Rambo fires the 1911 at the River pirates.
The Colt M1911A1 is a type of .45 ACP semi-automatic pistol that can hold eight rounds in a single-stack magazine. It is one of Rambo's only weapons he kept from his Vietnam days, other than his knife and standard-issue Zippo Lighter. The weapon is a standard GI M1911A1 with some old-style customized features such as an ambidextrous safety, mag well and extended slide stop. This configuration was chosen to make the weapon appropriate to a U.S. Army veteran of the caliber .45 ACP era.
History and Description
The 1911 is generally viewed as one of the finest combat pistols ever designed, and the first successful self-loading pistol. The 1911 was designed by American firearms inventor John Browning and is the oldest service pistol in the world, still used in over 25 nations for over 100 years; it has proven itself to be one of the most popular and timeless handguns ever made. The 1911 has inspired countless copies and similar designs, including the TT-33, SIG-Sauer P226, Browning Hi-Power and CZ-75.
The 1911 served as the standard-issue sidearm for the United States Armed Forces from 1911 to 1985. It was first used in later stages of the Philippine-American War, and was widely used in World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. The M1911 is still carried by some U.S. forces. Its formal designation as of 1940 was Automatic Pistol, Caliber .45, M1911 for the original Model of 1911 or Automatic Pistol, Caliber .45, M1911A1 for the M1911A1, adopted in 1924. The designation changed to Pistol, Caliber .45, Automatic, M1911A1 in the Vietnam era. In total, the United States procured around 2.7 million M1911 and M1911A1 pistols in military contracts during its service life.
The M1911 was replaced by the 9x19mm Beretta M9 pistol as the standard U.S. sidearm in the early 1990s, but due to its popularity among users, it has not been completely phased out. Modernized derivative variants of the M1911 are still in use by some units of the U.S. Army Special Forces, the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps. Designed by John Browning, the M1911 is the best-known of his designs to use the short recoil principle in its basic design. The pistol was widely copied, and this operating system rose to become the preeminent type of the 20th century and of nearly all modern centerfire pistols. It is popular with civilian shooters in competitive events such as USPSA, IDPA, International Practical Shooting Confederation, and Bullseye shooting. Compact variants are popular civilian concealed carry weapons, because of the design's inherent slim width and the power of the .45 ACP cartridge.
First Blood
Rambo chambers Trautman's 1911 by cocking the slide back.
There was an alternate ending to First Blood that featured John Rambo begging Colonel Sam Trautman to kill him after ranting about the horrors of war. Tratuman refused, and Rambo grabbed Trautman's Colt M1911A1 pistol and shot himself in the chest with it. Test audiences thought this ending to be too much of a downer, so they changed it to the ending where Rambo surrenders to the police outside the station instead.
Rambo: First Blood Part II
A Vietnamese river pirate is briefly seen with a Colt M1911 in a hip holster.
Novelization
It is mentioned that Colonel Trautman carries a ".45" in a holster on his hip. Although it wasn't specified, presumably this is a Colt 1911A1, which was the standard issue sidearm for all military personel in the 1960s and 1970s, when Trautman was in the army. It was also mentioned that river pirates were armed with them and that Rambo himself carried another .45, likely a 1911 as well. The .45 was not used in many pistols of the time as well.
Rambo IV
Genuine GI Colt M1911A1.
While Rambo is taking the missionaries down the Salween River on his boat, they are stopped by a band of Tatmadaw river pirates, who demand Sarah in exchange for passage. Rambo knows that they will rape her, and he attempts to offer them money, but they do not accept. When other attempts at negotians fail, Rambo pulls his Vietnam service G.I. .45 1911 and kills all of the river pirates, later stepping over and promptly executing a wounded soldier who was reaching for his Tokarev TT-33 pistol.
Although the ballistics aren't able to be seen due to the rapid nature of the scene, Rambo later has a nightmare in the film where he remembers all the people he killed. During this scene, the leader of the pirates can be seen in a close up as he is shot in the forehead, with the massive exit wound from the .45 spraying blood out the back. This is more proof that the gun carried by Rambo is indeed a GI war-era .45 1911. Rambo likely carries his handgun cocked and locked in "condition one" and fires it with a "teacup grip".