Carnage Meter!
John Rambo
Ok, a while back I started a "carnage meter" for the James Bond movies, still working on it, actually. Someone suggested that I do the same for other series of movies. That sounded cool, so I went down to Blockbuster and whipped out my check book.
Nothing says 1980s, big-budget, Reagan-era action movies like the Rambo series. Those of us over the age of thirty remember them well from our childhood--the bigass knives, the gallons of blood, the primal grunts and sneers masking a lack of acting talent, the M-60 machinegun so casually wielded, the ubiquitous camouflage. Yes, indeed I was sucked into the fashion trend of wearing camo and headbands to school and actually thinking I was cool. These movies are perfect for a Carnage Meter, though the first one has a surprisingly low body count. They made up for that in the other two...
The first movie was set in America, the second in Vietnam, and the third in Afghanistan. The first was a straight forward action movie, the other two were more political cudgels than anything else. These movies, and the concurrent Rocky series, made Sylvester Stallone a legend. Seriously, did any actor have a better decade of hits than Stallone in the 1980s? I don't think so.
First Blood (1982):
Rambo first goes into the mountains around the fictional town of Hope in southwestern Washington state.
Rambo then goes into the town of Hope.
Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985):
Rambo first goes into Vietnam to a Vietnamese Army prison camp.
From the next morning to being captured...
After escaping from the camp to when he steals the chopper...
During the chopper attack on the camp...
While fleeing the camp in the chopper...
Rambo then goes back to an unnamed airfield in Thailand...
Rambo III (1988):
Rambo first goes to a Muhajadeen encampment in Afghanistan.
Rambo then makes a first raid on a Russian Army compound in Afghanistan.
Rambo then makes a second raid on the same compound.
Rambo then has a running fight out in the Afghan desert.
Totals for all three movies:
Kills 129 men
Top that...
And there you go, a Carnage Meter for John Rambo. Hope you liked it.
Document written in November 2004 by Nathan Decker
Kills 4 local police officers
Kills 3 hunting dogs
Destroys 1 local police car
Destroys 1 small import sedan
Shoots BUT DOES NOT KILL the evil town sheriff
Destroys 1 Washington Army National Guard 2 1/2 ton truck
Destroys 5 assorted used cars
Blows up the Seneca gas station
Blows up The Outpost sporting goods store
Shoots up the police station.
Kills 3 Vietnamese Army soldiers
Sinks 1 Vietnamese Army River Patrol Boat
Kills 4 Vietnamese Army soldiers
Kills 7 Vietnamese river pirates
Blows up 1 Vietnamese village
Destroys 1 Vietnamese Army 2 1/2 ton truck
Destroys 1 Vietnamese Army 1 ton truck
Destroys 1 Vietnamese Army jeep
Kills 10 Russian Army soldiers
Kills 8 Vietnamese Army soldiers
Kills 1 chicken
Blows up 1 Vietnamese Army prison camp
Destroys 1 Vietnamese Army 1 ton truck
Destroys 1 Vietnamese Army jeep
Kills 13 Russian Army soldiers
Kills 7 Vietnamese Army soldiers
Shoots down 1 Vietnamese Army Mi-24 Hind helicopter (actually an SA330 Puma made up to look like a Hind)
Kills 3 Russian Army soldiers
Shoots up 1 CIA communications shack
Kills 2 Russian Army Soldiers
Shoots down 1 Russian Army attack helicopter (actually a Gazelle made up to look Russianish)
Kills 27 Russian Army soldiers
Destroys 1 Russian Army 2 1/2 ton truck
Blows up some assorted structures
Kills 6 Russian Army soldiers
Crashes 1 Russian Army Mi-24 Hind (an SA330 Puma made up to look like a Hind)
Kills 35 Russian Army soldiers
Shoots down 1 Russian Army Mi-24 Hind (an SA330 Puma made up to look like a Hind)
Shoots down 1 Russian Army attack helicopter (a Gazelle made up to look Russianish)
Destroys 1 Russian Army T-72 tank
Destroys 1 Russian Army ZSU-23-4 tank
Destroys 1 Russian Army 2 1/2 ton truck
Destroys 1 Russian Army jeep
Kills 3 dogs
Kills 1 chicken
Shoots down 5 aircraft
Sinks 1 boat
Destroys 18 vehicles