Character mistake: When Rocky makes his speech after his fight with Drago, he says that it's better that one person fights another instead of a million fighting a million (a US USSR war). The Russian translator misinterprets his speech and says that this is better than a million dollars. You don't have to understand Russian (although I do) to hear the translator says million dollars to confirm this blunder of a mistake. (01:22:25)
Rocky IV (1985)
1 character mistake
Directed by: Sylvester Stallone
Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Dolph Lundgren, Burt Young, Carl Weathers, Brigitte Nielsen, Talia Shire
Continuity mistake: When Apollo is getting ready to fight the Russian boxer, he comes out with white boxing gloves on. Sometime during the announcement of the fighters, the camera shows Rocky and Apollo standing in Apollo's corner. Apollo is jumping up and down while pointing with an ungloved and untaped hand, He is saying "I want you". The next time they show Apollo, he has his gloves on again. (00:26:55)
Adrian: It's suicide. You've seen him, you know how strong he is. You can't win.
Rocky: Oh, Adrian. Adrian always tells the truth. No, maybe I can't win. Maybe the only thing I can do is just take everything he's got. But to beat me, he's going to have to kill me. And to kill me, he's gonna have to have the heart to stand in front of me. And to do that, he's got to be willing to die himself. I don't know if he's ready to do that. I don't know.
Trivia: The Russian landscape that is the setting for both Rocky and Drago's training was actually shot in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
Question: To elaborate on the question regarding Drago facing criminal charges for killing Apollo: when he pushes the ref aside you say that in real life the fight would have been stopped, however, he almost lands the fatal blow right afterwards so he didn't give anyone time to stop it, wouldn't he be charged with criminally negligent manslaughter or something similar? I can understand him not facing charges if it had happened during the normal course of the fight, but the fact that he didn't allow the ref to stop the fight leads me to believe that he was negligent and thus responsible for Apollo's death.
Answer: Yes. Not only would Drago have been suspended from boxing indefinitely for pushing the ref aside, but, he also would have been charged with manslaughter considering that Drago landed the blow that killed Apollo immediately after the official stopped the fight. If the blow that killed Apollo had occurred during the fight however, Drago wouldn't have faced any charges.
In reality, Rocky was responsible for Apollo's death because he would not throw the towel when begged to. Furthermore, had this been a real fight, Apollo's entire corner would have flooded the ring since it got so out of hand. So, there wouldn't have been a fatal blow; it would have been total chaos with one corner coming to the defense of their fighter.
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Answer: Unless Drago did something deliberately illegal to increase damage (altering his gloves or wraps like Luis Resto), then no. Risk of severe injury is a standard for contact sports and boxing especially.
Greg Dwyer