Rambo: 10 Amazing Side Characters From The Franchise Who Deserve More Credit

After almost four decades, the Rambo franchise appears to have ended. Judging from its title, Rambo: Last Blood seems to have put an end to the adventures of war veteran John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone). But there’s no denying that the franchise has had more lows than highs.

Most of the installments have been panned by critics but fan appreciation has remained high. The quality of the action sequences has never faded. But the other reason why the franchise was so popular is the inclusion of interesting side characters. Here are some of those that deserve just about the same credit as the hero.

10 Sheriff William “Will” Teasle

Teasle is the man who causes all of John Rambo’s problems in First Blood. The sheriff of the fictional town of Hope in Washington spots Rambo drifting near Hope during one of his patrol sessions and warns him to keep off. However, Rambo returns to the town, forcing Teasle to arrest him.

Teasle and other officers proceed to torture Rambo but he escapes and goes hiding in the woods. Teasle then sends his men to hunt Rambo down, something they come to regret. The sheriff is an amazing character because of how unreasonable he is. He tries to hard to punish an innocent war veteran but ends up regretting it.

9 Sergeant Kourov

Sergeant Kourov was the big bad henchman of the villain Colonel Alexei Zaysen in Rambo III. His hand-to-hand combat scenes against Rambo are easily the best parts of the movie. As a large brute, he frequently proved to be too strong for Rambo and too hard to kill.

Kourov survived when Rambo stabbed in the back. He also used one of his own men as a human shield when Rambo fires an exploding arrow at him. And when Rambo tried to strangle him using a climbing cable, he survived that too. It eventually took a grenade to kill him.

8 School Boy

No, he wasn’t really a schoolboy. He was a British sniper who formerly served in the military. In 2008’s Rambo, School Boy establishes himself as one of the best movie snipers of all time. He is an expert with the Barrett M82CQ – 50 BMG sniper rifle which he first uses to rescue captured missionaries.

Using his sniper rifle, he also saved Rambo during the single time in the franchise when it appeared he was certainly going to get killed. A Tatmadaw patrol was almost about to eliminate the hero when School Boy saved the day. The movie’s plot might have been shaky but School Boy was always a joy to watch.

7 Agent Co Phuong Bao

Appearing in Rambo: First Blood Part II,  Co Phuong Bao is a Vietnamese intelligence agent who ends up falling in love with Rambo. After Rambo gets captured, she helps him flee the POW camp and begs him to go with her back to the United States.

What makes her such an unforgettable character is actually her heartbreaking death. Just as the audience is looking forward to them getting together, Vietnamese soldiers ambush the couple, and Co is killed. As is always the case, the hero seeks revenge.

6 Hamid

The relationship between Hamid and Rambo mirrors that of Ovi and Tyler in Extraction. Appearing in Rambo III. Hamid was a young boy who had been orphaned after Soviet troops killed his parents. His brother had also been killed in a Societ camp. He thus joined the Mujahideen in order to get revenge.

Despite his young age, Hamid proved to be an expert with weapons. Together with other Mujahideen fighters, he helped Rambo rescue Colonel Trautman. He became so close to Rambo that the war veteran gave him Co-Bao’s necklace to keep. And the most emotional moment happened when Hamid begged him to stay in Afghanistan but he had to leave.

5 Deputy Sergeant Arthur “Art” Galt

Rambo dishes out plenty of punishment to Hope’s police force in First Blood but he doesn’t kill anyone except the unfortunate (or rather deserving) Deputy Sargent. From the very beginning, Art is very cruel to Rambo, He puts on a show by torturing him at the police station as the other officers enjoy it.

Art is later ordered to scan the woods with a chopper after Rambo escapes. Despite being asked to take the veteran alive, Art attempts to kill him. He even threatens the pilot with death if he doesn’t fly to a position where he can get a clear shot on Rambo.  Left with no choice, Rambo throws a huge rock at the helicopter, causing the pilot to lose balance. Art ends up falling to his death.

4 Michael Burnett

In a franchise full of crazy people, Michael Burnett appears to be the only moral one. He appears in the fourth installment as the head of a Christian missionary group that’s delivering humanitarian aid to Burma. He gets captured by the Tatmadaw crew, forcing the church pastor to hire Rambo to rescue him.

Michael’s morality borders to the extreme. Despite the fact that Rambo is trying to save his life Michael is disgusted by the fact that the war veteran has to kill bad guys. Later on, he realizes that sometimes one to do anything it takes to survives so he smashes the head of a Tatmadaw soldier with a rock. Interestingly, he still regrets doing this.

3 Hugo Martinez

Hugo Martinez was the man who made who turned Rambo into something close to a raging horror movie character. Rambo mutilated him and ripped his heart out, thus putting an end to the ‘heartless’ (literally) cartel leader’s madness in Rambo: Last Blood.

He totally deserved it. Hugo had kidnapped Rambo’s veteran’s adopted niece Gabrielle. He blatantly told the war veteran that he sees women as things, not people. And in the final moments of the movie, he led an army of sicarios to Rambo’s ranch, only for all of them to be killed in the typical one-man-army fashion.

2 Major Marshall Roger T. Murdock

Major Marshall Roger T. Murdock was introduced in Rambo: First Blood Part II as the CIA field officer who was in charge of the mission to rescue the POWs. He informs Rambo that his mission is only to take pictures of the POWS, something that doesn’t sit well with the war veteran.

Rambo finds out that Murdock lied about serving in the army and begins suspecting him. His suspicions turn out to be true when Murdoch betrays him. Apparently, the field officer never cared about the mission. He hoped Rambo would get killed or he’d be unable to locate the POWs.

1 Colonel Sam Trautman

Trautman was Rambo’s mentor and trainer in the army. He first appears in First Blood when he comes to Hope, Washington to convince Rambo to surrender. He warns Sheriff Teasle about the kind of man they are dealing with but the sheriff doesn’t seem to pay much attention. In the final moments of the movie, it is Trautman who convinces Rambo to not kill Sheriff Teasle.

The colonel next appears in First Blood: Part II to set the events of the movie in motion. He visits Rambo who is serving a sentence for his actions in the first film. He offers Rambo a deal that will earn him freedom if he helps rescue prisoners of war in Vietnam. The war veteran gladly accepts.

About The Author

Philip Etemesi
(1224 Articles Published)

Philip Etemesi is an author, journalist, screenwriter and film critic based in Nairobi. Kenya. As a child, he preferred watching movies like The Goodfellas instead of Home Alone. His girlfriend constantly has to pull him from the front of the TV but he just keeps returning. Stubborn dude! An animal lover, Philip also has a pet giraffe called Refu.

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