Trivia / Rocky Balboa

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• Actor Leaves, Character Dies: To ensure that fans didn't think that she'd been written out of the film because of a dispute with Sylvester Stallone or because she refused to be in it, Talia Shire made a public statement supporting Stallone's decision to kill off Adrian.
• Author's Saving Throw:
  • By the time this film was made, Sylvester Stallone had come to regret writing Rocky's post-Apollo opponents as completely one-dimensional jerkasses. He therefore took care to make Mason Dixon a more layered character, an approach that would carry forward into the Creed films.
  • Recognizing how absurd the boxing had become in previous films (all power hits, repeated strikes to the head, shoving the referee and post-bell conflict), the climactic bout in this film plays out very realistically. Much of it emulates the way boxing coverage is handled for broadcasting, and the sound design of the strikes doesn't resemble a gunshot.
• Career Resurrection: From the late '90s, Stallone was not the megastar he once was and was slowly transitioning into more character-driven work. This film was the first to really acknowledge his advancing age and helped him put move past the standard action hero perception and become an aging hero.
• The Cast Showoff:
  • The paintings made by Paulie in the film were actually done by Burt Young, who was an avid painter himself.
  • Sylvester Stallone took real punches from a real light-heavyweight champion and kept going. The same guy who knocked out Roy Jones Jr., at that.
• Cast the Expert: Mason Dixon is played by real life light-heavyweight champion Antonio Tarver.
• Creator Couple: In the end credits where everyone is reenacting Rocky's iconic run up the steps, Sylvester Stallone's wife, Jennifer Flavin, is shown doing it as well.
• Cut Song: "Still Here" by Natasha Bedingfield (written by Diane Warren) was to be featured prominently in the film but was dropped. The song is still listed in the closing credits. The song appears on the UK version of the album Rocky Balboa: The Best of Rocky.
• Defictionalization:
  • According to an interview, the fight scene happened right after an actual boxing event, so people who were there for a pay-per-view match got to see the shooting of the film's climax. It helps that this was Stallone's choice so he can make the fight as realistic as possible by actually taking and giving hits.
  • Adrian Balboa has a real grave in Philly.
• Deleted Scene: Sylvester Stallone's original cut of the film ran near 2 1/2 hours. This cut of the film played to sneak preview audiences on May 15th, 2006. This was before MGM demanded Stallone cut the film down to an hour and forty-five minutes (the release print eventually ran an hour and forty-two minutes). Scenes cut out that are not included on the DVD release include:
  • There were many more visits to Adrian's grave in the original cut.
  • A scene in which Rocky sees a woman that looks like Adrian in the building where Robert Jr. works. He follows her for a while before he realizes it is not Adrian. Stallone decided to cut the scene because he felt that Rocky's loneliness had already been established enough, and that this scene was overkill.
  • Rocky's brain damage being shown to have not been brain damage at all was trimmed from the license scene.
  • Two training sequences: one of Rocky doing weight training as well as Mason Dixon doing his training to the tune of Survivor's "Fire Makes Steel" and afterward was a Rocky-only training sequence scored with "Gonna Fly Now". These two sequences were squished together for the final print.
  • Before the fight, Marie and Rocky share a hug.
  • Rocky says hi to Mike Tyson before the fight.
  • There is a subplot about Paulie having a girlfriend that did not make the final cut. Unlike the rest, these deleted scenes can be seen on the DVD.
• Directed by Cast Member: A staple of Stallone's recent films.
• Dyeing for Your Art: Antonio Tarver trained for 5 weeks prior to the film and had to put on 25 pounds.
• Enforced Method Acting: The bout between Rocky and Dixon was filmed with actors Sylvester Stallone and Antonio Tarver really hitting one another. According to Stallone, not a single punch in the fight was pulled, and every hit on film was a hit for real. Furthermore, Stallone has revealed that the scene where Rocky is knocked down for a 9 count, and is trying to get to his feet by taking hold of the rope, but is having difficulty focusing on it, is completely genuine; Tarver really did knock him down, and he really couldn't get up.
• Foiler Footage: The film was also shot with four endings so as not to spoil the end to the watching crowd. They are: 1 - Rocky loses the fight by decision; 2 - Rocky loses the fight by K.O.; 3 - Rocky wins the fight by decision; 4 - Rocky wins the fight by K.O.
• Irony as She Is Cast: Overlaps with Cast the Expert. Real-life Light Heavyweight fighter Antonio Tarver plays Rocky's opponent, Mason "The Line" Dixon, a much younger boxer who take on a near-elderly Rocky. In Boxing, Tarver was considered over-the-hill already (by fighter's standards) due to the fact he was in his late-30s during the time of filming. In fact, Tarver famously didn't "go Pro" until he was 31 years old and was said to be inspired by the film to continue fighting after considering retirement. He went on to have a decorated career well into his 40s (though his level of competition did start to drop off by the time he was 44) and retired at the ripe old age of 46.
• Milestone Celebration: The film was released around the franchise's 30th anniversary.
• The Other Darrin:
  • Geraldine Hughes replaces Jodi Letizia as Maria.
  • Milo Ventimiglia replaces Sage Stallone as Rocky Jr.
• Reality Subtext: As he had done with the previous five films, Sylvester Stallone incorporated a great deal of biographical material into this film.
