Continuity mistake: When Rambo crashes through the road block in the army truck it's still daylight outside but when he's approaching the gas station it's nighttime. How could so much time pass when he was within minutes of town when he went through the road block?
First Blood (1982)
Directed by: Ted Kotcheff
Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Brian Dennehy, Richard Crenna, Bill McKinney
Visible crew/equipment: During the motorcycle chase Rambo jumps over the train tracks, if you look close you can easily see the ramp. (00:18:00)
Continuity mistake: In the scene when the gas station blows up, watch the cars parked in front of the "Kool Lights" advertisement. These two cars explode (for no obvious reason, by the way) after the police officers have gotten out of their cars. They run away from the explosion and leave their police cars behind. Next shot, the same two cars in front of the ad explode again.
Trivia: The name of the movie is often referred to as referred to as "Rambo: First Blood", but is really just "First Blood." "Rambo" wasn't used until the second movie was released. One can see "Rambo" while searching online guides and TV guides, but that is there for people to know that it is a Rambo movie. The movie doesn't have it in the title screen, release poster, or media releases.
Trivia: In the introduction to the 1988 Hodder Headline edition of the novel First Blood, author David Morrell says that he got the name Rambo from both a variety of apple, and the writer Rimbaud: "A French author's name and the name of an apple collided, and I recognized the sound of force."
Colonel Trautman: I don't think you understand. I didn't come to rescue Rambo from you. I came to rescue you from Rambo. (00:45:25)
Rambo: NOTHING IS OVER! Nothing! You just don't turn it off! It wasn't my war! You asked me, I didn't ask you! And I did what I had to do to win, but somebody wouldn't let us win! And I come back to the world, and I see all those maggots at the airport, protestin' me, spittin', callin' me "Baby Killer!", and all kinds of vile crap! Who are they to protest me, huh?! Who are they, unless they been me and been there, and know what the hell they're yellin' about?!
Sheriff Teasle: Are you telling me that 200 men against your boy is a no-win situation for us?
Colonel Trautman: If you send that many, don't forget one thing.
Sheriff Teasle: What?
Colonel Trautman: A good supply of body bags. (00:48:05)
Question: I actually have two questions about this film. Firstly, does Rambo actually kill anyone in this film? Dennehy doesn't die and he didn't kill Galt so was there anyone else? And secondly when Rambo arrives at the cliff face, why didn't he simply run to his right or left? The police were only coming at him from behind (and even if one of them came from the side, Rambo could have used his skills to get past him). So why did he feel that going down the cliff was his only option?
Question: Behind the desk of Teasle is a distinguished service cross, a silver star and a purple heart. So he is himself a very brave fighter. Why would such a "war hero" be so mad about another war hero, a recipient of the medal of honor, delivered only by the President of the United States? Jealousy? Rage about the death of his friend?
Answer: At the start of the film when Rambo is causing all these problems, the Sheriff has no idea who John Rambo is (Vietnam War hero), so he thinks Rambo is just another America-disrespecting drifter (the American flag on Rambo's jacket). Also, Teasle is a law and order guy who does not want his town disturbed by outsiders. After the fireworks and Teasle finds out who Rambo is and also meets Colonel Troutman, Teasle's mission becomes personal: rage at the death of his best friend, humiliation in front of his deputies, the incompetence of the state National Guard to subdue Rambo, and also a generational factor: Teasle probably served in Korea or WW2, when America was top dog in the world, so he will not allow some hippie ex-soldier from a "lost" war best him.
That's it. When they got the news that Rambo not only was a real war veteran, an ex-Green Beret, he was a war hero with a Medal of Honor; if Teasle's ego was Pearl Harbor, getting that info was December 7, 1941.
More questions & answers from First Blood
Chosen answer: No he doesn't kill anyone. He didn't know if he was surrounded or not and if he did encounter one from the side they might have shot him.
Grumpy Scot
Rambo killed Galt, albeit indirectly and unintentionally. In the US, "manslaughter involves causing the death of another person in a manner less culpable than murder." Rambo was responsible for throwing a projectile that struck the helicopter, causing the pilot to lose control resulting in Galt falling to his death.
But if Galt had been buckled in, he'd have lived. He was behaving recklessly. Yes Rambo's rock was involved, but that's two steps removed from Galt's death. Rock thrown -> pilot overreacts -> Galt falls because he wasn't strapped in properly. Galt's own behaviour and the pilot's reaction are more at fault than Rambo. This isn't a court, by most reasonable standards Rambo didn't kill Galt.