Rambo (also known as Rambo IV or John Rambo) is a 2008 American-German[1][4] action film directed, co-written by and starring Sylvester Stallone reprising his famous role as Cold War/Vietnam veteran John Rambo. It is the fourth installment in the Rambo franchise, twenty years since the previous film Rambo III. This film is dedicated to the memory of Richard Crenna, who played Col. Sam Trautman in the first three films, and who died of heart failure in 2003.
The film is about a former United States Army Special Forces soldier, John Rambo, who is hired by a church pastor to help rescue a group of missionaries who were kidnapped by men from a brutal Burmese military regime.
The film grossed $113,204,290 during its run at the international box office. After its home video release, it grossed $39,206,346 in DVD sales.[5] The film had its cable television premiere on Spike TV on July 11, 2010. However, it was the extended cut that was broadcast, not the theatrical version. The extended cut released on Blu-ray two weeks later.20 years after the events in Afghanistan, amid the political protests of the crisis in Burma, ruthless military officer Major Pa Tee Tint (Maung Maung Khin) leads an army of Tatmadaw soldiers to pillage small villages in a campaign of fear. He watches with indifference as innocent villagers are forced into mine-infested marshes and orders his men to abduct the teenage boys of the villages to be drafted into his army. Former U.S. soldier John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) now lives in Thailand in a remote village near the Burmese border where he makes a living capturing and selling snakes as well as taxiing people up and down the Salween River in his boat. He is approached by missionary Michael Burnett (Paul Schulze) who requests that he and his group be ferried into Burma on a humanitarian mission to provide aid to Karen tribespeople. Rambo refuses, claiming that without weapons, there will be no changes, but is eventually persuaded by missionary Sarah Miller (Julie Benz) to make the trip.
During their trip, the boat is stopped by a trio of pirates driving a gunboat who demand Sarah in exchange for passage. After negotiations fail, Rambo kills the pirates with his cold war-era Colt M1911 and later dumps a single body in the water to conceal the evidence, as well as burning the rest of the bodies on the return trip. Michael is greatly disturbed at Rambo's actions; upon arriving in Burma, he says that the group will travel by road and will not need him for the return trip. The mission goes well until the Tatmadaw, led by Major Tint, suddenly attack, slaughtering most of the villagers and two missionaries and kidnapping the rest, including Michael and Sarah. When the missionaries fail to return after ten days, their pastor (Ken Howard) comes to ask Rambo's help to guide a hired team of five mercenaries, Lewis (Graham McTavish), School Boy (Matthew Marsden), En-Joo (Tim Kang), Reese (Jake La Botz), and Diaz (Reynaldo Galledos), to the village where the missionaries were last seen.
Rambo agrees and accompanies the mercenaries to the drop-off. He offers to help but is refused by the team's leader Lewis, an ex-Special Air Service operative, who demands he stay at the boat. As the mercenary team arrives at the village, a squad of Tatmadaw soldiers show up with a group of hostages. The soldiers are playing a game, forcing prisoners to run through a rice paddy with landmines, and betting on the outcome. The team takes cover, planning to stand by and (seemingly reluctantly) let the hostages be killed in order to avoid provoking a response from a much larger group of soldiers. Having disregarded Rambo as a simple boatman, the mercenaries are shocked when he appears and single-handedly wipes out the entire squad of Tatmadaw soldiers with his compound bow, allowing the hostages to escape unscathed.
Rambo convinces the team to avenge the massacre and save the hostages at the P.O.W. camp after he witnesses the destroyed village filled with mutilated human and animal corpses. Rambo and the mercenaries stealthily infiltrate the camp and successfully locate and rescue Sarah and the other prisoners and flee with them. Tint quickly learns of the situation and ruthlessly investigates with the help of his army. The Tatmadaw manage to capture everyone except for Rambo, Sarah, and School Boy, the group's sniper. Just as the captured mercenaries and hostages are to be executed, Rambo hijacks a jeep-mounted .50-caliber M2 machine gun and ignites an intense shootout. Tint hides as the firefight escalates and kills one of the missionaries. After this, En-Joo is killed by an M67 grenade. The Tatmadaw, having a large numerical advantage, come close to victory but the Karen rebels show up and join the fight, turning the tide of the battle. Tint, realizing his defeat, attempts to escape the area, but Rambo intercepts and disembowels him.
In the final scene, encouraged by Sarah's words Rambo returns to his home in the United States, Rambo is seen walking along an Arizona highway until he sees a horse farm and a rusted mailbox. Reading the name "R. Rambo" Rambo smiles and walks down the gravel driveway as the credits roll.
