John Rambo | First Blood | First Blood Part II | Rambo III | Rambo IV | Last Blood
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Maria Beltran
Maria Beltran
Played By: Adriana Barraza
- Men Act, Women Are: After Gabriela's been missing for a long time having gone to Mexico, Maria alerts Rambo that she must be in trouble. Rambo agrees to go by himself and that Maria should stay home and wait for him to return. She disappears from the rest of the movie after Rambo goes to Mexico.
- Voice of Reason: Warned Gabriela not to go to Mexico to see her biological father, claiming that he doesn't love her at all and only Rambo is who she can look up to as a father figure.
Carmen Delgado
Carmen Delgado
Played By: Paz Vega
- Intrepid Reporter: She is an independent reporter who doesn't hesitate to risk her life to help Rambo.
- Nice Girl: Aids Rambo in his fight against Hugo and his gang.
- Small Role, Big Impact: Helps Rambo get back to the United States after Victor cuts his face with a knife and takes him to a doctor, who then recommends hospitalization. All thanks to her, Rambo is able to at the very least recover Gabriela as she's dying of drug overdose and bury her properly.
Gabriela
Gabriela
Played By: Yvette Monreal
- Kill the Cutie: Not long after Rambo rescues her from the brothel, she dies of a drug overdose by Victor, sparking Rambo's Roaring Rampage of Revenge in the second half.
- Like a Daughter to Me: Despite sharing no biological or legal relationship with him, for all intents and purposes, she was Rambo's daughter, as she lived on his ranch and he helped raise her.
- Morality Pet: She serves as a huge one for Rambo, who he credits for helping him turn his life around. He tells her at some point that she saved him from himself by showing him that there was still good in people, something he had lost sight of over the years. Not that it stops him from viciously attacking or killing those involved in her abduction, and all bets are off after she dies.
Hugo Martinez
Hugo Martinez
Played By: Sergio Peris-Mencheta
- Asshole Victim: Much like his brother Victor, nobody will feel bad for this guy when he gets his heart ripped out at the hands of Rambo since he also drugged, raped, and murdered Gabriela.
- Avenging the Villain: After Victor's death, prompting him to take action in the climax. However this seems more about to eliminate a potential threat to his business than actually avenge his brother since there was anything but brotherly love between the twoes.
- Big Bad: Of Last Blood.
- Bond Villain Stupidity: He lets Rambo live after his men beat him within an inch of his life so that Rambo will spend the rest of his life knowing that he condemned Gabriela to a Fate Worse than Death. This ends up biting him in the ass quite spectacularly.
- Card-Carrying Villain: He clearly makes no secret what he does is deplorable and he knows and enjoys it as long he can make a buck.
- Churchgoing Villain: Is shown wearing a cross around his necklace in several up-close shots despite the unholy nature of his criminal sex trafficking.
- Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: Hugo is this to the previous villains, as he himself manages to emotionally hurt Rambo, overshadowing the past foes' own, which are mostly physically inflicting, and is a Mundane Horror Soft-Spoken Sadist in contrast to the Russians being examples of Evil Is Hammy. Plus, while he's a Viler New Villain, Mundane Horror, and Soft-Spoken Sadist like Pa Tee Tint before him, unlike Pa Tee Tint, the atrocities he commits are less graphic than the aftermath of Pa Tee Tint's war crimes, relying more on inflicting psychological and emotional toil then physical mutilations.
- Cruel Mercy: Decides to let Rambo live so he'll suffer over the fact he made Hugo torture Gabriela just to make an example of her, a complete inversion of Rambo having spared the first film's Big Bad Teasle for him to live with his guilt and face public disgrace for his corruption.
- Defiant to the End: Even when Rambo pinned him with arrows and carved out his heart, Hugo nonetheless just grunts at Rambo with no regrets until he dies.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Averted. He doesn't show that much affection towards his brother, and he is apathetic when he sees his corpse.
- Even Evil Has Standards: While not actually caring for his brother Victor, he looks a bit shocked when he sees his headless corpse. This seems more like disgust than any moral standards, though.
- Evil Counterpart: To Starter Villain Will Teasle, despite both of them being Big Bads, however, Hugo is more of a Contrasting Sequel Antagonist Foil to Teasle as Hugo is an utter monster of a crime lord who shows no shame about his human trafficking, while Teasle was a Jerkass Woobie Tragic Villain/Anti-Villain of a police officer who thought what his heavy-handed approach to his job is the way to uphold the law. Also, appearance-wise, Hugo is a handsome and fit Latin Lover, while Teasle, in contrast, was a Fat Bastard. By the climax, both Hugo and Teasle are pride-preserving foes driven by Avenging the Villain when Rambo takes care of The Dragon and tries to confront him with an M16-derived weapon and foot tactics in contrast to the other villains in the franchise.
