What most people don't get is. The first rambo isn't a war movie, it's an anti war statement movie. Rambo is a fictional character made to represent how it felt for everyone who did serve in Vietnam. They fought their hearts out, only to come back to a country that hated them.

“You don’t just turn it off”. That’s PTSD to a tee. You can’t just turn it off like society expects you to. You just can’t

Who says Stallone can't act? He's amazing.

“Back there I could fly a gunship. I could drive tank. I was in charge of million dollar equipment. Back here I can’t even hold a job parking cars.” I've heard it said that some people don’t just struggle with PTSD but once you return to civilian life, there’s the feeling that you won’t ever matter as much again.

"You just don't turn it off" is the most realistic line in a movie about a Veteran

My father was a Nam vet. It never ended for him also. As a veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, I felt this right through my bones. The only difference is that we HAD and HAVE help. They had nothing. We forgot them because we were embarrassed. My father was broken and he never seemed to fully come back to the world. He would have night terrors and sometimes he would just leap out of bed. He was a good man but he never was the same. May all who found war..now find peace.

this movie needs to be shown in film courses. seriously that ending was such a mood change and ive noticed EVERY single person shuts up when he says "nothing is over, NOTHING" and listens to his entire speech and people either full cry or hold back tears. THATS how you do true emotion and story telling

As a Nam vet, I have been through that emotional turmoil for years. Stallone should have gotten an academy award for just that scene, because it was expressing the real truth of what we experienced in Nam.

And all Rambo wanted was a DAMN SANDWICH!! But no, that sheriff had to keep messing with him.

"War isn’t Hell. War is war, and Hell is Hell. And of the two, war is a lot worse...There are no innocent bystanders in Hell. War is chock full of them - little kids, cripples, old ladies. In fact, except for some of the brass, almost everybody involved is an innocent bystander." - Hawkeye MASH

One of Sly Stallone’s best acting scenes!

He always makes me cry when he screams "MY FRIEND IS ALL OVER ME" That part always breaks my heart.

This scene doesn't get nearly enough attention and acclaim. Rambo's monolog is a master class of gritty, emotional, and genuine grief and trauma. SO powerful.

"My friend was all over me and nobody would fucking help!"

For all the movies i've seen in this life... these last 5min of this movie should rightfully go down as one of THE most powerful scenes in movie history. It's weird to have someone like Stallone performing that scene but he got it so damn good.

i know Rocky and Creed were Stallone's most acclaimed films, and with very good reason. However, these 5 mins of acting from him were better than all of his other filmography combined. I believe Sly can truly act if he wanted to... he just chose to go the Mass Appeal route. And I don't blame him really.

Watching this scene again as a Marine Veteran hits so much different now. Especially when he just slumps down to the floor, utterly mentally defeated and in tears and through his sobs asks “where is everybody?” I have never felt more alone in my life than I do now since having left all my fellow Marines and returning to civilian life. He’s right, out here there’s nothing.

Another crazy thing I've noticed as soon as Rambo yells " Nothing is over" everyone quiets down

I love how Troutmans eyes stay in shadow as he looks at his failed creation with no empathy, then he breaks.

“You asked me, I didn’t ask you! And I did what I had to do to win - but someone didn’t let us win!” Has got to be one of the most apt descriptions of the plight of Vietnam vets ever

It's amazing to me to watch younger people today, watch the movies from when I was young, and still get the emotional impact of the most powerful scenes.

Everytime Rambo says " where is everybody" gets me

Rambo 1 is hell of a movie. It starts out as action, and midway becomes almost like a pseudo-horror movie (when Rambo was being hunted but everyone chasing him keeps getting taken out), and in the last 5 minutes delivers one of the strongest drama scenes in film history. I haven't heard any other movie that managed to do that. Also Stallone is a tremendous actor.

