Captured!

[Soquili]

According to his bio, Rambo was captured in 1971 by North Vietnamese forces near the Chinese-Vietnamese border and held at a POW camp, where he and other American POWs were repeatedly tortured.

As skilled and as sharp as he was, how do you think Rambo was captured? I'd like to hear some theories, just fodder for thought.

Anybody got an idea? What could overpower the best of the best - someone with almost superhuman powers (so it seems)?

I thought this might make an interesting thread.

[Jay Rambo]

Well, what bio? Marshall Murdoch's file? That is CANON, and the only version I'm willing to accept as such.

This is a very fascinating thread. I think many factors tried to stop Rambo and his abilities during the Vietnam War days (and actually succedeed). That's why Rambo expressed his frustation at the beginning of 'RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD PART II'.

Politics, first of all. His boss was corrupted (not Trautman).
Then, I supposed... he was betrayed. I'm not referring to the Baker Team, of course, but to the following team(s) he worked with.
Finally, once surrounded by dozens and dozens and dozens of soldiers, and totally unarmed, he can't do anything. After all, he got some limits.

...

[slymick7]

he was a far different person before that capture in my view,
and being captured forced him to use instincts, rather then training,
which turned him into the charector we know.

[Jay Rambo]

slymick7 said:

he was a far different person before that capture in my view,
and being captured forced him to use instincts, rather then training,
which turned him into the charector we know.

HEY! Never thought in these terms...

[Soquili]

Well, what bio? Marshall Murdoch's file? That is CANON, and the only version I'm willing to accept as such.

I'm referring to what I assumed was canon, what I found at: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rambo. I hope it is considered canon. If not, my apologies, I'd like to find the official canon of John Rambo.

[BTW, I was referring to his original POW escape rather than the incident in Rambo II.}

he was a far different person before that capture in my view,
and being captured forced him to use instincts, rather then training, which turned him into the character we know.

Now, this thought is truly intriguing. He is indeed a man of many depths and this sounds very likely.

[Jay Rambo]

Soquili,

That Wikipedia article is TOTALLY made-up, and pretty crappy. The author fantasized on almost everything.

I consider the movies as being the ONLY *CANON*.

Is there any CLEAR references in 'RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD PART II' ?

[slymick7]

not really,
trautman only mentions it as being the camp he escaped from,
obviously also being the same place in which the flashbacks in FIRST BLOOD take place,
most of that whole legend is left to our own imagination.

all we as fans know is,
is that it was very raw, brutal and traumatising for john rambo,
maybe that's all we need? atleast for now.

[Soquili]

Jay, could it be that the novelizations of Rambo I II and III are the basis for the article? If it comes from David Morrell, surely it would be considered canon.
I haven't read the books yet but have them on order. Will let you know - unless you've already read them.

[Jay Rambo]

soquili said:

Jay, could it be that the novelizations of Rambo I II and III are the basis for the article? If it comes from David Morrell, surely it would be considered canon.
I haven't read the books yet but have them on order. Will let you know - unless you've already read them.

Soquili,

FIRST BLOOD (the original novel) - 1 UNIVERSE
THE RAMBO TETRALOGY (movies) - 1 UNIVERSE
RAMBO II and III (novelizations) - 1 UNIVERSE
RAMBO and the Force of Freedom (cartoon) - 1 UNIVERSE

As you can see by yourself, we have to deal with four distinct parallel universes. The novelizations written by David Morrell are NOT canon. They are EVEN separated from the original novel (Morrell himself stated that at the very beginning of the RAMBO II book).

So basically, we must study the movies in order to estabilish what is CANON and what isn't.