- Eviler than Thou: Along with Pa Tee Tint above, he's emotionally this compared to the prior villains.
- Faux Affably Evil: Has a Soft-Spoken Sadist-like tone similar to that of Podovsky from the second film.
- Final Boss: Not only is he the final villain of the franchise, but he's also this for Last Blood.
- Hate Sink: An absolutely disgusting and repulsive human being without any positive traits. His death is one of the most satisfying moments of the entire series.
- Hidden Depths: It shows he wears a crucifix around his neck, however, everything he does is absolutely unholy and against everything Christianity stands for. It's possible that he and his brother came from a religious family that forced Hugo to wear a cross even though he wasn't a true Christian therefore he and Victor are considered to be Black Sheep of the family.
- Human Traffickers: He runs a gang of ruthless criminals who abduct and enslave girls and young women to turn them into sex slaves.
- Latin Lover: To a point fans nicknamed him "the Mexican Jon Snow."
- Mundane Horror: Grounded he may be, his atrocities are quite deplorable.
- Mundanger: Unlike the military sequel villains in The '80s, he — being an utterly loathsome and sadistic human-trafficking boss of a drug cartel — is realistically a living embodiment of Mundane Horror.
- Older Hero vs. Younger Villain: When facing an aging Rambo.
- Outrun the Fireball: Does this after Rambo detonates his tunnels in the climax.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: He tells Rambo that the girls he trafficks mean nothing to him or his customers, even going as far as to refer to them as "things" and not people. He also calls Rambo a "gringo" — a Spanish-language racial slur for a person who is not Latino or Hispanic — during their final battle, and refers to Gabriela as a "bitch" when he vows revenge for Hugo drugging, raping and murdering her.
- Rasputinian Death: In order, Hugo gets blasted out of an exploding underground tunnel, impaled against a wall with four arrows and disembowelled with a Bowie Knife, before having his heart torn out of his chest. Needless to say, he deserves every second of it.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The Blue to Victor's Red.
- Siblings in Crime: He's the leader of the sex slave ring with his brother Victor as his top henchman.
- Sibling Rivalry : He and his brother barely tolerate each other despite working together.
- Social Climber: Of the criminal variety. He is desperate to ally himself with the powerful organization of Don Miguel to rise in the criminal ranks.
- Soft-Spoken Sadist: He only ever raises his voice when under stress, but he is monstrously cruel and brutal either way.
- This Cannot Be!: The look on Hugo's face when Rambo approaches him to kill him — after first impaling him to a barn wall with arrows — screams this.
- Viler New Villain: Very much in contrast to the previous villains. He shares this neck-to-neck with Pa Tee Tint, just with less bodily and bloodily graphic results and more on the psychological and emotional trauma scale.
- Villainous Breakdown: Grows more unhinged as Rambo picks apart his men in the climax. By the time his entire army has been wiped out, he's snarling insults in his native tongue, and spends his entire death sequence screeching and hissing in agony like a wounded animal.
- Villainous Valor: A thoroughly unsympathetic case. He's a monster for sure, but he is also the second villain in the film to approach this trope in a mundane fashion after Teasle when he decides to confront Rambo with just an M16-derived gun and a thought for foot tactics. He even managed to Outrun the Fireball, quite ballsy.
Victor Martinez
Victor Martinez
Played By: Óscar Jaenada
- Asshole Victim: Let's see, he kidnapped Gabriella, tortured her, raped her, and fatally drugged her and caused her death. When Rambo kills him by cutting off his head and throwing it onto the road, nobody is bound to feel any sympathy for him.
- Ax-Crazy: While Hugo is known for his violent personality, Victor in particular loves to drug his victims and even carve a V on their cheeks.
- The Dragon: Hugo's younger brother and the second-in-command of Martinez's gang.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Averted. He only works with his brother out of his sadism of trafficking.
- Faux Affably Evil: Whenever he joyously welcomes his potential business partners or customers for this human trafficking ring like inviting guests to a party. When confronting Rambo for the first time, he compliments the knife that he seized from him and would later carve a V-shaped scar on him.
- Hate Sink: Like his brother, he has no redeeming qualities in the least, and he is the one who directly kills Gabriela, which makes the sight of his dead corpse even more satisfying.
- The Heavy: Victor, not Hugo, is the reason most of the plot happens. He's also the more antagonistic towards Rambo and tries to kill him as opposed to Hugo's Bond Villain Stupidity. Aside from the last third of the film, where he's killed off to give the Big Bad a reason for his Revenge Before Reason.
- Killed Offscreen: Rambo decapitates him offscreen, and we don't see his headless corpse until later.
- Mundane Horror: Grounded he may be, his atrocities are quite deplorable.
- Mundanger: Unlike the military sequel villains in The '80s, he's realistically a walking bucket of Mundane Horror.
- Off with His Head!: How Rambo kills him. Rambo spitefully leaves (drops) his head on a freeway.
