FIRST BLOOD(1982)
The first Rambo movie I saw was Rambo 2. Was shocked by the change in tone when I watched Rambo 1. Original First Blood was the better movie by far.
this post was submitted on 04 Feb 2026
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This January, we went through the entire franchise in the #FridayThrillerClub watch party on Mastodon. The first was definitely the best.
The movie is pretty awesome for what it is. The novel it's based on is a better story, in my opinion. There are important differences in the characters and plot that Stallone forced on the movie script that changed the character of Rambo and his ultimate fate.
Just rewatched the whole Rambo franchise in #FridayThrillerClub watch party on Mastodon, and the first was definitely the best. Thanks to the more plausible plot and the performances by Stallone and Dennehy.
Makes me want to rewatch some more Dennehy films. Rewatched F/X 1 &2 recently, but I also want to see again things like Belly of An Architect .
Check out Murder in the Heartland. Stars Tim Roth and Fairuza Balk, Dennehy shows up halfway through. It's a TV movie but all 3 give solid performances, Dennehy got an Emmy nomination. A couple copies are on youtube but idk if they're licensed.
Thanks! Added to my wishlist
Def the best of the franchise.
Too bad one of them turned out to be a MAGA fascist.
It makes sense, the movie quickly became fantasy fodder for violent post-Vietnam-war white supremacists. They pretended they were fighting a fictional government where Jewish people manipulated minorities to steal white people’s privilege.
As an example, Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh loved Rambo and worked for a short time as a simple security guard. The book Bring the War Home by Kathleen Belew describes:
He liked to brandish “a huge … pistol out of his car window” and came to work with bandoliers of ammunition hung across his chest, like the fictional supersoldier and Vietnam War veteran Rambo. Clearly McVeigh was deeply attached to the popular culture deployments of the Vietnam War story.
First Blood is also listed as one of his favorite movies in Jeffrey Toobin’s book Homegrown, about white terrorism in the U.S.
He also loved Red Dawn and watched it on repeat when he was in prison.