10 Movie Franchises That Didn't Care About HUGE Plot Holes

Depressingly, the fifth Rocky film reveals that everyone's favourite underdog (Sylvester Stallone) is suffering from brain damage following his ferocious fight against Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren) in the previous film.

Doctors inform Rocky he can no longer box, and Rocky V ends with him reluctantly retiring at the urging of his wife Adrian (Talia Shire). It served as a rather depressing "ending" for the character, if certainly a realistic one.

But when Stallone made an unexpected sixth movie, Rocky Balboa, over 15 years later, he effectively brushed Rocky's brain damage totally under the carpet in the quest of giving the screen icon a more triumphant and fist-pumping second send-off.

And a fine victory lap for the character it was, even if fans had to simply accept Rocky's brain issues being basically ignored, and the film flat-out stating the dubious fact that Rocky was fit as a whistle.

Stallone expanded on this in interviews, explaining that Rocky never sought a second doctor's opinion and that his brain damage was within normal levels for athletes in contact sports.

But of course, this is never stated in any of the movies, and basically just comes across as a desperate attempt to hand-wave the fact that no boxing commission on the planet would let Rocky step back in the ring.