Sylvester Stallone is known to have revolutionized the sports drama genre through his Rocky film franchise. But to create one of the greatest Hollywood franchises of all time, Stallone also went through a lot of pain himself. In an attempt to shoot a realistic fight sequence, the Rocky Balboa fame had to stay in the hospital for two weeks.
The incident occurred on the set of Rocky IV when the Ivan Drago actor Dolph Lundgren hit the Rambo star very hard and critically injured him. It is to be noted that the mishap was not intentional and also shows us the dedication of Sylvester Stallone to create one of the iconic franchises.
What happened with Sylvester Stallone on the set of Rocky IV?
As stated by Dolph Lundgren himself, CGI and special effects were not a regular thing in 1985. It means that the fights in Rocky IV had to be shot as realistically as possible to look great on the big screen. But at one point, this backfired Sylvester Stallone badly when he ordered his co-star Dolph Lundgren to hit him as hard as possible. He said to the Ivan Drago actor:
“Just go out there and try to clock me. For the first minute of the fight, it is going to be a free-for-all.”
The negligence of the pre-arranged choreography didn’t go well at all and put The Expendables star in the Intensive Care Unit:
“Dolph Lundgren put me in the hospital for nine days. I knew I was in trouble when I showed up and nuns met you at the ICU.”
Elaborating on the injury, the 76-year-old actor said that the hit didn’t affect him instantly but trouble ensured at night when his heart began to swell up. His blood pressure went up to 260 which resulted in Lundgren getting two weeks off from the shoot.
Later, when the Aquaman star was asked about his statements on the incident on the incident, he replied that he just obeyed Sylvester Stallone – “He was the boss. I did what he told me.” Ivan Drago is still considered one of the greatest villains in the Rocky franchise and we even spotted his son Viktor Drago in the second movie of the spinoff franchise Creed.
Luckily Dolph Lundgren’s bonding with Stallone wasn’t affected by that mishap. He also collaborated with him in his The Expendables franchise which is set to release its fourth installment soon.
What do we know about The Expendables 4?
The Expendables franchise started when Sylvester Stallone brought in some of the greatest of the action superstars of Hollywood in a single project. But there have been scarce details about the franchise following the 2014 movie.
As per now, very little is known about the plot of the movie with reports of a nuclear conflict being the basic plotline of the movie. On the other hand, the fourth installment is both set to mark the return of some of the core casts like Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren, and Randy Couture as well as introduce some new additions such as Megan Fox and Andy Garcia.
After a series of delays, The Expendables 4 is set to release on September 4, 2023.
Rocky IV can be streamed on Amazon Prime.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
