Trivia for
First Blood (1982) More at IMDbPro »

• One of the stunt drivers, Bennie E. Dobbins, broke his back jumping his police car.
  
  
• The name "Rambo" came from a brand of apples of the same name (source: writer's commentary, First Blood: Special Edition).
  
  
• In Japanese, "rambo" means "violence".
  
  
• Samuel Trautman was named after Uncle Sam, according to author David Morrell. Uncle Sam created the soldier John Rambo.
  
  
• Warner Bros. had considered to make the story with Clint Eastwood, Steve McQueen, Al Pacino, and Dustin Hoffman.
  
  
• Originally budgeted at $11 million, the film ultimately cost closer to $17 million as the production ran months late.
  
  
• The extended production time pushed back the filming of Rocky III (1982).
  
  
• After showing buyers a 40 minute edit of the film, the international rights sold in five minutes.
  
  
• John Travolta was considered for the part of Rambo.
  
  
• Initially Mike Nichols was interested in directing and wanted Dustin Hoffman to play the lead. Hoffman wasn't interested, however, as he thought it was too violent.
  
  
• Sylvester Stallone asked for $3.5 million for his role. Producers Mario Kassar and Andrew G. Vajna told him he could have $2 million. The extra one and a half million came from television sales.
  
  
• Sylvester Stallone hated the first cut of the film so much that he tried to buy the film back and destroy it. When he couldn't do that, he suggested that the producers cut much of his part and let the rest of the characters tell the story. That cut the movie time in half and set a precedent for future action movies.
  
  
• The name of the sporting goods shop that Rambo blows up is "The Outpost".
  
  
• A scene was filmed but never used where Rambo, while in the cave after dispatching Teasle and his men, has another flashback: He and his buddies are in a bar in Vietnam, being entertained by the local women. Rambo takes one to a back room and they make love. The scene then flashes to the present, and Rambo begins to cry.
  
  
• There is dispute over whether Stereo or Mono were used for the film's video/DVD releases. To date, there is only one Stereo home video release of First Blood.
  
  
• Sylvester Stallone accidentally broke the nose of a stuntman during the prison escape scene by elbowing him in the face, which is why he is seen wearing a band-aid throughout the rest of the film.
  
  
• Director Bruce Beresford was offered the script to direct but refused as he felt, at the time, that he wasn't suited to directing an action film.
  
  
• An element of the book which is underplayed in the movie is that Teasle was a Korean War veteran. Rambo is a veteran of Vietnam; the subtext of the book was a battle of different war tactics.
  
  
• In the book, Trautman was brought in to kill Rambo because he had trained him. Thus, he was the only one who could stop him.
  
  
• Al Pacino was considered for the role of John Rambo, but turned it down when his request that Rambo be more of a madman was rejected.
  
  
• First Blood was Sylvester Stallone's first non-Rocky movie which didn't bomb. In fact, it arguably saved his career.
  
  
• Both Nick Nolte and Michael Douglas also rejected the role of John Rambo.
  
  
• Kirk Douglas was originally cast to play Col. Sam Trautman, but walked out on the project. Douglas wanted substantial changes made to the script, specifically that John Rambo die at the hands of Trautman, like the character did in the novel. The writers held their ground and refused. Richard Crenna was eventually cast in the role.
  
  
• During the scene when Rambo, on the stolen motorcycle, is being chased by the police, the Stuntman who was driving the patrol car suffered a broken back as a result of jumping the car and almost losing control. He continued to finish the scene for several minutes of hard driving despite the serious injury and having a two-way radio, he could have easily called it off, but never did. The scene remains in the final cut of the film.
  
  
• After the success of Convoy (1978), Kris Kristofferson was considered as a possible choice for John Rambo. Some felt the former Airborne Ranger would make a solid Rambo, and they hoped his good friend Sam Peckinpah could be persuaded to direct.
  
  
• James Garner turned down the lead role. A veteran of the Korean war with two Purple Hearts, Garner did not want to play a man who comes home from war and starts fighting cops.
  
  
• At one point, the studio wanted Kris Kristofferson for Rambo, Gene Hackman as Sheriff Teasle and Lee Marvin as Col. Trautman.
  
  
• The wooden spikes booby trap that Deputy Balford falls into are known as Punji Stakes. These stakes were widely used during the Vietnam War by the Viet Cong to try and wound their enemies.
  
  
• The only Rambo movie in which mortar rockets are never fired or even shown throughout the length of the entire movie.
  
  
• The end of the chase between Rambo (on motorcycle) and Sheriff Teasle, where Teasle's police car rolls off an embankment and flips over upside down, was not scripted in such a way, but when the car ended up in that position, Director Ted Kotcheff liked the result so much, that he continued shooting the scene, and had Brian Dennehy get into the police car while it was still upside down, and filmed the scene as it appears in the movie.
  
  

• SPOILER: There are numerous differences to the book. In the novel, John Rambo dies.
  
  
• SPOILER: Another ending, where Rambo commits suicide, was filmed, but test audiences found that conclusion to be too depressing, so the script called for Rambo to live, hence the sequels.
  
  
• SPOILER: This film has a reputation of being overly violent. However, the total body count of the movie is one: Gault falling from the helicopter. All others survive, even Teasle.
  
  
• SPOILER: Kirk Douglas was originally cast to play Colonel Samuel Trautman. Because of script issues (Kirk wanted Rambo to die at the end, as in the novel), he dropped out of the film and Richard Crenna was cast at the last second.
  
  
• SPOILER: Only one person is killed in the film, that being Deputy Galt. It is erroneously assumed that the three officers in the police car which crashes towards the end of the movie also die, especially as David Morrell, who wrote the novel, says so in the DVD audio commentary. But he played no real part in the production of the film, so is only viewing as an observer, and making his own assumptions on what he sees on screen. In an interview with director Ted Kotcheff, he confirms that the only person to die in the film is Galt. It is also obvious that the crash the deputies are involved in is easily survivable, although undoubtedly in reality they would have suffered serious injuries. The empty, parked vehicle they hit explodes while their car rolls only once and remains relatively intact.
  
  
• SPOILER: Body Count: 4 (Galt falling from the helicopter, and the 3 men in the police car near the end). Also, 3 dogs and a boar were killed as well.
  
  

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