Nobody knew about how these men had suffered, and nobody cared a damn at all. All they had seen on TV was the suffering of the Vietnamese, and these men were the baby killers. That was the publics perception. They did not give a damn about them. They blamed them for the war. Stallone did the final scene in First Blood specifically for the Vietnam veterans. This was a statement for all the veterans who had served in the war. He asked them whether he had done enough to bring light to their plight, and they told him that he had done them proud. Every time I see this scene I am brought to tears about the horrors these men endured both in and after the war. I think one of the most notable and profound movie scenes I have ever seen. This was an Oscar performance, and deserved that accolade. Rambo was completely correct. The Vietnam veterans fought a war that was unpopular with mainstream US society. They had no option, and many were drafted. When they returned home after serving their country and having experienced the horrors in Vietnam they were welcomed back by anti war protestors at the airports calling them baby killers and other vile names, and were spit on. But that was just the start of their victimisation. They were given poor medical care. Society hated them and blamed them for the war. They were ostracized from society throughout the USA. Many could not find employment because of company policies that prevented the hiring of Vietnam veterans for being seen as supporting the war. They were offered menial and often very poorly paid jobs, many of which because of their psychological condition they could not hold down. There was no treatment for PTSD. Many suffered flash backs, and could not form lasting relationships. Many relationships formed before the war and marriages broke up because of the demons that haunted these men. Many committed suicide. Some became alcoholics and others drug addicts to alleviate their pain. Others became drifters and vagrants. The way they were treated by the government and society on their return was worse than pitiful, it was disgraceful. It was not these men's decision to go and fight in Vietnam. That was the US Governments decision. But none the less these men served their country, and many died for it, and on return they received no respect only revilement. The men could not even wear their uniforms for fear of being singled out and attacked by war protestors. Disgusting. The US should hold its head in shame for this period of history. I knew an ex Green Beret sergeant platoon leader who undertook two tours in Vietnam. He had a Purple Heart Medal and Star, signifying that he had been wounded in both tours. One day, in his second tour, his platoon came into a town with a single straight road going through it. A man in a white T shirt crossed the road, and after that all hell let loose. There was a fire fight, and three of his platoon died, and sixteen North Vietnamese soldiers died. My friend was wounded three times. Most of his right hand upper arm muscle mass had gone, and despite the flesh having healed over, the path of the rifle bullet could still be clearly seen. He was medevacked out to Japan, but due to the extent of his injuries that took months to heal he was eventually given a medical discharge. My friend told me in around 2020 that I was the first person he had really ever told what actually happened. First I felt privileged, but then I asked why. He told me that for many years the sheer horror of his experiences in Vietnam gave him a mental block. He could not even talk about his experiences to his then wife on returning to the US, but still they haunted him every single day. Sometimes he would have flashbacks, other times nightmares remembering close encounters with the enemy in the jungles of Vietnam, especially at night. My friend was a good good man. He told me this about the Vietnam veterans for everyone, supporters and anti war protestors alike to know: It was not for us to reason why, just for us to do or die. I think that Sylvestre in his last five minutes of First Blood summed up well the horrors and agony that the Vietnam veterans faced. As for his exploits in the woods, very much in tune with the Green Beret's. These men are true warriors who can live off the land whilst adapting to any terrain and climate. They are highly trained and skilled. Your reactions and open arms are what the Vietnam veterans deserved on their return home after they had fought their hearts out for their country. Instead they were met with hate, revilement, victimization, and ostracization from society. They were the ones blamed for the war. If only people had understood what they had endured, then perhaps their attitudes would have been different. The Vietnam War was the first televised war. US society at that time was only interested in the suffering of the Vietnam people they saw on TV, which was awful, but they had little time at all for the suffering of the Vietnam veterans. Simone, Dasha, and Mello, every time I see the end scene it hits me hard and I weep too. These men did not deserve to be treated as outcasts in their own country after serving and seeing so much death. As a consequence of the ill feeling invoked by extensive TV coverage of the Vietnam War, all US wars since then have had the press and TV coverage significantly limited. A tight grip was maintained by the US armed forces, and only coverage that the US armed forces saw fit to be released was released.

We ABSOLUTLY treated our Vietnam vets like shit and it's disgraceful. My Dad left Vietnam 50 years ago now, he was 26. To this day he's STILL haunted by it but managed to live a good life and is the best man I have even known. He was a career soldier and spent 45 years in the Army. When I was a kid, so proud of my Soldier Pop, I used to ask him to tell me about Nam. He wouldn't and said "son I left Vietnam in Vietnam". He didn't though. Did 3 "tours" Combat Arms and I'll never know his story. He made me PROMISE him though that I wouldn't join the Army after High School. I honored that promise and am thankful I did. My generation has the scars of war (Iraq/Afghanistan) but I DON"T and am thankful I don't. God bless our VETS!!!

Most people have no idea Stallone is capable of this kind of performance…..

Stallone played this part perfectly because he started with anger that lead to the descent which the veterans during that time felt. Off course we don't have the full picture of what the veterans at the time went through but we get a glimpse in this scene and I'm sure most of us viewers have seen enough to know what they went through and even now is hell.

