Rambo Last Blood: The 10 Minute Opening Scene That Was Cut

It turns out that Rambo: Last Blood has a lot more cuts that some of the brutal deaths that we see in the film.

After seeing the film in a UK cinema last week I was surprised to learn that depending on what country you watch the movie in, depends on what introduction you for the film that you got.

News of the alternate opening recently reached the internet and it was revealed that there is actually a full ten-minute scene omitted from US, Canadian and UK cinemas and throughout this video, I’m going to be going over what happens in the scene as well as the meaning behind it.

There will be heavy spoilers here so if you haven’t had a chance to watch Rambo Last Blood yet then there may potentially be thing ruined here so 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 the opening scene!

Rambo: Last Blood: Opening Scene Breakdown

Ok, so the scene that we got actually shows Rambo decked out in full rainwater gear and follows him rescuing some trapped teens during a flash flood. The first look that we got from the film showed Rambo wearing this and naturally, some people, including myself, were confused about why they never got this in the version that we saw.

Whilst I did just chalk this up to being a deleted scene, there are several countries that still have this version of the film attached to it. Dan Gordon, writer of the movie actually poured his heart and soul into the story behind this and when I get into it after the breakdown you’ll understand why it’s very poignant.

The Alternate Scene Explained

Over on Reddit user Madfish2k described the alternate opening scene, which was to let us know that Rambo has spent the past decade being a superhero rather than a deadly killer.

The user’s description is as follows.

“It starts in a rainstorm in the middle of a rescue, 3 missing hikers in danger of getting caught in a flood. The police say they have to stop the search as its getting too dangerous and ask where the volunteer on horseback is. The police imply it’s not the first time Rambo has done this thing to help either. At the end, I was waiting the entire time for the police and/or townsfolk to show up and help Rambo fight the cartel. Would have been a nice parallel to the first movie and redeemed the entire film.

However this is not in the film and after the introduction with the police we are then shown Rambo in the woods tracking the hikers, he finds a girl dead then further down finds the other two, he’s trying to get them out but one guy won’t leave without his wife. Rambo tells him she’s dead but he runs off, the floodwater starts running down and Rambo ties himself and the girl to a rock while the initial rush of water cascades over them. He then returns to the base with the girl and see’s the guy who ran off getting his body bag loaded into an ambulance which triggers his PTSD, the girl thanks him and Rambo returns home and has a conversation with the old lady living in the house about when he returned and how his father used to sit in the rocking chair outside.”

“He then goes into the tunnels clearly upset about the events and puts a CD on (The Doors)…when he has PTSD flashbacks in the tunnels it is intercut with the dead hiker.”

Rambo: Last Blood Alternate Opening My Review

And that’s the entire scene, now personally I would have loved to have seen this, not only for the nods to The Doors which returns later in the film but just for how much it shows that Rambo is still trying to do good even though the world continues to fail him.

Now, in reference to why Dan Gordon wanted the scene in the film, in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, he said the following:

“That scene was really about my son. It’s not losing someone you love is in the past and a reliving of something that happened 20 years ago. It’s that you keep on trying to save that person as if you can undo the past by saving others, and of course, you always fail.”

This of course plays into the later part of the film where Rambo once again tries to save Gabrielle and fails to do it which sets him off on a big quest for revenge against her captors.

Stallone apparently was pretty brutal when cutting the movie up and decided that as this didn’t really add to the major plot then it had to go for some audiences.

The actor wanted to get the film down to 90 minutes and decided that removing this entire scene was the best way to do it. What’s weird is that this was heavily publicised as the first images that we got for the film and it’s strange that they decided at the very last minute to remove it.

It’s still a big miss in the film I feel though and I would absolutely love to see this on the Blu ray or as part of an extended cut, similar to what we got with Rambo 4.

Your Thoughts

Now obviously I’d love to hear your thoughts on the scene and if you would have liked to have seen it as well or do you think it was the correct decision to cut it?

Comment below and let me know.