In 1982, we got the “Vietnam veteran pushed too far” action classic First Blood. The following year, James Cameron was hired to write the sequel Rambo: First Blood Part II, which would be about the Rambo character heading back to Vietnam to rescue POWs. Star Sylvester Stallone then reworked Cameron’s script and the film made its way out into the world in 1985 – a year after Cannon Films released the action war movie Missing in Action, which starred Chuck Norris as military officer Colonel James Braddock, who returns to Vietnam to find American soldiers who were listed as missing in action. Even though Missing in Action was released first, it has been accused of being a rip-off of Rambo: First Blood Part II, as it was suspected that Cannon got their hands on the Cameron script in ’83. If you’ve ever wondered if Missing in Action did rip off Rambo, Missing in Action screenwriter James Bruner has the answer, and it’s “No.”
Interviewed for Nick de Semlyen for the book The Last Action Heroes: The Triumphs, Flops, and Feuds of Hollywood’s Kings of Carnage (pick up a copy HERE), Bruner said, “The thing that started all of this was the book called Mission MIA by James Pollock, an ex-Delta Force guy. A lot of people read it, including Chuck, and that’s what gave them the idea for doing an MIA picture. I mean, I didn’t know anything about Cameron having a [Vietnam] project.“
As the book notes, the subject of MIAs and POWs was a big one in America’s heartland at the time, which is why even Clint Eastwood got involved, funding a real-world Vietnam POW rescue mission in 1983 that yielded no results. Also in ’83, First Blood director Ted Kotcheff made the Gene Hackman action war film Uncommon Valor, which was about a former U.S. Marine colonel putting together a rescue team and heading into Vietnam in search of his son, who he believes is still being held as a POW. (Oddly, that movie seems to rarely come up in the conversations about Missing in Action being a Rambo rip off.)
Bruner says the MIA / POW issue “was talked about a lot. Maybe not in New York and Los Angeles, but the rest of the country. It was a very emotional thing – when we went to see the picture (Missing in Action), people were standing up and cheering at the end in the theater.“
Are you a fan of Missing in Action? Have you ever considered the movie to be a Rambo rip off? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
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