10 Movies Saved By Their Final Shot
4. Rambo: Last Blood
Sylvester Stallone hyped up the fifth and apparently final Rambo film as the franchise's version of No Country for Old Men.
An appealing logline, for sure, except that this is basically just a generic crime thriller which Stallone's Rambo tripped and fell into, as he takes on the Mexican drug cartel who kidnapped his adopted niece.
Despite Stallone's grizzled work in front of the camera, this is a pretty damn miserable end to the franchise with some wildly questionable politics, rescued from the trash heap only by a final scene which actually feels worthy of the character.
After dismantling the cartel, a badly wounded Rambo sits on the porch of his father's house and vows to keep the memories of his fallen allies alive forever.
The final shot then shows Rambo rocking back and forth on a chair as the camera epically pans out to survey the surrounding area.
Coming at the end of such a depressing and unpalatable film, this final, statuesque glimpse of our hero actually felt like it belonged in the more thoughtful, iconic Western Stallone promised the rest of this movie was actually going to be.
Though most of Last Blood felt like it was taking a hot, steaming dump on the legacy of John Rambo himself - an opinion shared even by the original novel's author, David Morell - at least it nailed our apparently final look at the character, right?