To all the Vietnam veterans I’m a desert storm veteran and I just want to say thank you thank you all who served I know you all saw a lot of horrible things over there and survived and I know you all just want one thing for our country to love you as much as you love it GOD BLESS YOU

"Only the dead know the end of war"...Stallone captured it perfectly

The best 5 minutes in the franchise gets me every time even to this day

It's very encouraging for me to see this generation watching this movie and feeling the power and emotion at the end. When this came out in the early 1980's, this movie was mocked by a lot of critics.. and especially/particularly this scene and Rambo's dialogue. I'm glad this generation understands better then the gen before me.

Funny how no one talks about that monologue at the end with Stallone being one of the best in movie history. Wish Stallone had done more movies like this then the bombastic Rambo movies later on.

I love how everyone he goes dead silent as soon as he yells nothing is over

As someone with PTSD, I feel his pain every time I watch this scene, and his tears are mine too. Most trauma survivors don't even know they have PTSD until it's consumed their souls and destroyed their relationships and careers. Night terrors, isolation, loneliness. There's treatment but no cure. It's something you live with for the rest of your life... Nothing is over

Stallone’s acting at his finest! He deserved an Oscar just for this scene!

Dasha is the purest reactor ive ever seen

This scene, was the wake up call for PTSD, and what vets go through, when they come home, during the Vietnam war, soldiers, marines, sailors, and airmen, were sent home, 48 hours after seeing and being in combat! Think about that, you witness or participate in the most brutal thing anyone can do to another person, and in 2 days, ur back home, like Rambo said, "you can't just turn it off" I am a veteran, so, I can honestly see his point, and what he is feeling

Stallone at one of his finest moments.

People think of Stallone and his action movies, which let's be honest, action movies will never be known as academy award winners. But, to see the true level of Stallone's acting ability, all you need to watch is First blood and Copland. He truly is a really good actor.

Agree with all. Stallone was fantastic in this film and especially this scene. Powerful and undeniably moving.

Stallone is one of the few people in these hollywood movies that convinces me that his tears aren't crocodile tears. Man can really make us believe that he's crying for real in that moment. He gets the tone just right down to the octave raising/voice cracking, the way he yells/screams, the way he blubbers; all of it.

War is hell. Stallone did a beautiful job portray a character who literally went through to hell mentally physically and emotionally.

This scene made the whole film. Stallone delivered it brilliantly.

if only Robin Williams had been there to tell him..... it's not your fault. it's not your fault. it's not your fault.

In my opinion that one scene is the best acting in any Stallone movie of how he just broke down from all the mental torment he had been dealing with on his own since he left the forces and I reckon every Vietnam war vet can relate to some or all of the stuff he was was saying

By far, the best piece of acting Stallone ever did.😢

This scene is powerful and emotional

His tirade in Rocky was very emotional where he's angry at Mick and let's it all out but this was next level in Rambo

Never underestimate the power of the mind..... even the strongest of men sometimes just need someone to tell them.... "I'm here for you..... it's going to be ok, well get through this"..... and that's speaking from personal experience.

I'm still serving in the Air Force and will pass on some things. You will meet people you wouldn't have thought of ever meeting. You will make friends with a bond so deep that anywhere feels like home. You will have the worst days and nights, but you'll laugh them off later over a beer. I love you my Brothers and Sisters who are serving and have served.

I’m 45. I’ve seen this movie a dozen times. Watching this with you all just hit me differently

My father was one of them. Completely broke and never truly came home. He left when I was 3 months old. I tried to know him when I was 20. I was so mad. Then I listened to his warped thinking which always when back to the war. I had a 30 minute conversation with a man who had know idea who I was as I figured out in the moment he was in a flash back. My heart broke. I will never have a father and he will never know his son.

This is why the first one is the best. It's much deeper than the goofy sequels that followed. It's a real movie with real acting. The ending monologue is Stallone's finest acting by far.

the immediate tone shift in all the reactors from Rambo is going to fuck them all up he's got this to just sitting there shocked within a few words of Rambo breaking down. Such a powerful scene

this is what a good movie is all about: humanity. Depicting frailty and also toughness makes a good character in a story, not a perfect person that wins everytime by beeing just the best.

Just one example of how very good Stallone was and is.

War is no joke. It is never a joke. With all due respect sometimes when I see some reactors acting all macho, acting gungho it hurts a little. I know it’s just a movie and it really is action packed. Heroes who were larger than life. I like the action as well. My father was WW2 vet. Shot in the neck, survived and had almost all his childhood friends vets as well from the same regiment. They were like Uncles. Not a one of them bragged about what went on over there. And some things he wouldn’t talk about at all, ever. I once asked him if he killed anyone and all he did was look at me. He had tears in his eyes but never told me. That man, my father paid a very very heavy price for his volunteering to serve his country ( I’m Canadian ). These ordinary men who sacrificed it all were giants in my life. I never had to look any further to find my heroes.