- Older Hero vs. Younger Villain: When facing an aging Rambo.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The Red to Hugo's Blue.
- Siblings in Crime: He's the right hand of his brother Hugo in the human trafficking ring.
- Sibling Rivalry: He and his brother barely tolerate each other despite working together.
- Villain Has a Point: When Hugo decides to let Rambo live so he can keep on thinking about the fact that he hasn't been able to save Gabriela Victor protests as he wanted to kill him right now. Turns out he wasn't wrong after all considering all the troubles Rambo's caused after that. He later calls Hugo out for this.
- Viler New Villain: Very much in contrast to the previous villains. He and his brother Hugo share this neck-to-neck with Pa Tee Tint, just with less bodily and bloodily graphic results and more on the psychological and emotional trauma scale.
Don Miguel
Don Miguel
Played By: Rick Zingale
- Adapted Out: His only scene is omitted in the shortened version of the fifth film.
- First-Name Basis: The Martinez brothers only ever refer to him by his first name and the honorific "don
", so his surname remains a mystery. - Greater-Scope Villain: He is the kingpin of the prostitution ring Hugo and Victor applied to work for, but Don Miguel is waiting for them to abduct far more young Latina women before he'll let them in. While Don Miguel was able to snag 17,000 women for sex slavery in one year alone, the Martinez brothers have less than 30 in their own trafficking ring.
Gizelle
Gizelle
Played By: Fenessa Pineda Other Languages
Gabriela's friend who tells her she knows where her father is.
- Beyond Redemption: Maria thinks so despite Gabriela saying she'd changed; the latter had to learn the hard way that the former was right about her.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: She sells out Gabriela to the human traffickers led by Hugo Martinez. The lie she uses is that she found where Gabriela's father is, but she conceals the fact that he doesn't want his daughter back.
- False Friend: Even Maria saw through her during her brief stay at the ranch.
- Karma Houdini: She gets off very easy, as Rambo lets her walk away for simply showing him where Gabriela was last seen, likely out of feeling she's Not Worth Killing after doing what she's told by Rambo.
- Mundanger: She has no combat skills in contrast to the henchmen Rambo takes down, but she still gets Gabriela captured.
- Not Worth Killing: Rambo spares her after she does what he tells her.
- Older Hero vs. Younger Villain: When facing an aging Rambo.
- Lower-Class Lout: She is a denizen of Mexico's seedy inner city slums while connected to criminal gangs.
- Spicy Latina: She is defensively belligerent when a suspicious Rambo interrogates her in regards to Gabriela's kidnapping, likely stemming from her social skills as a Lower-Class Lout.
Manuel
Manuel
Played By: Marco de la O
Gabriela's biological father.
- Beyond Redemption: Rambo and Maria think so despite Gabriela saying he could have changed; the latter had to learn the hard way that the former two were right about him.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: He initially greets her politely and warmly when Gabriela shows up again at the doorstep of his apartment, but when she asks an Armor-Piercing Question about why Manuel left her, Manuel steps out of the light of his apartment and into the dark blue light which reflects on him showing his true colors when he coldly admits to Gabriela that he disowned her after his wife's death with no regrets For the Evulz.
- Card-Carrying Villain: When the cards are down, he admits to Gabriela in a cold tone that he left her after his wife's death because he felt like it.
- Domestic Abuse: Had beat his wife with a belt that prompted Rambo to stop him.
- For the Evulz: His reason why he abandoned his daughter.
- I Have No Daughter!: Says this to Gabriela's face when she locates him.
- Jerkass: Rambo wants to strangle him when Gabriela goes missing and Manuel shows no concern about it.
- Lower-Class Lout: He is a denizen of Mexico's seedy inner city slums.
- The Millstone: His relocation to Mexico is what leads Gabriela to go there to find him and get herself captured. Even Rambo lampshades this when he says it's his fault for Gabriela's jeopardy.
- Mundanger: While not a main villain, he's still a realistically deplorable character who had abused his wife and disowned his daughter with no regrets.
- Nerves of Steel: Does not flinch when Rambo confronts him when searching for Gabriela, expressing I Regret Nothing in regards to his ultimate decision.
- Older Hero vs. Younger Villain: When facing an aging Rambo.
- Parental Abandonment: He deserted Gabriela and her mother a while ago without any remorse.
- Small Role, Big Impact: He only has two scenes in his screen time around the first act, but Manuel's abandonment of Gabriela in the first place is what started the fifth film's main conflict.
El Flaco
El Flaco
Played By: Pascacio López
- Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: On the receiving end of this by Rambo, who asks where he took Gabriela.
- Mundanger: Rambo managed to take him down at ease without him trying to prepare to defend himself first, but he was part of getting Gabriela captured.
- Older Hero vs. Younger Villain: When facing an aging Rambo.
