Line #12 YMMV/RAMBO


1	Works in this franchise with their own YMMV pages:
2
3	* ''YMMV/FirstBlood''
4	* ''YMMV/RamboFirstBloodPartII''
5	* ''YMMV/RamboIII''
6	* ''YMMV/RamboIV''
7	* ''YMMV/RamboLastBlood''
8	* ''YMMV/RamboTheForceOfFreedom''
9
10	----
11	!!The Franchise in general:
12
13	* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic:
14	** Music/JerryGoldsmith, people. This is especially true for ''Rambo: First Blood Part II'' (Goldsmith quipped that this score paid for his house), even unto the AnimatedAdaptation being liberally tracked with the film's score.
15	** The first three movies' ending themes count: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rMUsVq4o_E It's A Long Road]] from ''First Blood'', performed by Dan Hill, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JBBVS34WFY Peace In Our Life]] from ''Rambo: First Blood Part II'', performed by Sly's brother, Frank Stallone, and Bill Medley's cover of Music/TheHollies' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqMdIZiuERc He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother]] from ''Rambo III''.
16	** To a lesser extent Brian Tyler for ''Rambo''.
17	* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: In one of the videogames, during the ending, the player can throw the kanji of "anger" (怒) at Murdock, which turns him into a frog.
18	* CompleteMonster: [[YMMV/RamboIII Zaysen]]; [[YMMV/RamboIV Major Pa Tee Tint]], [[YMMV/RamboLastBlood the Martinez brothers]]; and [[YMMV/RamboTheForceOfFreedom General Warhawk]]. See those pages for details.
19	* CriticalDissonance: The sequels garnered a mixed reception from critics. Audiences gave them a much warmer reception.
20	* FirstInstallmentWins: ''First Blood'' is widely considered the best in the series, and one of Stallone's greatest films.
21	* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff:
22	** Interestingly, the Rambo movies are ''very'' popular in Asia, in particular Japan, Thailand, and the Southeast Asia region. In fact the film is so popular in the last area it actually became a fountain of memes in the region extending to real life politics (see Rambo IV entry for more details).
23	** The first three films especially are also very popular in China. This is due to the fact that 1) they were some of the first Hollywood action movies to be imported to China, and 2) the DirtyCommunists depiction of the USSR and Vietnam was less of a problem for Chinese authorities, since they were on hostile terms throughout the 1980's.
24	* IconicCharacterForgottenTitle: The first movie is called ''First Blood'', despite people simply calling it ''Rambo''. This is probably why the fourth film was simply called ''Rambo'', but it ironically made things worse.
25	** And, to make things even more confusing, the director's cut of the fourth film changes the title to ''John Rambo''.
26	* IronWoobie: John Rambo.
27	* MagnificentBastard: [[Characters/RamboJohnRambo John James Rambo]] himself is an unstoppable, ever-adapting OneManArmy who has become an iconic, ruthless symbol of action cinema. Traumatized and trained to be a killer by his time in the Vietnam War, Rambo's [[Film/FirstBlood first outing]] sees him mistreated and abused by a small-town police force, driving him into a PTSD-sparked war against them. Rambo utterly dismantles the town's infrastructure and outsmarts the National Guard, only beaten when he willingly stands down. Building off of this impressive introduction, Rambo goes on to [[Film/RamboFirstBloodPartII save multiple [=POWs=]]] from a Vietnamese war camp; [[Film/RamboIII lead a rebellion]] in Afghanistan against horrid Soviet invaders; and [[Film/RamboIV rescue a group of missionaries]] from war criminals in Burma, all with his trademark quick-thinking guerilla tactics. After decades of settling down and taking the young Gabriela Beltran as his surrogate daughter, Rambo [[Film/RamboLastBlood tears a warpath to find her]] when she is kidnapped and killed by HumanTraffickers, whom Rambo proceeds to viciously wipe out by luring them to his booby-trapped, war-ready ranch. Rambo is capable of withstanding brutal torture, pragmatically weaponizes anything he can get his hands on, and always comes out on top in his missions to destroy monsters that hurt others.
28	* MemeticMutation: "Going Rambo" became a term to describe anyone who are or try to be a OneManArmy.
29	* MisaimedFandom: Rare case where the studio ended up fostering it. Rambo of the first film was a TragicHero suffering severe PTSD. He was an AntiHero in the [[ClassicalAntiHero classical sense.]] Fans saw him as the ultimate badass and the studio restructured the franchise into being about him being a OneManArmy ActionHero.
