All 5 Rambo Movies in Order

The film where it all began. Rambo, a Vietnam veteran looking for peace, clashes with a local sheriff in a small town. What follows isn't a standard action film but a psychological drama in which the action stems from trauma. Sylvester Stallone gives Rambo a vulnerable intensity, and the film deals with exclusion, guilt and PTSD. A sober, powerful classic.

In this sequel, Rambo returns to Vietnam on a mission to find American prisoners of war. The tone shifts completely to action fantasy: more bullets, explosions and muscles than ever. Simpler and more heroic, but a worldwide box office hit. Less depth, more adrenaline.

Rambo travels to Afghanistan to rescue his mentor Trautman from Soviet troops. What follows is large-scale war action with tanks, helicopters and explosions galore. Visually impressive, but often criticized as over the top and hollow. Here Rambo is no longer a man but a mythical war machine.

After twenty years of silence, Rambo returns, older, grimmer and more scarred than ever. In war-torn Burma he rescues a group of missionaries, this time without compromise. The film is brutal and merciless but also restores part of Rambo's humanity, its raw style bringing him closer to his origins.

In his final mission, Rambo seems to have finally found peace on a ranch in Arizona. But when the young woman he raised like a granddaughter is kidnapped by a Mexican cartel, the violence erupts again. Last Blood is darker, more personal and more violent than ever. Some praise its raw intensity; others criticize it as too harsh and one-dimensional. Either way, it's a painful farewell, although a prequel about young John Rambo is in development.