With the Italian Stallion Sylvestor Stallone back on our screen as Rambo, it’s time to break down everything that you need to know about the film and it’s ending.
Rambo: Last Blood or Rambo Number 5 as I think it should’ve been called is a blast from start to finish and throughout this video I’m going to be discussing the major plot points and giving my review of the movie as a whole.
I’ve seen this picking up a lot of negative press online from lots of outlets so make sure you stick around until the end to hear my thoughts on why I think they’re all wrong.
There will be heavy spoilers here, so if you haven’t had a chance to watch the film yet and don’t want to know what happens then I highly suggest that you turn off now.
With that out the way I just wanna give a huge thank you for clicking this video, now let’s get into our breakdown of Rambo: Last Blood.
Rambo: Last Blood Recap
The film picks up over ten years after the events of Rambo 4 and the titular character is living a simple life on the farm that we last saw him walking towards. Rambo looks after his friend and her neice Gabrielle and the two have a close knit bond that has finally brought some happiness to the characters life.
Gabrielle’s father up and left her a decade earlier and she’s been desperate to find him to ask him why he upped sticks on her and her dying mother, so when word of his whereabouts is given to her she travels to Mexico to find him. After he brutally tells her that he didn’t care about her or her mother, Gabrielle goes to drown her sorrows with her childhood friend who just so happens to be working for a gang of human traffickers and they take Gabrielle prisoner which sets John off on a mission to track her down.
A New Kind Of Rambo
It’s a really slow start to the film that fleshes out the world that our characters exist in and from the beginning you get the feeling that this won’t have a happy ending. Now whilst I have seen this compared to Taken, bar the premise there’s actually very little that is similar. Rambo is less indestructible than he was in prior movies and his first attempt to rescue Gabrielle goes terribly and he ends up getting a deep scar on his face that is a reminder of his failure.
This scar is the mark of the Martinez brothers, the villains of the piece and they too do the same to Gabrielle’s face, treating her as inhumane as possible due to the disrespect that they feel at the hands of Rambo. They brutally beat him but leave him alive so that he can constantly think about all the pain and torment that she’s going through. These guys aren’t your cookie cutter villains and they make a James Bond baddie seem like Ghandi, they’re dark, twisted and lack a sense of decency which instantly makes you gravitate to Rambo and similar to the prior film you really get involved when the killings finally start at about the halfway point of the film.
After receiving help from a journalist named Carmen, Rambo is able to find Gabrielle and rescue her but on the way home she dies, shedding a tear after Rambo discusses how proud he is of her. It’s a really heartbreaking moment and is a turn that I didn’t expect purely because I was pretty much expecting this to be like Taken and for everything to end with a nice bow wrapped around it.
There Will Be Blood
Devastated, Rambo doesn’t take the high road and decides that the best course of action is to take revenge on the Martinez Brothers and the gang. He and Gabrielle’s aunty say that they feel like they’ve had their hearts cut out and Rambo wants to do this to the Brothers.
The last 45 minutes of the film pretty much becomes the final hour of Breaking Bad Season 5 and it’s awesome to watch the character setting up traps Home Alone style purely because he knows that he can bait them out and make them suffer.
Rambo travels back to Mexico, beheads the Martinez brother that cut his face and dumps his head in the road on the way to his house basically painting a target on his back that says ‘follow me into the tunnels, I promise it’s fun down here.’
Rambo: Last Blood Ending Explained
The gang follows him back and Rambo unleashes all the years of rage that he’s been keeping a lid on, completely decimating them in what is arguably one of the best action scenes in the entire franchise. It’s up there with the 50 Cal moment in the previous film and is completely incredible to watch.
It’s rare that we see an R Rated Action Movie that really goes to this depth and watching Rambo completely tear through everyone is as satisfying as ever.
During the struggle, Rambo takes a couple of shots but he keeps on fighting which sort of plays into the end which I’ll get into later. He finally kills all of Martinez’ men, refusing to kill Martinez until there’s no one left standing and in the Barn he asks if he knows what it’s like to have his heart cut out before driving his knife into the villains chest, pulling his heart out with his hands and letting it beat infront of the character before he dies.
