Rambo III trivia

This is an article about trivia from Rambo III.

• Rambo says that he is rescuing Trautman because he would do it for him. Indeed he would. If you watch Rambo: First Blood Part II, Trautman can be seen demanding a rescue mission for Rambo. When Murdock asks him if he thinks one man is really worth all that, Trautman says yes. 
• John Rambo's horse also appeared in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) as Indiana Jones' horse.
• With its $63m budget, this was the most expensive film ever made at the time of its release.
• Director Peter MacDonald stated in the DVD commentary that for the scenes involving Rambo and Col. Trautman inside the Monks' Temple, the temple itself was a real temple in Thailand undergoing renovation at the time of filming. Also many of the Monk extras were in fact real Monks from that very temple who were paid to appear as extras for those scenes (along with additional extras who were merely dressed as Monks for the scene). MacDonald also went on to say how delighted he was to "give money to people who really needed as opposed to people who had too much of it".
• Rambo's bow used in the film had a ninety pound pull on it, so Stallone's muscles could flex.
• In this movie, in keeping with proper, albeit subtle, continuity, we see Rambo's scars from First Blood (1982) (the scar on his right arm, caused by the fall through the trees) and Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985) (the small scar right above his left cheek, caused by the heated knife scraped by his eye).
• The Mi-24 Hind-A (large glazed cockpit as opposed to two small tandem cockpits for the later D version onwards of the type) helicopters seen in the film are in fact modified Aerospatiale SA 330 Puma transport helicopters with fabricated bolt-on wings similar to the real Hind-A's used in the former Soviet bloc nations.
• There was a deleted scene on the Rambo III ultimate edition DVD that featured Rambo gearing up for the rescue mission and forging his own knife shortly after being told of Trautman's capture by the Soviets from Robert Griggs. The shirt Rambo wore in this scene is now a prop owned by a private collector and can be seen online.
• Although it has been claimed that the film was banned in parts of the UK after the killing spree of Michael Ryan, and that he was inspired by the Rambo movies, neither was in fact the case. A scheduled screening of the original First Blood (1982) was pulled from UK TV (as was a screening of Nevada Smith (1966)), leading the UK's 'Daily Mail' and other media outlets to assume a direct link that never existed and which quickly became a popular urban legend. The film was heavily cut by the BBFC (by 1min 25secs for theatrical release and 3mins 3secs for home video), primarily for knife violence and cruelty to animals, but never banned. The DVD release has all the cuts reinstated apart from a two second shot of animal cruelty, in this case it being a horsefall.
• The problems that the Russian forces faced with American Stinger missiles, as described in this movie, were very real, and accounted for hundreds of Russian helicopters during the real war. The missile was used again by Pakistan against better flown Indian aircraft and gunships in the 1999 Kargil War but only accounted for 1 kill out of several hundred launches.
• In this movie, Rambo can be seen wearing the necklace that Co (Julia Nickson) was wearing and which he put on after she died in Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985).
• The knife in this film is the first in the series to not be designed by Arkansas knifesmith Jimmy Lile. The blade was designed by fantasy knife designer Gil Hibben and is two inches longer than the one in Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985) and three inches longer than the knife in First Blood (1982). The knife is also the first in the series to not be of a survival knife design.
• According to Director Peter MacDonald in the DVD commentary, at the time this movie was being filmed, the Russians were in fact invading Afghanistan just as depicted in this movie, however about 4 weeks prior to this movie's premiere, the Russians had in fact withdrawn from Afghanistan and were no longer at war with that country. MacDonald felt that this turn of events had hurt the movie's box office returns, since the idea of the Russians being the primary villains in this movie was no longer really believable. At the same time though, MacDonald was somewhat glad of the idea that the events of this movie may have helped to contribute to Russia's withdrawal from Afghanistan.
• There is no female role in the main cast, and few women appear in the film.
• The Rambo III "Mission" prototype knife was actually used briefly in the mine field sequence scene. By the time the producers noticed that it had been used instead of the official knife, they attempted to redo the scene, but it was too far into production, and they did not have enough time or money to reshoot the scene. Although the scene was in the final product of the film, the scene was so poorly lit, most people didn't even notice it. However, if you look closely, you can see that the knife has many saw teeth, which the final product movie knife never had.
• The only Rambo movie in the series to not have any scenes whatsoever on US soil. First Blood (1982) was set entirely in Hope, Washington, Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985) had an intro scene in Arizona where Col. Trautman visits Rambo at a military prison (the location is never mentioned in the film, but is actually filmed in Acapulco, Mexico according to Rambo: First Blood II director George Pan Cosmatos in the Ultimate Edition DVD of that film.), and Rambo (2008) had an ending scene where Rambo returns to his home in Bowie, Arizona to visit his estranged father.
• Original director Russell Mulcahy was replaced after two weeks of filming by Peter MacDonald due to creative differences. Three cinematographers (directors of photography) also left.
• The other helicopter disguised as a Russian gunship was really an Aerospatiale/Eurocopter SA 341/2 Gazelle (also modified as the title helicopter in the movie Blue Thunder (1983)), of British/French design. The four fighter aircraft seen at a distance in the beginning are French-built Mirage-IIIs of the Pakistani Air Force.
• The character Masoud (Spiros Focás) is a reference to Ahmad Shah Masoud, a real-life leader of the Afghani resistance against the Russian occupation, minister of defense of Afghanistan (after the Russian occupation ended) and later again a leader of the resistance, this time against the Taliban regime.
• One minute of the movie was cut out of the UK release.
• Victor Banerjee passed on this film.
• This was noted by the Guiness Book of World Records (1990) as to being the most violent film. It was noted with 221 acts of violence and over 108 deaths.