Warning: Spoilers for Netflix’s Sly below!
Netflix’s new documentary Sly sees Sylvester Stallone discussing his entire career, but his stance against sad endings has hurt two of his biggest franchises. Stallone may have become a movie star thanks to the success of 1976’s Rocky, but it took time for him to find his groove. His two immediate follow-up movies like Paradise Alley underperformed, and it was only the success of Rocky’s sequels that kept his career afloat. Once he became Rambo in First Blood, he truly found his calling as an action star.
Sly covers all the highs and lows of his career, including some misguided detours into comedy. One thing it makes clear is that he knew the value of sequels, with Stallone’s movie franchises giving him reliable characters to fall back on. Of course, Rocky and Rambo take center stage in the documentary, though The Expendables gets plenty of attention too. At this stage in his career, he’s likely finished with all three sagas, though two of them ended on disappointing notes.
Netflix’s Sly Reveals Why Stallone Hates Sad Endings
Sylvester Stallone won’t kill off his heroes
In the aftermath of Rocky, Stallone starred in crime drama F.I.S.T., where his main character is gunned down during the finale. He believed director Norman Jewison made a big mistake in this regard, as Stallone thinks audiences hate sad endings or watching their heroes die. He also felt the ending sent the message that evil triumphs, and he closes the documentary itself stating “I just hate sad endings. Shoot me!” It’s notable that in the 45 years since F.I.S.T’s release, he has yet to play another main character who dies.
He later protested against First Blood’s planned tragic ending where Rambo is killed by Colonel Trautman (Richard Crenna), which is a battle he won. No matter how injured Stallone’s heroes might be by the time the credits roll, they always live to fight another day. That’s because the star believes in sending audiences out with a feeling of hope, and just like Rocky is a “loser who won,” he doesn’t want to close a story on a downer.
Stallone’s No Death Rule Has Hurt Both Rambo & Expendables
Rambo 5 & Expendables 4 Would Have Worked Better With His Characters’ Death
The actor’s feel-good formula has served him well throughout his decades-long career, but Stallone’s stance against unhappy endings hurt Expendables 4 and Rambo 5. The Expendables 4’s ending reveals that Stallone’s character Barney – who appeared to die in a fiery plane crash during the first act – faked his death to lure a terrorist out of hiding. While easily the weakest of the franchise, Barney’s death at least gave the sequel emotional weight, and his resurrection in the finale undermines that.
Given that the fourth entry was a major bomb, Stallone’s unwillingness to kill Barney to give the story some finality feels like a mistake. Netflix’s Sly also reveals Rambo: Last Blood originally ended with the character’s death, but during post-production, Stallone had a change of heart. When the wounded former soldier sits on his rocking chair following the bloody final battle, the chair was meant to stop moving, symbolizing Rambo’s death. Instead, the star used CGI to keep the chair moving.
Unlike Expendables 4, Last Blood was conceived from the beginning as the final entry. The entire story is about how despite returning to America after decades away, Rambo never felt like he truly arrived. After the death of his surrogate daughter, he stages one final battle and seeks a warrior’s death. While certainly a bleak note to close on, it was also Rambo’s wish and the ending Last Blood was building towards, so it’s a shame Stallone lost faith in it.
Stallone’s Rule Against Sad Endings Saved The Rocky Franchise
Rocky Balboa’s Survival Saved Rocky 6 & The Creed Movies
Strangely, one of the few times Stallone softened his views on sad endings was for Rocky V. As written, Rocky V almost ended with Balboa dying in Adrian’s arms after beating his former protégé during a street fight. The film began shooting with this finale in mind, but it was actually the studio that nixed it, feeling Rocky was too iconic a character to kill off. While this angered director John G. Avildsen as he felt Rocky’s survival robbed the sequel of its purpose, it worked out in Stallone’s favor.
The star felt bad that Rocky V “ended” the series that made his career on a sour note, and spent years trying to get a sixth entry made. The result was 2006’s Rocky Balboa, which resurrected his career after a decade of box office duds, and it’s the film he calls his “proudest achievement.” Nearly a decade later, Stallone returned to great acclaim as Rocky for the Creed movies too, acting as a mentor to Michael B. Jordan’s Adonis. Sylvester Stallone may have sat out the third entry, but had Rocky died in the fifth film as planned, it would have robbed him of some of his best work.
