First Blood

**First Blood** is a 1982 film starring Sylvester Stallone, Richard Crenna and Brian Dennehy, directed by Ted Kotcheff, written by Michael Kozoll, William Sackheim and Stallone and produced by Buzz Feitshans.

## Plot

Seven years after his discharge, Vietnam War veteran John Rambo travels by foot to visit an old comrade, only to learn that his friend has died from cancer due to Agent Orange exposure during the war.

Rambo continues to travel, wandering into the small town of Hope, Washington. He is intercepted by the town's Sheriff, Will Teasle, who considers Rambo an unwanted nuisance. When Rambo asks for directions to a diner, Teasle drives him out of town and tells him not to come back. When Rambo returns, Teasle arrests him on charges of vagrancy, resisting arrest, and possessing a concealed knife.

Led by chief deputy Art Galt, Teasle's officers abuse Rambo, triggering flashbacks of the torture he endured as a POW in Vietnam. When they try to dry-shave him with a straight razor, Rambo overwhelms the patrolmen, regains his knife, and fights his way outside, stealing a motorcycle and fleeing into the woods. Teasle organizes a search party with automatic weapons, dogs, and a helicopter. Galt defies orders and attempts to shoot Rambo from the helicopter. Trapped on a high cliff over a creek, Rambo leaps into a tree, injuring himself. He throws a rock, fracturing the helicopter's windshield; the pilot's sudden reaction causes Galt, who has removed his safety harness in order to get a better firing angle, to lose his balance and take a deadly plunge to the jagged rocks far below.

Rambo tries to persuade Teasle and his men that Galt's death was an accident and that he wants no more trouble, but the officers open fire and pursue him into the woods. It is then revealed that Rambo is a former Green Beret and received the Medal of Honor, but Teasle, bent on revenge, refuses to turn the manhunt over to the State Police. One by one, Rambo non-lethally disables the deputies, using both booby traps and his bare hands, until only Teasle is left. Overpowering Teasle and holding a knife to his throat, Rambo tells him he could have killed them all, and he threatens to fight back with greater force if Teasle does not let it go.

The state police and National Guard are called in to assist in the manhunt, while Rambo's mentor and former commanding officer Colonel Sam Trautman also arrives. Trautman confirms that Rambo is an expert at guerrilla warfare and survival, which he honed in intensive combat in Vietnam; as such, he advises and suggests that Rambo be allowed to slip through the perimeter and escape to the next town - thereby defusing the situation - then be permitted to surrender peacefully later. Confident that Rambo is hopelessly outnumbered, Teasle refuses. Teasle allows Trautman to contact Rambo – on a police radio he stole while escaping – and try to persuade him to surrender peacefully. Rambo recognizes Trautman's voice but refuses to give up, condemning Teasle and his deputies for their abuse and noting "they drew first blood," before hanging up.

Trying to slip through the cordon, Rambo is surprised by a young boy out hunting; he overpowers but refuses to harm the boy, who alerts the pursuers. A National Guard detachment corners Rambo at the entrance of an abandoned mine. Against orders, they use a rocket, collapsing the entrance and seemingly killing Rambo. He survives and finds another way out, hijacking a supply truck carrying an M60 machine gun and ammunition and returning to town. To distract his pursuers, he blows up a gas station, shoots out most of the town's power, and destroys a gun store near the police station. Trautman, knowing that the sheriff is no match for Rambo, tries to convince Teasle to escape, but is ignored.

Rambo spots Teasle on the police station's roof and they engage in a brief gunfight, ending with Teasle shot and falling through a skylight. As Rambo prepares to kill him, Trautman appears and warns Rambo that he will be shot if he does not surrender, reminding him he is the last survivor of his elite unit of Green Berets. Rambo collapses in tears and talks about his experience in Vietnam and after his return. Teasle is transported to a hospital, while Rambo surrenders to Trautman and is taken into custody.