The 72-year-old Sylvester Stallone might have hung up his boxing gloves in the Rocky/Creed movies, but there’s one legacy character of his that isn’t retiring so easily: John Rambo.
Yes, production on Rambo 5 (which may or may not still be called Rambo: Last Blood) is set to begin soon and Sly’s getting himself into what looks like ridiculous shape. Seen below is an Instagram post he’s shared where he’s furiously grunting and groaning in a gym while wearing a Rambo mugshot T-shirt and working out to Guns N’ Roses’ “Welcome to the Jungle.” As he comes to what appears to be a weights-induced climax, he sits up and says: “Welcome to the jungle.”
The upcoming film will be first we’ve seen of John Rambo in ten years. The last time we saw him in 2008’s Rambo, he’d just disembowelled a war criminal in Myanmar after an incredibly violent machine gun based shoot-out. As the movie ended, he went to visit his father in Arizona for the first time in a long time, which seemed about as happy an ending as a guy like Rambo ever gets. Now, word is that he’ll be taking on a Mexican Cartel who’s kidnapped his friend’s daughter. Given that the movie’s apparently intended to provide the conclusion to Rambo’s somewhat depressing story, maybe go in expecting a bit of a downer ending.
Sly’s a pretty open sort of guy on social media and seemingly can’t help showing off what he’s working on (he released an early pre-production photo last week), so expect some hints of exactly what Rambo will be slaughtering and where to start showing up on Instagram soon after filming begins.
In the meantime, we can next see Stallone in Creed II, where he’ll reprise the role of Rocky Balboa and help Adonis Creed win his titanic clash against Viktor Drago. Given how amazing the first installment was, you can count me in.
