10 "Important" Movie Characters Who Were Mere Plot Devices

4. Colonel Samuel Trautman - Rambo: First Blood

The first outing of everyone's favourite traumatised war veteran, John Rambo, First Blood showed us that war is hell and also that the police are jerks. After being arrested for vagrancy, hosed down and humiliated Rambo unsurprisingly takes issue with his treatment and introduces every single person in the police station to his fists. This is followed by a tense escape into a forest and a man-hunt which receives help from an unexpected source. This turns out to be Rambo's old commanding officer Colonel Samuel Trautman. At first he strikes the viewer as being immensely important, exuding authority... and then he opens his mouth. What follows is 'A History of John Rambo.' Luckily, there's no need to actually show us his time in 'Nam because Trautman is perfectly willing, for half of the film's run time, to explain the protagonist's motives. Sure he comes into his own in later films but in First Blood his only purpose is to furnish the audience with a slightly deeper understanding of Rambo. The only other contribution he provides to the narrative is standing and looking awkward as Stallone's best acting erupts forth, sounding like a combination between a rusting engine and a dying bear. The film could have certainly occurred without Trautman's input and by the end of the film we know literally nothing about him except that he is connected with the protagonist. He is flimsy characterisation at its finest.