  • Rocky's decision to come out of retirement to fight an opponent half his age is met with mockery by the public and most sporting officials, but he ultimately exceeds expectations and wins back their approval when he goes the distance with Dixon. Stallone's decision to make a sixth Rocky film was also derided by the public when announced, particularly after the poor reception of Rocky V sixteen years prior, and many expected the film to flop. The film proved these naysayers wrong when it was ultimately released to warm reviews and was a success at the box office, with many calling it a worthy conclusion to the original Rocky saga.
  • A major conflict in the film revolves around Rocky Jr., now going by Robert, struggling to cope with being in Rocky's shadow, and this causes a rift in his relationship with his father. Stallone's real-life son, Sage Stallone, suffered similar insecurities about his famous father's legacy and the effect it had on his own life, and the family's relationship had been similarly strained because of it.^note Sage himself had previously played Rocky Jr. in Rocky V, but Stallone insisted that the part be recast for Rocky Balboa.
  • As Stallone himself explains on the DVD Commentary, to a certain extent, Mason Dixon is based on himself; a man who has made some bad decisions after taking advice from people who didn't really have his best interests at heart.
• Refitted for Sequel: There was originally a scene filmed for Rocky V where Rocky reunited with an older Marie, with her original actress Jodi Letizia reprising her role, but it was cut from the finished film. The idea was brought back for Balboa, with Marie also having a larger role in the film.
• Separated-at-Birth Casting: Milo Ventimiglia commented that the sole reason he was cast as Rocky Jr. was that he bore a strong resemblance to Stallone and shared the same crooked lip (both actors have partial facial paralysis).
• Sequel Gap: This movie came out 16 years after Rocky V.
• Throw It In!:
  • In his DVD Commentary, Sylvester Stallone explains that some of Rocky's dialogue with Marie (Geraldine Hughes) was improvised on-set. For example, for the scene where he installs the light bulb, Stallone had no idea the bulb would be so bright, and his reaction to the glare is completely genuine. The line to Marie about meetings Steps' father on a cruise ship was another improvised line, as was his observation that he's a better dancer than the average bear. Stallone was so surprised with himself for coming up with this comparison, that his next line, "Where that came from, I don't know", was also improvised.
  • According to Stallone, the shot of Rocky standing alone on the museum steps before the second set of end credits was actually filmed without him even knowing.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Stallone never really intended for this movie to be titled "Rocky VI" or any such variants. The final draft of his screenplay is titled Rocky: Puncher's Chance.
  • Adrian Balboa was alive in the first few drafts of the script, while Robert Balboa was in the U.S. Air Force. At this point, the story revolved around Rocky running a local gym for youths and he would wind up fighting a champ named "X-Cell." However, Sylvester Stallone felt that the film lacked the necessary emotional impact it needed. So, he and Talia Shire came to an agreement that her character would be best left out of the film, as this would create an emotional chasm for Rocky from the very first moment of the film.
  • In the screenplay, Rocky's former opponent Clubber Lang was a ringside commentator for the bout with Dixon (Max Kellerman took his place in the final film), and was the only one of the commentators who wasn't dismissive of Rocky's chances (after all, he was the one who'd been in the ring with the guy!).
  • Stallone had asked Carl Weathers for permission to use past footage of him in flashback montages, but Weathers wanted to have an actual cameo as Apollo Creed. Stallone didn't agree to this due to the character's death in Rocky IV, so then Weathers asked too much money for his likeness for Stallone's meager budget to allow. Apollo Creed visually appears in the Creed films because they were studio productions that could easily afford what he wanted for his likeness rights (whereas Rocky Balboa was an independent negative pickup for MGM).
  • In an article of Sports Illustrated, Tommy Morrison, who played Tommy Gunn in Rocky V, tried contacting Stallone about reprising his character for this film, but nothing became of it.
  • Natasha Bedingfield was enlisted to create a song for the film, Still Here, which seems to have been written from Adrian's point of view. The song wound up removed from the film when it was cut from 2 1/2 hrs down to 102 minutes. It was released on the UK version of the compilation album Rocky Balboa: The Best of Rocky that coincided with the film's release rather than a proper soundtrack album.
  • Likewise, Survivor (Band) wrote a new song for the movie, Fire Makes Steel, which was to have been used for a montage showing Rocky weight training and Mason Dixon training. The Gonna Fly Now montage would have been Rocky alone. This song was dropped when the movie was re-edited and only the Gonna Fly Now training montage now with both characters was used.
• Word of God: In Rocky V, Rocky was diagnosed with brain damage and advised never to fight again. Sylvester Stallone clarified this apparent inconsistency in an interview, remarking:
  When Rocky was diagnosed with brain damage, it must be noted that many athletes have a form of brain damage including football players, soccer players, and other individuals in contact sports such as rugby, etc. Rocky never went for a second opinion and yielded to his wife's wishes to stop. So with the advent of new research techniques into brain damage, Rocky was found to be normal among fighters, and he was suffering the results of a severe concussion. By today's standards Rocky Balboa would be given a clean bill of health for fighters.
• Write What You Know: In the DVD Commentary for First Blood, Sylvester Stallone recalls an incident during filming where a girl in the town bar pretended to be a fan of his in order to try and wheedle a free round of drinks out of him. He later includes just such a scene here.
• Written by Cast Member: Stallone also wrote the script.
• You Look Familiar: James Binns, who plays a boxing commissioner in this film, previously played boxing commissioner James Binns in Rocky V.

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