On 9 Mar 1983, DV reported that Carolco partners Andy Vajna and Mario Cassar were back at the American Film Market and had pre-sold the foreign distribution rights for the First Blood sequel for delivery Christmas 1984. Germany and France sold first while Japan and England followed shortly after.
       Screen International announced on 23 Jun 1984 that 3,000 promotional trailers for the Rambo sequel were being distributed to venues throughout the U.S. and key foreign markets a full year before the scheduled release date of the film in late 1985. It also meant that Stallone filmed the trailer for the feature far in advance of the August 1 start date.
       On 29 Aug 1984, DV reported that the $21 million Rambo sequel would need more than 3,000 extras in the course of filming on location in Acapulco.
       A 3 Sep 1984 People article stated that principle filming would start in Mexico. The production was originally supposed to film in Thailand but a location change was made when Stallone couldn’t coexist with the insect-laden terrain. Producer Vajna denied that insects were an issue, saying that financial and travel considerations had initiated the change.
       On 1 Dec 1984, the LAT reported that special effects man Cliff Wenger, Jr. had accidentally fallen to his death after checking a waterfall explosion while filming Rambo: First Blood Part II. As Wenger went across some slippery rocks to make sure that there was no fire left from the explosion at the top of the waterfall, he slipped and fell to his death. After about five minutes, other crewmembers retrieved his body at the bottom of the waterfall. The death was blamed on multiple head fractures and possible drowning.
       According to a 21 May 1985, HR article, the Rambo sequel set an exhibition record when it opened at 2,074 theaters. The previous record was set by Beverly Hills Cop (see entry) in 2,010 theaters.
       A18 Jul 1985 LAHExam article stated that “Rambo is also America’s newest licensing phenomenon.”
       On 14 Jul 1985, the Washington Post reported that D.C. area-weapon and hunting stores were bombarded by customers looking for the 10-inch survival knife used by Sylvester Stallone as Rambo. Stores that sold models with smaller blades reported an uptick in sales. Before the two movies, Donald Blatcher, manager of Remington Shavers and Knives in Wash., D.C., sold one survival knife a month. After, he averaged 50 knives a month.
       Jimmy Lile, known as the “Arkansas Knifesmith,” designed the knives used in Stallone’s movies. Each knife was made to order. “The First Blood knife sold for $580 and the Rambo knife sold for $760…Stallone were credited with doing for the cutlery industry what Dirty Harry did for the .44 Magnum pistol.”
       In an 18 Jul 1985 article, the LAHExam reported that Rambo merchandising showed no signs of slowing down. Stores would do brisk business selling cap guns, electronic guns, trading cards, bubble gum, comic books, coloring books, games, pinball and computer games. A Rambo comic strip was also created. It was also noted that Stephen J. Cannell Productions was handling Rambo merchandising efforts for the film’s producers.
       According to a 19 Jul 1985 article in the LADN, Rambo posters were selling like hot cakes. Joe Angard, executive vice president of One Stop Posters in L.A., said that “it takes sales of 50,000 posters for a company to break even on its product.” At the time of the article, more than 600,000 posters of Rambo had been sold.
       On 23 Jul 1985, the LAT noted that toy stores would be stocking Rambo action figures, play sets, water guns, walkie-talkies, watches, pinball machines, and sportswear for all ages. Later in the summer, the shelves would fill with a two-foot-long machine-gun water pistol and a 5 ¾-inch Rambo action figure that came with pants, shirt, bow and arrows and automatic rifles. All the more surprising because Rambo was rated R and not supposed to be for kids.
       Angry Vietnam veterans from the Veteran’s Speakers Alliance picketed the Rambo sequel in San Francisco, according to a 25 Jul 1985 LADN story. Veterans said the film was psychologically preparing youths to go to war and glamorizing the Vietnam conflict. The alliance also criticized Stallone for portraying himself as a spokesman for all Vietnam vets.
       On 26 Jul – 1 Aug 1985 Movieline magazine and KMET94.7 radio station sponsored a Rambo: First Blood Part II trivia contest. Contestants had to answer 10 true or false questions to win a trip to the Bahamas for two. Some of the questions were: Rambo’s full name [Henry Abercrombie III], the marking on the Vietnamese gun boat which Rambo blows up [BK17] and the threatening message Rambo gives Murdock over the short wave radio [“Murdock, I’m coming to get you.”]
       A 4 Aug 1985 Daily News article commented that the novel First Blood written by David Morrell was adapted for the screen by screenwriters Michael Kozoll, William Sackheim and Q. Moonblood. When it came time for the sequel, James Cameron and Sylvester Stallone both worked on the script using Morrell’s characters again. Morell was then hired to write the paperback novelization of the screenplay, which “wound up on several bestseller lists, including the New York Times.”
