In this regard, the first Rocky films all worked on different levels, but the third got the formula tired and so the fourth took a risk by overdoing it (not to be confused with Exaggerated) patriotic, and it paid off in a big way, earning the show’s biggest box office before or after.
After boxer Ivan Drago (future film He-Man Dolph Lundgren) literally kills Apollo Creed with the entire Soviet Union behind him, rugged individualist Rocky becomes a villain and gets Drago to agree to an unauthorized fight in the USSR. Everything is laid out in one great, unforgettable training montage of all time: While Drago trains with a whole team, modern equipment and the best steroids communism had to offer, Rocky does it the good old-fashioned way: by cutting down trees and pretending to be a pooch pulling Paulie around on a sled. Like a damn man.
Without giving too much away, Rocky wins the Soviet audience in the end and earns the applause of Prime Minister Mikhail Gorbachev himself. And that’s the story of the fall of communism.
Where to stream: Prime Video, Hulu, Sling TV