It’s such a gory, over the top moment that is the perfect final kill for the franchise and lets you know that Rambo has and always will be one of the most badass heroes of all time.
Badly wounded, Rambo climbs to his rocking chair on his porch and sits rocking back and forth as he bleeds out his gutshot which cuts to credits and a montage of the movies.
Did Rambo Die?
Now I’ve seen a lot of people asking whether he was alive or dead at the end and those who hang around till after the credits will see the character get up, saddle up his horse and ride off.
Rambo says in the narration that though his family and the ones that he cares about are gone, he’s still going to keep going in order to carry on their memory. He will fight on in order to keep them alive in some form or another, he’s not giving up and he’s not going to stop.
Even with that wound, Rambo is unstoppable so I highly doubt that this will be the last we see of him.
And I’m not the only one either, when promoting the film, Sylvestor Stallone himself said that there is the potential for more films after Last Blood and that this is only the beginning. So, whilst the wound is pretty bad it looks like we will be getting more films in the future with the character so best call the next one Rambo: New Blood or something…look I don’t know I don’t make up the titles but there is definitely an opportunity for more down the line.
Why IGN Are Wrong
And now onto my review and why media outlets are unnecessarily giving negative reviews on Rambo: Last Blood, I’m gonna be focusing on IGN mainly who gave the film a 4.5/10 but I’ve seen a lot of the criticms that the reviewer made repeated on Rotten Tomatoes quite a lot.
What it boils down to is that the movie is too offensive for today’s current political climate and as always it’s a small minority of people who are massively offended making all the noise when I guarantee that 90% of the population really don’t care.
The reviewer later went on to say that Rambo was Badass and Racist just like most Rambo movies which to me pretty much highlights that they haven’t seen the other films. First Blood was about a predominantly white enemy and Rambo 3 even had the character teaming up with the people of Afghan to take on the white Russian forces.
The reviewer flat out says that Rambo isn’t needed in 2019 which I completely disagree with and here’s why: When everything is deemed too offensive Rambo is exactly what we need. Rambo is a film that doesn’t really care about your sensibilities or feelings, it’s in your face, aggressive and if it is offending you then you probably need to get a grip because at the end of the day it’s just a film.
I don’t know how these people even leave their house if an action movie scares them and seems problematic and I know that the majority of people that watch this will enjoy it. I feel like the negative reviews have been because people have tried to put their own personal politics on a movie that doesn’t really care and is doing it’s own thing.
If you are going to review a piece of entertainment you should push your personal feelings to the side and judge something on its merits rather than if you think it aligns with your personal beliefs, it’s not supposed to. Rambo is about taking an exetreme situation, turning it up to 11 and going all out.
Rambo: Last Blood Rotten Tomatoes Score
To me, it’s ridiculous that people are crying out about the violence in the film when it’s always been a part of the franchise.
Who goes to to a Rambo movie, Expects a Rambo movie, they get a Rambo movie and then are annoyed that its a Rambo movie?
It’s just eye rolling to me and I think that IGN especially should have been more selective about who they chose to review the film, this person clearly gets offended by violence so no matter what happeend in the movie, they were never going to enjoy it.
And that’s fine, they don’t have to enjoy it but when you’re using someone as an ambassador for your website you need to have someone who will have a balanced opinion rather than a skewed view of what should and shouldn’t be in a film. The movie isn’t made for them, the world doesn’t revolve around them, it’s not for them.
Not every movie is for everyone and if you’re offended by Rambo then its because you’re not its audience, you’re not the person its made for. I don’t want to see Downton Abbey, it’s not for me and I’m not going to review it because I know I would give it a bad score even if fans loved it. Even if I did I still wouldn’t call it racist as this would show my narrow view and understanding of the film and what it’s content is.
I know this is coming off really ranty now which I don’t want it to be but damn, IGN massively messed up and if you like Rambo chances are you know what to expect and will love this movie.
Your Thoughts
Obviously I’d love to hear your thoughts on the film and what you took from it. If you agree with me or disagree with me then make sure you leave a comment below!
3 Comments