Rambo can take on a swarm of domestic or foreign enemies on his own. Rocky might be beaten down, but he will push himself to stand back up. Barney Ross will lead his team of mercenaries to save the day. None of these guys are superheroes plucked out of the Marvel universe, they exist in a testosterone-fueled world, each one played by Sylvester Stallone. He’s had a big hand in creating their storylines, so it’s clear how much he loves them, which is why they endure in sequels and franchises that keep going. Stallone wants to explore what Rocky, Rambo, and Barney are up to. There were a few times when death might have made these men bid a cinematic goodbye, but that isn’t what happened. Sly Stallone has given us three action movie heroes you can depend on to survive, characters who are too tough to kill, for better or worse.

Rocky Balboa May Lose Fights, but He Wins as an Underdog
Image via United Artists

One of Stallone’s most famous characters was someone who came from nothing, overcoming many obstacles to become the professional boxer, Rocky Balboa. Across the main six films, Rocky loses important people in his life, from coach Mickey (Burgess Meredith), rival-turned-friend Apollo (Carl Weathers), and wife Adrian (Talia Shire). He’s an every man, who loves his pet turtles and struggles to have a decent life — for himself and his family. In the face of defeat or tragedy, he pushes himself forward. Although, there were a few close calls when the Italian Stallion was almost a goner himself.

In 1980, Stallone talked about early ideas on how to close Rocky III during an interview with Roger Ebert, “–he has achieved everything possible and he dies when he’s on top. I don’t think people want to see Rocky when he’s 80.” That was what Stallone thought could make for a satisfying conclusion. Plans changed and good thing too, Stallone went on to make Rocky IV, excessive in Cold War influence. For Rocky V, Stallone returned to plans to kill off his boxer, with an original script he wrote that had Rocky succumb to a fatal head injury after a street fight, dying in Adrian’s lap. This ending got scrapped by the studio quicker than you can say, “Yo, Adrian!” In The Rocky Saga: Going the Distance, Stallone explained how he viewed this ending as “depressing” but he wanted Rocky to go down in “a blaze of glory.”

The studio scrapped it for a pretty simple reason: from The Rocky Saga, director John G. Avildsen said how the head of the studio told him, “These people don’t die. James Bond, Batman, Superman. They don’t die.” So Rocky lived, returning for the recent Creed movies. In a 2022 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Stallone talked about the direction the Creed movies were going in. “I wish them well,” he said, “but I’m much more of a sentimentalist. I like my heroes getting beat up, but I just don’t want them going into that dark space. I just feel people have enough darkness.” Losing Rocky, especially in his main series, meant the ending would be a bleak one, something the franchise isn’t known for. In the same interview, Stallone went on to say, “I want people to take away some sense of hope when they leave the theater. I don’t want my heroes to die.” The actor shares this point of view with another of his ’80s action heroes.

Sylvester Stallone Helped Turn ‘Rambo’ Into a Franchise

John Rambo was supposed to die in First Blood, like what happens in the novel, but Stallone wanted a change. The theatrical ending remains a heart-wrenching one, as Rambo breaks down and allows himself to be apprehended. Stallone had no regrets about getting the ending reworked, telling in an interview with Maclean’s how a famous movie director rejected what First Blood did: “I said, ‘Why don’t we take him right to the edge without annihilating him?’ Quentin Tarantino said, ‘You’re a coward, you should have killed him!’ I said, ’Quentin, you’re a lunatic. I want to do some sequels, brother.’” Creating a franchise out of the Rambo character is exactly what Stallone accomplished.

There were new environments and threats for John Rambo to face in the sequels. He was a ferocious protector to those who needed his help, and an even tougher survivalist. In Rambo III, he’s wounded and needs to stop the bleeding ASAP, doing a very Rambo method of stopping the blood loss: he cauterizes the wound with gunpowder and fire. If it isn’t obvious, he’s a tough man to kill, and perhaps there is no suitable death for John Rambo; that he can keep on staying alive but find himself alone in the world is a tragic element to the hero. The scores of Rocky and Rambo might be easily overlooked in favor of the training montages or fights, but they are crucial to these central men.

Related: The Expendables Series Recap: A Tale of Elder Action Stars Blowin’ Up Sh*t

‘Expendables’ Is a Throwback Action Series With Stallone in Front of and Behind the Camera
Image via Lionsgate

In an Instagram post, Stallone finished his part in filming for Expend4bles and described it as his “finale.” Going into this fourth installment, one might wonder what they could expect with the movie star’s statement in mind, after all, Stallone directed the first movie and co-wrote the scripts of the next two Expendables. He did not direct nor did he write this fourth entry. There is already a limited amount of veteran action stars like in the previous ones, which makes the fate of Barney Ross (Stallone) more lackluster. On a mission, Barney is the one in charge of flying the escape plane while his team is on the ground, until the plane is struck down and right-hand man Lee Christmas (Jason Statham) discovers Barney’s burned corpse. Watching it play out, the major death happens off-screen, meaning he couldn’t stay “dead” for long. Except, he sort of does.

The plot twist that Barney faked his death comes too late in the movie. He returns to save the day at the last minute when Christmas is about to die in what is a weird ending to this installment. Barney then narrates a tale to his friend how he made it out of the plane. The body Christmas found, burned to a crisp, was low-life mercenary Jumbo Shrimp (Mike Möller) who got on Barney’s bad side by taking his treasured skull ring. So Barney went too far in getting petty revenge by hiding Jumbo on the plane until the right fiery moment was needed. It doesn’t work as a morbid gag, especially because Barney has never been this much of a dark anti-hero. It can’t be denied Stallone gives a strong, nostalgic presence to his returning characters, so it’s an error for Expend4bles to have limited screen time for the star.

Rocky is relatable. Rambo and Barney are warriors. Like an Achilles’ heel, the actor-writer-director can’t kill off his characters. He’s had a creative hand in telling their stories, and they’re either too close to his heart or the studio’s wallet. As for Barney, while he didn’t have a hand in writing the fake-out death, it was an instance that deserved a rewrite to either make it permanent or release Barney into the story much sooner. A franchise isn’t a bad thing, however when they release weak and repetitive entries, it might be for the best to have one of these action men expire in a powerful send-off. Until that happens, Stallone’s heroes live for another day. With Cliffhanger 2 and more of Tulsa King arriving in the future, other Sly Stallone characters won’t be saying goodbye any time soon either.

The Big Picture

Stallone’s characters, like Rocky Balboa, overcome obstacles and push themselves forward, making them relatable and inspiring. Stallone had plans to kill off Rocky, but the studio rejected the idea, wanting the character to live on; whereas Quentin Tarantino advised him to kill off Rambo, to which Stallone refused. Expend4bles took a different approach, pulling a fake-out death with Stallone’s character Barney Ross returning to save the day at the end.