Stallone should've got an Oscar for his perfect acting in this scene, every emotion he showed looked like he was really feeling that for real. 🥺😢😭

Sly deserved an Oscar for this performance. And this scene alone is the entire film.

Silvestre Stallones acting is phenomenal 👏 he is the only actor to do rambo

One of the best of the 1980s. Saw it in 1984 on Betamax yes Betamax kids!

With the advent of KZfaq Stallone finally gets credit for his acting 40 years later.

Hey here's a fun fact sly actually spent 2 weeks with a nam vet to do this and everything he says is 100% true the soldier's name is Taylor.. I don't know if that's his first name or last name but that's I can't find anything it's just Taylor.. probably wanted to be left alone... I can respect it

Up to this point "First Blood" plays out like a classic action film, with the set pieces getting bigger and the stakes getting higher until it culminates in the biggest battle with the highest stakes. But instead of giving us that epic action climax, it subverts your expectations and gives an emotional climax. That choice elevates the entire story and Stallone sells it with one hell of a performance. Just brilliant!

This is definitely the most emotional movie of the franchise. He had another award worthy performance here.

That scene makes me cry every time, I was there during Tet.

for those who say Stallone couldn't act these 5 mins proved with an amazing script and writing he will bring the best out!!!!! look at Rocky, Rocky Balboa and Creed...Stallone is so underrated.

War didn’t break Rambo. Life after the war did.

Rambos tears were the highest honor that jacket would ever know. There's a metaphor there for those smarter than I.

That was one of the hardest things to deal with coming back to civilian life. When I was in the Marine Corps I knew I could rely on the guys around me to keep their word and they could rely on me. One of us said that something would be done it would be fucking done and that's what I knew for the first 8 years of my adult life. But civilians, you can't trust what they tell you over half the time, let alone to get something done. I went from being able to rely on everyone around me to being able to trust no one. You can't imagine how lonely that is. And talk about the war? If you haven't been in combat you just can't even relate, so I can't even really tell anyone anything that I experienced, even if I wanted to. So I just have to carry it by myself.

Yep, this movie hit the nerve big time, and because of how our Vietnam vets were treated returning back to the states, there was a huge push to appreciate what they go through for our country. That's precisely why we say "thank you for your service," now.

One of the most powerful scenes in cinema history.

When I hear people say Stallone can’t act needs to just watch the end of First Blood, powerful

Sly really fucking owned that scene, this whole movie was genius, accurate, totally showed what they were made to be, and when they came back 'home' 'home' wasn't there, Alice in chains rooster...... yeah. but damn, Sly fucking felt this......

These people had no idea how good and how powerful the themes in First Blood were. They see "Rambo" and they think what the movies became, which were cartoons, but they had and still have no clue how great the first film is. Stallone should have been nominated for an Oscar for the final scene alone.

thanks for putting this together. i watch so many first blood reactions because i love seeing people go in expecting action, watching their confused interest at the beginning of the movie being tame, their anger at the cops, their progression of rooting for rambo and being excited by his antics, to suddenly the action that they think is the kicker of the movie-- only for them to get hit with that last scene and realise that it was not about the action. awesome editing.

Every time I watch scene it still breaks me. It was a god damned tragedy how Vietnam veterans were treated. They didn't fail us, we failed them. They fight to protect us so its our job to take care of them. That is why I always thank a vet and say, "Welcome home soldier."

I'm old enough to remember the war. My oldest brother went to Nam. My dad served in WW2 and went to the South Pacific. My brother enlisted in the Army. He wasn't drafted. My dad enlisted, too. My dad returned home, wounded in action. He received a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star. He returned home to a grateful nation, then served in the USAF for the rest of his military service. My brother returned from Nam to just the kind reception that Rambo is talking about here. He lived the rest of his life single, without his own family. Agent Orange finally began to show it's affects on him in his mid 60s. The Govt. gave him $30,000 for his trouble, but it was too late. He died 6 years ago at 68. "The whole movie was leading up to that scene." Yes. Because by that time, that pain was never really expressed in a movie before. I'm sure it opened a lot of eyes.

I can’t begin to imagine what true pain and turmoil a member of the armed forces suffers from. Even after having seen this it still only shows nothing but a fraction of what they go through and the price they pay for both family and country. Forgive me if I’m over the line when I say this but the men and woman who risk their lives to protect us from overseas they more than anyone deserve peace after enduring so much on our behalf.

