Question: If Rambo could afford to eat, why couldn't he afford a bus ticket?
Captain Defenestrator
29th Jul 2012
First Blood (1982)
Answer: There's no evidence he could afford to eat. It's possible he was planning on working for a meal.
13th Jan 2010
First Blood (1982)
Question: I was wondering, at the beginning when the cop is about to shave him, why does he freak out about the knife but can kill people with his own knife?
Chosen answer: Because it's a knife that someone else is holding and can use against him. It's common for people in dangerous professions to regard their weapons as tools. For example, police officers who commit suicide by handgun rarely use their service weapon, but rather a personal firearm.
Additionally, I believe it is made clear during that scene that Rambo had previously been tortured at some point, and one of the tools used was a knife. So the combination of being restrained and having someone approach with a knife caused him to basically have extreme PTSD and so he attempts to escape.
Chosen answer: A meal in the 80s would have cost 4 or 5 dollars. A bus ticket would have been around 50, or more, depending on where he was going.
Captain Defenestrator