10 Perfect Movie Endings That Sequels Ruined

4. First Blood Part II Forgets The Social Criticism Of First Blood's Conclusion

Ask anyone what they think of when you say the name Rambo and no doubt they will have in their minds eye a shirtless Adonis, single handedly mowing down hundreds of faceless henchmen. And sadly, that€™s a fair perspective of the character today, even though Rambo wasn€™t always like that. At the conclusion of First Blood John Rambo is a sympathetic and complex character. The film€™s closing sequence brings up all kinds of questions about the nature of war and the damage that it does to soldiers. It might be ham-fisted in the way it does this, and it might subscribe to old right wing myths (the anti-war protesters were the bad guys for example), but it€™s touching regardless €“ and more importantly it is one of the few mainstream American movies that really tackles the question of PTSD head on in any meaningful way. First Blood Part II destroys all of that by sending Rambo back to Vietnam and turning Rambo into a ruthless killing machine. The franchise goes from having a body count of one to nearly a hundred in the sequel. The film quickly devolves into a parody of the action genre and the next two films become even more absurd and relentless in the way that people are killed off. While the films might be entertaining at times, their removal of any political commentary have made the name Rambo synonymous with stupidity.