Not only was this a GREAT scene and the acting was better than any Oscar winning performance that year, it REALLY exposed the damage that soldiers came back from Vietnam with. This had happened after every war, really. But not like Vietnam and a lot of vets never got treatment that they needed because the military and the government just wanted that war to go away. It's also why there was such a special emphasis on treating our troops better during the gulf wars. Remember all of the yellow ribbons and feel good stories about men and women going off to war during the gulf? I grew up with a lot of friends whose dads had problems from Vietnam. One of my friends mom had to get used to being ambushed occasionally as she was walking in to the house. His dad had frequent flashbacks and believed, while having them, that his mom was Viet Cong on patrol. His dad eventually committed suicide. And that was just one of my friends. There are dozens more that I personally experienced with my friends dads.

Decades later in an interview i heard stallone say this was his best acting job from all of his films

Man, you can really tell how much of a shock this is to everyone involved. Like all of us born just after the 80's and into the 90's and maybe some in the early 2000's, we heard of how badass Rambo was. How invincible he was. And how many people Rocky beat in the ring, you can't wait for the matches at the end of those movies. And then you watch those first few movies all the way through and then the character build-up and explosion of emotions hit you like a ton of bricks. It was never about the guns or the boxing, it was the reason Stallone's characters picked them up. True, whole, three-dimensional characters: One struggling to make a living in a big city, one outright tragic representing every single returning Vietnam soldier in a single man. At least Rocky I see making sense for all the sequels it has, even if some are not the best handled. Rambo...the sequels existing at all kinda annihilates the beautiful ending this is.

Simone is so beautiful even when sad. Amazing movie.

As bloody as Rambo movie was, only one death happened when the sheriff deputy fell out of the helicopter

That scene was a real gut punch to a lotta people. It did a lot to help attitudes start changing.

PTSD isn't anything new. In Plutarch's Life of Marius he wrote that in his old age the great man suffered from night terrors, nightmares and flashbacks to previous battles as a general in the Roman army and that the only thing that seemed to help him was drinking to excess. Anyways... This is Stallone's best scene as an actor imo and it's made much better because Trautman, himself a hardened soldier, is visibly shook up by Rambo's distress.

If you can believe it, the original ending to this movie had Trautman shooting Rambo when they hugged. The test audiences hated it so much that they changed it.

I remember when this movie came out. The tv ads just made it look like “Rocky with gun” - in the theater I saw it in, people were audibly sobbing at the end. This is probably Stallone’s greatest film.

Best Part of the movie. Truest part, unfortunately. Totally different than the rest of the movie, but the greatness of the movie leads to this. He does an AMAZING job acting this scene.

The whole movie he barely speaks, so when it all comes out, it's just so compelling.

Stallone,s speach here is every soldiers story, and absolutely brilliant

That was my father. I knew him 72 hours of my life one on one and he was in flash back last time I saw him. I never understood it till that most frightening moment of my life. I did not understand. I stopped the hate and felt the hurt to the best of my ability. It was over as the cancer ate him alive. For a man I never knew. I love him

My uncle is a Nam vet. Omg the stories…. My heart goes out to all who had to experience that nightmare……

A friend of mine is an actor, and when I told him the ending monologue to Rambo is some of the best acting I'd ever seen, he scoffed and said I didn't know what acting was. "Have you seen it?" "No - it's just some dumb action movie." Years later, still not having watched it, he dismisses everyone that says how amazing this is.

“There are no winners in battle. Just survivors.” I had Four Brother's Serve in the Viet Nam Era, Two in Country in the Combat Zone. They have stories They cannot Tell me about even to this day. I Served but Not in Combat Zone so it's hard to relate to those who have seen the Worse and have to come back to "The World" as if Nothing happened. Back in the Viet Nam Days they were just Learning the Hard Lesson of PTSD. First Blood One of the First to Introduce it to Audiences.

Whew! I am so glad all of you got to experience such a great performance. This movie was ahead of its time, touching on the Vietnam vets who did NOT deserve the welcome (or lack there of) that they received! Definitely wasn't fair. They gave their lives just as much as any war vet and was never given the heroes welcome they deserved. That being said, I hope you would consider watching the alternate ending. Thankfully, it wasn't used or we wouldn't have sequels but it just made the monolog that much more painful and deep

Silvester Stallone should have had at least one Oscar nomination for tremendous performance.

This is exactly how every veteran feels/went through in Vietnam, Afghanistan & Iraq War and when they come back everyone turns their back on them.

No question about it. Stallone is a great actor, he convinces his audience, he emotionally moves his audience in the same way John Wayne could get his audience completely engrossed in the film and neither of these two men ever served a day in the military.

The ending should not surprise anyone. Nobody wins a war. There are only losers.