Surprisingly, Sylvester Stallone Was Not the First Actor to Play Rambo on Screen

We all know Sylvester Stallone‘s iconic line, “They drew first blood, not me,” comes from the momentous action flick, First Blood, which hit theaters in October 1982. But did you know the Italian Stallion wasn’t the first to play John Rambo? It’s hard to associate anyone else with the role, particularly since both Rambo and Rocky Balboa are his most iconic roles. But the truth remains that there was one other person who got his hands on the Rambo role before Stallone’s First Blood was ever even a dream. Tomas Milian played the part in the 1975 Italian picture Syndicate Sadists, and boy, is it a trip and a half.

Tomas Milian Was the Original Rambo in 1975’s ‘Syndicate Sadists’

Sometimes released as Just One Man, Rambo’s Revenge, or Final Payment (which is far too many alternate titles if you ask me), Syndicate Sadists got its start when Tomas Milian read the David Morrell novel First Bloodafter it hit bookshelves in 1972. Milian was apparently so impressed with the story, and particularly the “Rambo” character, that he tried to convince Italian filmmakers to adapt the text to the big screen. When that didn’t work, he decided to take the Rambo character in a different direction, using the name for his motorcycle-riding action hero in the aforementioned 1975 crime drama, which was written by Vincenzo Mannino and directed by Umberto Lenzi.

In his book, Italian Crime Filmography, 1968-1980, film historian Roberto Curti describes Milian’s Rambo as “a Western movie character dropped into a contemporary urban environment, an illegitimate son of Clint Eastwood‘s Man With No Name…” That’s probably the most apt description of Milian’s Rambo, though it’s worth noting that he doesn’t much resemble the Rambo readers might recognize from Morrell’s novel. After all, this version is an ex-cop rather than a Vietnam veteran, and is not harassed by local law enforcement or others in the same way that Morell’s character is. Really, it’s only the names here that match, because otherwise, Syndicate Sadists‘ Rambo could be named just about anything else, and it wouldn’t change a thing.

Sylvester Stallone Defined the Rambo Role with ‘First Blood’

Likely part of the reason that Milian wasn’t able to get his own First Blood adaptation off the ground was that the novel had already been courted by Columbia Pictures. According to The New York Times (via AFI), Morrell sold the on-screen rights to First Blood to the studio as early as 1972, though the project would remain in development hell for nearly a decade. Eventually, those rights bounced to Warner Bros. and then later to Orion Pictures, who finally made the film, with Sylvester Stallone in the title role. Though the First Blood novel never gave Rambo a first name (the character himself was based on a World War II vet), the 1982 picture deemed him John Rambo, and it stuck. To this day, it’s Sylvester Stallone that everyone thinks of when they hear the word “Rambo,” and for good reason.

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Of course, there are plenty of differences between the First Blood movie and the novel, not least of which is the ending, but Stallone nevertheless did a fabulous job at adding sympathetic layers to his most violent character. In the book, Rambo is a lot more unhinged than anything we see in the first film— and while future installments increase the kill count, he shows no remorse for his actions. The basic story is also loads more faithful to the original material than Milian’s “Rambo-in-name-only.” Though it’s set on the opposite side of the country from the Morrell novel, it still offers us the same basic tale of post-war violence that highlights the plight of many Vietnam War veterans. Following First Blood, the Italian Stallion would reprise the role of Rambo on four more occasions, returning most recently in the 2019 action picture, Rambo: Last Blood.

Of course, though Stallone is still the most notable Rambo in film history, others have still played the character since. Most notable among them was Neil Ross, who voiced the character in the 1980s animated series, Rambo: The Force of Freedom, a G.I. Joe copycat that ran for 65 episodes. Despite that, Stallone’s original First Blood is still the definitive adaptation of the character for a reason, offering audiences a complex and deeply personal take on John Rambo.

A veteran Green Beret is forced by a cruel Sheriff and his deputies to flee into the mountains and wage an escalating one-man war against his pursuers.

Release Date

October 22, 1982

Director

Ted Kotcheff

Runtime

93 minutes

First Blood is currently streaming on Paramount+ in the U.S.

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