RCY~The Cold Match

## Starring

**Sylvester Stallone** as Rocky

**Talia Shire** as Adrian

**Burt Young** as Paulie

**Carl Weathers** as Apollo Creed

**Dolph Lundgren** as Ivan Drago

**Bridgette Nielsen** as Ludmilla Drago

## Story

Some time after Rocky recovered his title from Clubber Lang. Now, the USSR wants to get into the global boxing circuit. The fighter is named *Ivan Drago* who is a gold medalist at the Olympics and the USSR's national boxing champion. He can punch much harder than any normal boxer. Apollo Creed attempts to challenge the young boxer, and then he dies (unfortunately). Rocky, full of grief for his friend, deicdes to travel to the USSR and train for a revenge fight against Drago.

## Trivia

* All of the USSR scenes in the movie weren't filmed in the actual USSR.
	+ The Soviet airport and the cabin in the snowy ural mountains are actually in Wyoming.
	+ Likewise the place where the climatic boxing scene (which is supposed to be in Moscow) was actually in Vancouver.
* The actual Soviet National Anthem was used "*The State Hymn of the USSR"*. However it used the "Stalin-era" lyrics rather than the "Khurschev Revision".
* Over 8,000 men auditioned for the rile of Ivan Drago
	+ Dolph Lundgren was actually rejected several times for being "too tall". It wasn't until Lundgren took photos of himself ans sent them to Stallone. Stallone told him that he'd had a good chance if he gained an additional 20 pounds of muscle.
* Dolph Lundgren is a martial artist in real life.
* Dolph Lungren was also known for being too rough with the fight scenes
	+ He got too rough with Carl Weathers as he tossed him across the USA ring, causing Weathers to get very upset at him, in fact so upset that Weathers had actual thoughts on quitting the film, it wasn't until Stallone said something that he decided to continue filming the movie, and even told Lundgren to not be so aggressive.
	+ Stallone also wanted to capture the realism of the fights in the movie. So he had Lundgren to actually hit him, Lundgren one time hit Stallone so hard that his heart became lodged between his broken rib cages. Stallone had to be air lifted from British Columbia (the scene of the climatic boxing match) to a hospital in Los Angeles, Stallone stayed in ICU for 4 days.
* It was Carl Weathers' idea to have Apollo land on the mat head first and mildly twitch when Drago landed the "killer blow". Weathers was so convincing with this, that an actual on-set doctor came in to see if he was okay.
* It was Dolph Lundgren's idea to create a personality for Drago to be the opposite of Rocky's previous opponents: Apollo and Clubber Lang. Whereas Apollo and Lang were colorful, boastful, animated and egotisical. Drago was reserved and talked little. This was suggested to Stallone who actually liked the idea to give the opponent a different personality.
* The music composer *Bill Conti* didn't do the music for this movie as he was busy with the 2 *Karate Kid* movies (as told in the previous page where *Survivor's Eye of The Tiger* was chosen over *Joe Esposito's You're the best*).
* The climatic boxing match between Rocky and Drago was non-sanctioned. This led to numerous rumors by fans and other movie-goers of why it wasn't sanctioned. There was a deleted scene where Rocky was having an argument with the WBA council as the council will not sanction Rocky upcoming fight with Drago. This was dropped and it was mentioned in a montage of newspaper articles after the funeral scene.
* There are some interesting trivia about Bridgette Neilsen and her character, Ludmilla
	+ Bridgette Neilsen was actually married to Stallone during this movie, though they would divorce 2 years later.
	+ Her character Ludmilla was never mentioned by name in the movie.
* Russian boxers were banned from fighting in the WBA during the Cold War due to the USSR's reputation of cheating in the forms of bribing and (like in the movie) using performance-enhancing drugs such as anabolic steroids.
* In the beginning sequence of the movie, there was 2 boxing gloves (one designed from the USA flag and another designed from the USSR flag) as they collided there was an explosion, but right at the explosion, the USSR glove falls apart. It's unclear if this was an accident or intentional.