Trivia / Rambo: First Blood Part II

• Approval of God: While not enjoying it as much as the original, David Morrell still enjoyed the film and stated that it had "wonderful energy."
• California Doubling: The film was entirely shot in Mexico, doubling for Thailand and Vietnam.
• Completely Different Title: In Germany, the film was released as Rambo II - Der Auftrag ("Rambo II - The Assignment"). Similarly, in Brazil it's Rambo II: A Missão ("Rambo II: The Mission"), with the subtitle becoming the country's equivalent of Electric Boogaloo. Italy gives the same treatment to their subtitle, Rambo II - La Vendetta ("The Revenge"). In Japan, it's Rambo: Ikari no Dasshutsu (ランボー/怒りの脱出), or Rambo: The Angry Escape, and its explosive popularity led to the word "ikari" (怒り) being associated with this film for a time (which is why one game invoking this series simply called itself Ikari).
• Creator Backlash: Sylvester Stallone named this as the worst in the series, thinking it was too cartoonish. James Cameron didn't like it either, citing Stallone's decision to paint the Vietnam War in a more positive light.
• Dueling Movies: Relased in the same year of similar One-Man Army movie Commando, establishing the action star rivalry between Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Rambo was the biggest moneymaker of the two, though both films were successful and cemented the action star career of their leads.
• Dyeing for Your Art: To prepare for this role, Sylvester Stallone did eight months of training for four hours a day. He also took SWAT combat, archery and survival courses.
• Fake Russian: British Steven Berkoff playing a Russian, although this wasn't the first time.
• Fatal Method Acting: During filming in Mexico, FX man Cliff Wenger, Jr. was accidentally killed by one of the film's explosions.
• In Memoriam: The film is dedicated to stuntman Cliff Wenger Jr., who was accidentally killed by one of the film explosions.
• Real-Life Relative: Sylvester Stallone's brother Frank performed the theme song.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Dolph Lundgren was initially signed as the Russian Lt. Col. Podovsky when Sylvester Stallone realized that it was the same man who was going to be in Rocky IV so they paid off the contract.
  • James Cameron's original screenplay began with Col. Trautman finding Rambo in a psychiatric hospital instead of a prison. The psychiatric hospital concept was instead depicted in Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
  • The producers considered teaming up Rambo with John Travolta (who was once considered to play Rambo himself in the first film) as his young partner in rescuing the American POWs. Stallone nixed this idea when he decided it would be better to make the film a solo project.
  • Lee Marvin was originally to play Marshall Murdock but changed his mind.
  • In the original cut of the film that was shown to test the audiences' reception prior to the theatrical release, Co's death scene went on a bit longer; after she dies, Rambo raises his face and fists skywards and shouts "NNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!" that proceeds to echo through the jungle but instead of the intended emotional response, test audiences howled with laughter so it was cut out. Think Darth Vader's Big "NO!" at the end of Revenge of the Sith.
• Working Title: First Blood II. Issue #41 of Fangoria magazine (January,1985) indicated that the first draft of the script was simply titled Second Blood.

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