Question: When the state police and national guard were called in to draw Rambo out into the open to capture him, why weren't the Marines or other active duty Green Berets called upon instead to deal with an unstable war veteran who was unpredictable and armed and dangerous? The government sent over Colonel Trautman, but he could have at least brought a group of special forces with him to help out in the hunt.
Brittle Fingers
5th Jan 2024
First Blood (1982)
Answer: The answer is in Trautman's first appearance in the film: he is very adamant that the way to deal with Rambo is to deescalate the situation, not add more firepower/soldiers/hunters. It's likely the government considered sending special forces, but Trautman, who knows Rambo, would have declined for the same reason he explains to Teasle: the best thing to do is let Rambo escape, let him calm down, and apprehend him once he's no longer in "survival" mode.
13th Jan 2004
Enemy of the State (1998)
Corrected entry: In the early scene where Will Smith is confronting the "Mafia Boss" with the video of him consorting with union representatives, the Boss is shown mugging for the camera. Obviously, he knows he is being taped. Immediately thereafter, he starts to threaten Smith, demanding to know who made the tape, as if it had been made surreptitiously.
Correction: He wanted to know how Smith got the tape and more importantly, who made the copy so he could make sure no more were produced.
That's not made clear in the film. Yes he later asks how he got it, but before and even after he keeps saying, "who made the tape?" And eventually he says, "I wanna know who made the tape, and I wanna know in a week." Which giving him a week is another valid question altogether, but unrelated. But this seems to be a mistake as it seems odd that Pintero wouldn't know who's responsible despite mugging for the camera. Without any other explanation or dialogue, this is a plot error.
He wants to know who gave this tape to Smith, who made a version of it that got in the hands of a lawyer. That's what he wants to know. He may or may not know who was actually filming, but he wants to know who it was that got it out of private hands and into the hands of Smith.
Pintero's question "Who made the tape?" refers to the copy that Dean has, not the original which, as already pointed out, he was well aware of.
Answer: There's no evidence that the government sent over Trautman. Just because Teasle says that's what happened, it doesn't mean he was correct; he could have just been speculating. I've always assumed Trautman heard about Rambo on the TV or Radio and headed over of his own volition.
Teasle asks Trautman why the army would send over a "full bird colonel," and Trautman responds by saying the army thought he might be able to help.
Brittle Fingers