and the man revealed the true plot to Rambo 5: The Savage Hunt as follows:

It seems that somewhere in [the Pacific Northwest] there is a U.S. Military installation that is doing experiments on elite soldiers as part of some sort of program where they’re attempting to tap into that SAVAGERY that we have deeply embedded into us. The plan is create brilliantly instinctual killer soldiers that have no qualms about taking life. Well as happens with Government Experiments to create the perfect killer ‐ it goes exceptionally well… and then exceptionally badly. And Rambo is brought in with a Black Ops squad to hunt, capture or kill this worse than Rambo killer.”

And I died a little inside. Did you catch the supposed subtitle? The Savage Hunt? This sounds like a mix of Predator and Universal Soldier to me, and if both of those series didn’t already have new installments in production (or soon will have anyway) I might just suspect an intentionally secretive crossover was in the works… and I’d forgive the silliness if it meant Stallone would be hunting Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren. AICN also has a supposed teaser poster mock-up that’s not really worth checking out, but it’s right here if you absolutely have to see it.

The plot has its pros, or pro anyway, in that it’d be a nice change of pace to see Rambo as the hunter instead of the hunted or defender. And I’ll admit that I’m intrigued by the thought of an existing franchise shifting gears so radically like this. I can’t even think of any existing comparisons, but it’d be like John McClane or Martin Riggs suddenly facing off against the devil.

What do you think? And what are the odds it’s even true?

Rob Hunter has been writing for Film School Rejects since before you were born, which is weird seeing as he's so damn young. He's our Chief Film Critic and Associate Editor and lists 'Broadcast News' as his favorite film of all time. Feel free to say hi if you see him on Twitter @FakeRobHunter.