The latest (and likely last) film in Sylvester Stallone’s action franchise has an ambiguous ending.
Let’s unpack it.
Yana Blajeva/Lionsgate
Warning: This article contains spoilers forRambo: Last Blood.
Sylvester Stallone as John Rambo in ‘Rambo: Last Blood’.Credit:Yana Blajeva/Lionsgate
It’s also a somewhat ambiguous conclusion.
What happens to Gabriela inRambo: Last Blood?
Gabriela is abducted from a nightclub by members of a Mexican cartel.
Yvette Monreal and Sylvester Stallone in Rambo: Last Blood.Yana Blajeva/Lionsgate
When Rambo tries to track her down, he’s beaten and robbed.
The cartel members find a photo of Gabriela in his possession and, as punishment, torture her.
She’s maimed, routinely injected with heroin, and sold into sexual slavery.
Sergio Peris-Mencheta as Hugo in ‘Rambo: Last Blood’.Lionsgate / courtesy Everett
“I was lost.
I was a lost man, and then I met you,” he says.
And I had a family that I never thought I’d ever have.
Sylvester Stallone as John Rambo in ‘Rambo: Last Blood’.Lionsgate
Unfortunately, the amount of drugs in her system overwhelms her, and she dies on the drive home.
Rambo buries her on the farm.
What happens at the end ofRambo: Last Blood?
Adriana Barraza as Maria and Sylvester Stallone as John Rambo in ‘Rambo: Last Blood’.Yana Blajeva/Lionsgate
Rambo returns to the farm, where he’s spent years digging a connection of tunnels under the ground.
There, he installs several grisly booby traps.
He succeeds, but not before suffering several wounds himself, many of which look serious.
Paz Vega as Carmen in ‘Rambo: Last Vegas".Lionsgate
Rambo saves Hugo for the finale.
“I could’ve killed you 10 times, but I wanted you last,” he says.
“I want you to feel my rage, my hate.”
He promises to rip his heart out, “like you did mine.”
Hugo follows Rambo aboveground to the barn, where Rambo impales him to the wall with four arrows.
He then unsheathes his knife and delivers his promise, cutting out Hugo’s still-beating heart.
“This is what he feels like,” he says before plunging the blade.
“I’ve lived in a world of death,” he intones in voiceover.
“I tried to come home, but I never really arrived.
But I will fight to keep their memories alive forever.”
Does Rambo die inLast Blood?
Lionsgate
That depends on how you interpret the ending.
If you take it literally, Rambo appears to have survived.
After his monologue, the camera zooms out on Rambo on the farmhouse porch, and the credits roll.
Then we see scenes fromthe previousRambomovies, including the one we just watched.
You could, however, read Rambo’s post-massacre horsey ride as a death dream.
Stallone himself even seems open to it being perceived either way.
As Stallone reveals in the Netflix documentarySly(2023),the ending wasn’t always so ambiguous.
What does the end ofRambo: Last Bloodmean?
But there’s more meaning in what the tunnels represent as the finale’s bloody battleground.
Combat courses through Rambo’s veins, which is the character’s greatest asset but also his biggest regret.
Where can I watchRambo: Last Blood?
Rambo: Last Bloodis currentlystreaming on Netflix.
you’re able to also rent or purchase it viaAmazon Prime Video.
