Source: Lionsgate: Blu-ray, 2008.
Year: 1985
Director: George P. Cosmatos
Action Stars:
Genre: Combat
Country: United States
Story Duration: 01:32:16
Act Duration:
1st Act: 00:19:12
2nd Act: 00:25:49
3rd Act: 00:21:02
4th Act: 00:26:14
Plot Turns:
1st: Meeting Co Bao
2nd: Rambo Betrayed
3rd: Co Bao Killed
ASD Ratio: 78%
AAD Ratios:
1st Act: 49%
2nd Act: 88%
3rd Act: 73%
4th Act: 92%
Action Structure: 1324
Action Scenarios:
Capture
Escape
Escape (Daring Leap Variant)
Fall
Fight
Fight (Destruction of Property Variant)
Heist
Pursuit
Rescue
Speed
Total Action Moments: 19
Notable Action Sequence: Rambo Interrogated
Duration: 00:12:36
Act: 3rd
Action Scenarios:
Capture
Fight
Escape
Fight
Pursuit
Speed
Description: Nothing in action films signals the agency of the hero protagonist as much as the ability to switch from a captive to an escapee. In Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985), Rambo accomplishes this feat during the interrogation scene, replicating the same captive-escapee reversal executed in the film’s predecessor First Blood (1982). From this point on, Rambo’s agency in the film increases exponentially from a devastating avenger to a deliverer of salvation by rescuing American prisoners of war from a brutal Vietnamese prison camp.
Rambo is captured by Vietnamese soldiers after his helicopter extraction is aborted by his deceitful mission overseer, Marshall Murdock. During the interrogation, Rambo is first tied to a metal bedspring, underscoring his captive state [Figure 1]. Rambo is then brutally tortured by Lieutenant Colonel Sergei T. Podovsky and his subordinate Sergeant Yushin with electric shocks, who demand that he broadcast a message to the Americans warning against future rescue missions. Rambo initially refuses but relents when the captured POW he rescued, Banks, is threatened. For Rambo to escape, his ‘hard’ body must withstand the electric shocks and other abuses that would normally either incapacitate or kill most people.
The escape sequence is structured through the crossing of two barriers: the interrogation shack itself and the prison perimeter encircled by a barbed wire fence. After breaking through those barriers, the sequence segues into the surrounding jungle as Rambo and Co Bao evade capture. The escape commences with Rambo using the microphone as a weapon to club Yushin [Figure 2], and then he hits Lieutenant Colonel Podovsky with his forearm. Co Bao assists in Rambo’s escape by firing at the guard through the floorboards [Figure 3]. Rambo crosses the first escape barrier of the interrogation shack by jumping through the window, where he joins Co Bao. Russian and Vietnamese guards rush out of a building, commencing the capture scenario.
Rambo and Co Bao then rush toward the prison perimeter, commencing the pursuit scenario while exchanging gunfire with the pursuing soldiers as Rambo also lob grenades at them. They reach the barbed wire fence and slip underneath it, thereby crossing the second barrier of the escape sequence [Figure 4]. The pursuit continues into the jungle as the Russian and Vietnamese soldiers continue to search for them. Soldiers in a helicopter join in the hunt and hover above, scouring for Rambo and Co Bao with a searchlight. The escape sequence ends as Rambo and Co Bao take a different route from the stream they were running, eluding capture from the pursuing soldiers, and avoid detection from the helicopter flying overhead by taking cover under the thick jungle foliage.