30	* NightmareFuel: [[NightmareFuel/{{Rambo}} Has its own page]]
31	* SugarWiki/NoProblemWithLicensedGames:
32	** The game based on ''Rambo: First Blood Part II'' for the Sega Master System is a pretty good over head shooter, if pretty hard to play. It's similar to Ikari Warriors, without the rotary controls, rescuing [=POWs=], and the grenades being replaced by the bow with explosive arrows. You could even cheat the game over system by joining in as the second player just as the first player loses all their lives and vice versa.
33	** A ''Rambo III'' adaptation was made for the UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis that was a pretty good run and gun.
34	** The arcade game, also based on ''Rambo III'', was a sort-of Rail Shooter game where two players take control of Rambo and Col. Trautman, as they go through Afghanistan. It's pretty action packed, and fun to play with a friend.
35	** Then there is the light gun game, proudly provided by SEGA. This one has movie footage (though following just ''Rambo: First Blood Part II'', and ''Rambo III''), assault rifles for light guns (or Mac 10 modeled SMGS, depending on the cabinet), MoreDakka than even ''VideoGame/TimeCrisis'', and when you use the LimitBreak, you '''scream''' along with Rambo and gain the brief ability to take no damage, AND use BottomlessMagazines. Definitely RatedMForManly. The only legitimate complaint about this game is, unlike ''VideoGame/GhostSquad2004'' and ''VideoGame/HouseOfTheDead 4'', there is no console version of this game.
36	* TheProblemWithLicensedGames:
37	** ... But unfortunately, most of the Rambo tie-in games aren't very good, most infamously the UsefulNotes/{{NES}} game adaptation. It borrows a lot from ''Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link''. It wouldn't be a bad idea if it was properly executed. It was not. It did have some good things going for it like staying as faithful to the source material as possible (despite some deviations added to the plot), and having a pretty catchy soundtrack, so it isn't a total problem.
38	** The 2014 game simply titled ''Rambo: The Video Game'' was heavily criticized for its dated rail shooter gameplay and graphics (this is '''NOT''' to be confused with the ''Rambo arcade game by'' SEGA), while making a mess out of the first movie's plot (such as a scene where Rambo drives a truck into a gas station, causing it to explode, and him gunning down cops with a machine gun which never happened in ''First Blood''). It's also incredibly [[GameBreakingBug buggy]], such as with the autosave indicators never leaving the screen until you restart the game, and filled with FakeDifficulty where if enemies stay alive for too long, they will [[AlwaysAccurateAttack consistently hit you no matter what.]]
39	* RetroactiveRecognition: Take a look at [[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/ae/Richard_Crenna.jpg Colonel Sam Trautman]]. This is the same man who played the nerd [[http://www.ourmissbrooks.com/images/richard-crenna-as-walter-dennon-on-our-miss-brooks.jpg Walter Denton]] on ''Radio/OurMissBrooks.''
40	* {{Sequelitis}}: ''Rambo'' is FirstInstallmentWins, all follow-ups [[ContestedSequel split opinions]]; the most positively received is ''Film/RamboFirstBloodPartII'', a critically reviled but very popular ActionizedSequel that generated a bevy of imitators and is the reason why Rambo is [[SequelDisplacement mostly associated with slaughters]] when in ''Film/FirstBlood'' he causes quite the property damage but [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness only kills one person, mostly by accident]]. The other movies strayed even further from the compelling anti-war story of a disrespected ShellShockedVeteran that started the series, with ''Film/RamboIII'' being fairly boring in spite of the warfare, ''Film/RamboIV'' going BloodierAndGorier, and ''Film/RamboLastBlood'' not only [[HappyEndingOverride overriding the last film's ending]] but also having a [[OvershadowedByControversy controversial approach]] with Mexican HumanTraffickers as its villains.
41	* SequelDisplacement: The sequels are definitely more well known than the first film. Take, for instance, the fact that it was titled ''First Blood'' and by the third film, it was called ''Rambo III'', or the fact that Rambo is known for high body counts, even though the grand total of dead bodies in the first film is a single AssholeVictim who Rambo didn't even kill directly or on purpose.
42	* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: Parts II & III especially, due to their late UsefulNotes/ColdWar setting. Even the fourth movie is showing signs of this, with Myanmar slowly but surely opening up politically.
43	* TheWoobie: especially in the first film, Rambo has been through hell and returns home to be persecuted by a Jerkass sheriff who [[spoiler:eventually tries to kill for something Galt's death even though it wasn't entirely his fault.]]

Context YMMV / RAMBO