If you listen to Sundays Supplement, you may have heard my rant about this already, but I don’t care; this bugs me a lot.
The Rambo quadrilogy is a feat of sequential numbering that will make your bum burn.
If someone says to you they’ve just watched Rambo, don’t ask them which one; you could be there for a week. And it’s not a film worth that much of your time.
The first Rambo film is called First Blood. It was released in 1982.
The sequel is called Rambo: First Blood Part II, and was released in 1985.
So far, so sensible enough.
The next film released was in 1988, and it was called Rambo III.
What?
The 1988 release should by rights have been called Rambo II: First Blood Part III.
Things get even worse with the fourth instalment, belatedly released in 2008. Instead of opting for the sensible Rambo III: First Blood Part IV, they decided to call it Rambo.
So, if someone says they saw Rambo last night, they could mean the first instalment (they’d be wrong), they could mean the second instalment (they’d be just about right), or they could mean the fourth (they’d be right).
But what if they clarify and tell you they mean Rambo 2. There is no Rambo 2. They could mean the second instalment, or they could be being pedantic and mean the third instalment. They could even bum-squelchingly mean the fourth instalment, it being the second film in their mind to be titled Rambo.
If someone says they saw Rambo 4, punch them in the nipples.
