Rocky IV

Directed by Sylvester Stallone

Rocky IV (1985) is the fourth and most successful movie, in terms of box office gross, of the Rocky franchise. Rocky Balboa plans to retire from boxing after recovering his title from Clubber Lang in Rocky III. A new sensation from the Soviet Union, Ivan Drago), however, begins to emerge as a top contender.

The "Iron Curtain" is starting to come down around the Soviet Union under the leadership of Mikhail Gorbachev. A Soviet boxer named Ivan Drago, nicknamed "The Siberian Express", comes to the United States with his wife, a Russian champion swimmer, and his coach for a guest match. Drago is a superbly conditioned boxer who has been scientifically trained in the USSR, and he & his coach propose a fight against Rocky Balboa. Rocky's former adversary, Apollo Creed decides to take on Drago despite having been out of the ring for several years. Creed unwisely taunts Drago before the match, and after the first round, Drago issues a prophetic warning to Creed: "You will lose." Unfortunately the warning comes true and Creed dies following a pounding by the Siberian Express. When death threats are made against the Russian boxer, he returns to the USSR and states if there is to be a match between Balboa & Drago, it will be in the USSR. To honour Creed's memory, Rocky takes the Soviets up on their challenge and goes to Siberia to train for the match against the "Siberian Express" that will take place in Moscow on Christmas Day, in front of a hostile audience.

Director

Sylvester Stallone

Writer

Sylvester Stallone

Cast

Sylvester Stallone .... Rocky Balboa

Talia Shire .... Adrian

Burt Young .... Paulie

Carl Weathers .... Apollo Creed

Tony Burton .... Duke (Apollo's Trainer)

Ian Fried … Rocky Junior

Brigitte Nielsen … Ludmilla Vobet Drago

Michael Pataki … Nicoli Koloff

Dolph Lundgren … Captain Ivan Drago

James Brown … The Godfather of Soul

Trivia

• When Rocky tells the Russian crowd "That's better than 20 million people killing each other", the ring announcer translates it as "Ehta luch'e chem dvadtsat millionov dollarov", which means "That's better than 20 million dollars".
• Sylvester Stallone thought that it would be a good idea to have legitimate (rather than shadow) boxing in his fights with Dolph Lundgren. However, Lundgren's powerful punches gave Stallone some legitimate, albeit temporary rib and heart damage.