John J. Rambo has often seemed like a character who’s more at ease in the wilderness away from the meddling authorities of civilization, so it only figures that the action hero would be sporting a full on cowboy look in these new Rambo 5 photos.
The first installment in this nostalgia-heavy series since 2008’s Rambo is said to show Sylvester Stallone’s title character settled in for a peaceful post-retirement life on a family ranch in Arizona. Needless to say, things don’t stay quiet for long, but in these two new images, it looks like Rambo has adapted to life in the rural southwest quite well, equipped with a stylish cowboy hat, a trusty steed, and the corresponding riding gloves.
With a script co-written by Stallone himself, Rambo 5 will see our hero teaming up with a journalist to track down a group of local girls who’ve been kidnapped by a Mexican sex trafficking ring. The film will serve as just one more in a long line of examples of Stallone revisiting one of his most cherished properties from yesteryear, with Rocky spinoff Creed II also due for release this year. Though the actor may not have as much clout at the box office as he once did, the first Creed served as a potent reminder that old Sly can still deliver a damn fine performance when working with the right material, so here’s hoping that Rambo 5 can offer more than a cheap nostalgia buzz.
Admittedly, the Rambo series doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to sequels, but if director Adrian Grunberg is looking to recapture the intensity of the 1982 original, then placing Stallone in the woods isn’t a bad start. Anyone familiar with First Blood will know that he can do some intriguingly dangerous things in this environment.
In any case, while Rambo 5 has no release date set yet, you can expect further details to emerge now that production is officially underway.
