History Trivia / Rambo

** The hot blonde missionary in ''Rambo'' was a [[Series/{{Angel}} vampire]] and the [[Series/{{Dexter}} wife of a serial killer]].

** The hot blonde missionary in ''Rambo'' was a [[Series/{{Angel}} vampire]] and the [[{{Dexter}} wife of a serial killer]].

* PropRecycling: The Hind gunships, as well as the KLMK jackets and the TanksButNoTanks Soviet equipment from the third movie were all reused from ''Film/RedDawn1984''.

** In addition, Charles Napier, who played the Marshall in Rambo, even appeared on The A-team twice.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: DustinHoffman was the first choice for John Rambo with MikeNichols directing. He turned down the role because he felt the script was too violent.
** Actually, just about every Hollywood A-lister was considered for the role at one time or another (it was in DevelopmentHell for years). And '''Kirk Douglas''' was attached to direct at one point.
*** And speaking of Kirk Douglas, he was actually cast as Colonel Trautman for a little while, but he walked off the set and Richard Crenna was called in to replace him due to disagreements with the director and producers over the film's ending. The DVD extras of ''First Blood'' contain marketing stills of Kirk Douglas wearing Trautman's signature uniform.
** Sylvester Stallone was working on a script for a fifth Rambo movie, which would have featured the titular hero going into Mexico to rescue a teenage girl who had been kidnapped by the northern drug cartels. But after the success of ''TheExpendables'' the project was scrapped so that Stallone could focus on the sequels for that franchise.

* FakeRussian: Both Podovsky and Zaysen were played by an American (Steven Berkoff) and a French (Marc de Jonge), respectively.

* TheCharactedDiedWithHim: Trautman died off screen in the fourth movie because Creator/SylvesterStallone felt it wouldn't feel right replacing the late Richard Crenna. As he himself put it: "Trautman died the day my friend Richard died."

* Warhammer 40K had a homage to Rambo in the form of a special character for the Imperial Guard. His name? 'Sly Marbo'.

* The third movie was [[BannedInChina banned in the USSR]] (the ban was lifted very quickly because of TheGreatPoliticsMessUp). The fourth is, unsurprisingly, banned in Burma.
** Also unsurprisingly, the fourth movie is very popular among the Karen Rebels in Burma. The film's catch phrase "Live for nothing or die for something" has actually become a rallying cry for the rebels.

* FakeRussian

** Lewis, one of the mercs in ''Rambo'' was [[RedDwarf "Nicey" Akerman]].

** The hot blonde missionary in ''Rambo'' was a [[{{Angel}} vampire]] and the [[{{Dexter}} wife of a serial killer]].

** Also unsurprisingly, the fourth movie is very popular among the Karen Rebels in Burma. The film's catch phrase "Live for something or die for nothing" has actually become a rallying cry for the rebels.

* HeyItsThatGuy: Ericson [[TheKarateKid runs a karate dojo in Recita and teaches his students "Mercy is for the weak"]].

* HeyItsThatGuy: Ericson runs a [[TheKarateKid dojo in Recita]].

** Actually, just about every Hollywood A-lister was considered for the role at one time or another (it was in DevelopmentalHell for years). And '''Kirk Douglas''' was attached to direct at one point.

** His first name comes from the war song "When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again".

* In Japan, where ''{{Rambo}}'' was indeed very popular, the word "rambo" can be translated as "senseless violence"}

* Rambo is in fact named after a US Postal Service worker, who also went on to cultivate a type of apple that now bears his name.