       On 14 Aug 1985 DV noted that Rambo was one of the few R-rated films that had wide appeal to merchandise licensees. The W. Hartford, Conn.-based Coleco Industries, manufacturers the Cabbage Patch doll, “acquired worldwide rights to manufacture Rambo dolls bearing the likeness of Stallone’s movie character.” The company paid a six-figure advance against royalties, which ranged from 5-10% of the undisclosed wholesale price of the doll. The item retailed for under $10.
       A summer 1985 Rambo Special magazine said that, in the filming of the Rambo sequel, Acapulco became home base and various locations in the Mexican jungles were used to stand-in for the mountainous terrain of Vietnam. Another major location was a tropical lagoon 12 miles from Acapulco with the ocean on one side and the bay on the other that served for the sequence where Rambo escapes on a pirate sampan and is attacked by a river patrol boat.
       During production, six-day workweeks were typical, and temperatures hovered between 95 to 100 degrees with humidity to match, taxing the crew’s energy.
       The demolition of the Vietnamese prison camp by Rambo, swooping down in a captured UHIB chopper was captured by four cameras, including one camera filming from another helicopter.
       To achieve the desired effect of mass destruction, the sequence required 300 gallons of gasoline, 200 pounds of black powder, 5,000 feet of primer cord and 15,000 feet of wire to set the charges off on command.
       On 2 Aug 1985 the HR stated that in the 68 days since its release the Rambo sequel had earned $134.9 million. Screen International reported on 31 Aug 1985 that Rambo: First Blood Part II had grossed close to $150 million and was expected to gross $300 million worldwide.
       A 18 Sep 1985 HR article said that First Blood author David Morrell had filed a lawsuit stating that the film’s producers had “failed to pay him his full share of both films’ net profits.” The suit charged that Carolco accounting reports “substantially and falsely underreported the true amount of net profits’ made by the two films, including the omission of merchandising income.” Morrell was seeking $1 million in damages and $1 million in punitive damages along with an injunction against further exploitation of the use of the copyright of his story.
       A 4 Jan 1986 article in the Daily News reported that Soviet cultural officials and artists banded together to denounce Rocky IV and Rambo: First Blood Part II for their stereotypical portrayal “of Russians as cruel and treacherous.” Poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko criticized movies like Stallone’s as a form of pornography.
       The LAT reported on 20 Feb 1986, that India had banned Rambo: First Blood Part II from its screens due to the movie’s anti-Soviet and anti-Vietnamese sentiment.
       Even after its extraordinary monetary success, a 24 Mar 1986 LADN article reported that Sylvester Stallone was a big winner at the annual Golden Raspberry Awards, honors given for the year’s worst achievements in film. Stallone was awarded the worst actor award for his work in Rambo: First Blood Part II and Rocky IV (see entry). He also took the worst director award for Rocky IV and was co-winner of the worst screenplay for Rambo: First Blood Part II. The previous year, Stallone won the worst actor award for Rhinestone (see entry), giving him a lifetime and record-breaking total of four Razzies, surpassing the previous multiple Razzie winners, Bo Derek and Pia Zadora. Rambo: First Blood Part II also earned worst film and worst song Razzies.
       On the financial front, the HR stated 21 Nov 1986 that producer Stephen J. Cannell filed a suit claiming breach of contract in connection with merchandising rights to the Rambo sequel. His company sought $65 million in damages. Similarly, DV reported on the same day that the Cannell suit charged that Carolco had attempted to lower or eliminate the 20% sales fee from the gross of Rambo merchandising and publications that the company said it was entitled to under an oral agreement made in February 1985.
       A 7 Mar 1995 HR article noted that screenwriter Jim Cameron was assigned to pen the First Blood sequel when his script for The Terminator (see entry) was making the rounds as a writing sample in 1982. He said he took the assignment to see what it felt like to be a hired gun without the hope of directing. Stallone did extensive rewrites on Cameron’s script, however producer Vajna admitted that the basic skeleton of the story was Cameron’s.
       As noted in a 20 Jan 2008 LAT article, writer John Mueller actually stopped to do a body count of all four Rambo movies. Here’s the tally for Rambo: First Blood Part II:
•       Number of bad guys killed by Rambo with his shirt on …….12
•       Number of bad guys killed by Rambo with his shirt off……..46
•       Number of people killed per minute………………………….......0.72      
•       Point when first person is killed (min:secs)…………………....33.34
•       Number of people killed thereafter per minute until
the end of the film (not including the credits)…………………........1.18
•       Number of sequences in which good guys are tortured
by bad guys …………………………………………………....................0


      The end credits included the following acknowledgements: “A special thanks to Credit Lyonnais Bank Nederland N.V. for making it all possible" and "This film is dedicated to the memory of Cliff Wenger, Jr., Special Effects Man, and Our Friend."