10 Doomed Movie Characters Saved By Reshoots

First Blood went through endless tweaking before, during, and after principal photography, with co-writer and star Sylvester Stallone going back and forth on how his action-thriller should conclude.

Stallone was initially adamant that PTSD-afflicted war veteran Rambo should die at the end of the film as he did in the novel, and filmed an ending where Rambo reaches for Colonel Trautman's (Richard Crenna) gun, causing Trautman to fire it, killing him.

But test screenings for the film were essentially disastrous, with Stallone even feeling that he had a career-killing movie on his hands. Ultimately the decision was made to shoot a new ending in which Rambo surrenders to Trautman and is taken into custody.

This is a tricky one - on one hand Rambo's survival ensured a run of massively successful sequels, yet almost all of them abandoned the more thoughtful ethos of First Blood and devolved into more generic, brainless action films.

Honestly both endings are pretty great, so it's tough to pick one over the other.