James Cameron Wrote an Unrecognizable First Draft for One of Sylvester Stallone’s Biggest ’80s Action Movies

With movies like Titanic, the Avatar trilogy, and so many more, James Cameron is one of the most successful directors of all-time, but in the early ’80s he was a struggling filmmaker. After his dud of a first feature, Piranha II: The Spawning, Cameron took time to focus on screenwriting, first with The Terminator, which would become the movie that put him on the map forever. However, in 1984, Cameron also wrote a script for a movie he would not direct, Rambo: First Blood Part II. It could have been a screenwriting breakout for Cameron, but then Sylvester Stallone got his hands on it.

Sylvester Stallone Saved Rambo’s Life in a ‘First Blood’ Rewrite

In 1982, Sylvester Stallone was already on top of the acting world thanks to three highly successful Rocky films. In the same year Rocky III was released, the star began a new franchise which would turn him into one of Hollywood’s top action stars of the 80s. First Blood, based on a novel of the same name by David Morrell, and directed by Ted Kotcheff, was about a Vietnam vet named John Rambo who comes back home to the United States, only to be harassed by the local police and later fighting for his life.

In Morrell’s novel, John Rambo dies at the end, and that’s the way Michael Kozoll and William Sacheim‘s script went as well, but Stallone vehemently disagreed with that outcome. In an interview with CBS Mornings, Stallone explained that Colonel Trautman (Richard Crenna) was supposed to shoot and kill Rambo. He told the director, “That’s not the message I want to send here.” Ted Kotcheff got angry and destroyed the set, leading to Stallone walking out, and although he was later sued, in the end he got his way.

James Cameron Wrote the Original Script for ‘Rambo: First Blood Part II’

If John Rambo had died in First Blood, Sylvester Stallone’s career would have been wildly altered, as the success of the film (it grossed $47 million domestically in 1982 on a $15 million budget) led to a five-film franchise that was still going in 2019, with another film, now starring Noah Centineo in the role, announced in the summer of 2025. The most successful entry in the series by far was 1985’s Rambo: First Blood Part II, which grossed a whopping $150 million domestically, making it the third-biggest release of the year.

Sylvester Stallone ready for action as Rambo in Rambo: First Blood Part II

Rambo’s Second Adventure Almost Co-Starred This Iconic and Electric ‘70s Figure

John Travolta was nearly Sylvester Stallone’s expendable sidekick in Rambo: First Blood Part II.

This time, George P. Cosmatos was hired to direct, with Stallone and Richard Crenna both returning as the leads. However, instead of two writers tasked with writing the script, the job went to only one man, a burgeoning filmmaker named James Cameron. In a 1991 interview with Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times, Cameron didn’t speak fondly of his experience with Rambo: First Blood Part II, saying that he did it for the money. Although it put production company Carolco on the map, and he was happy the film was such a major success, Cameron added, “I always have to distance myself from it because it’s not the film I wrote – it was substantially rewritten by Sylvester Stallone.”

Stallone Made Significant Changes to Cameron’s Story

Sylvester Stallone's Rambo crouching in the jungle in First Blood Part 2 — Sylvester Stallone in Rambo

James Cameron clarified what he meant, telling the interviewer:

“The script that I wrote was pretty violent, but not in such an amoral way. I wasn’t really vocal about it at the time and, actually, it’s even dumber for me to be vocal about it now, because I’m doing these movies with Carolco. I’m not going to turn around and bite the hand that feeds me.”

In fact, Cameron only met Stallone one time for lunch to talk about the script. There, the actor had one suggestion for the screenwriter: “He said, ‘I think you should put a girl in it.'”

In 1982’s First Blood, John Rambo is a reluctant, traumatized hero who only wants to be left alone. He actually doesn’t kill a single soul. That changed in Rambo: First Blood Part II, where he kills dozens and holds a rocket launcher on the poster. Cameron’s original script, titled First Blood II: The Mission, had the violence and deaths, but it was more of a character study like the initial film. In his original story, Rambo would have been hospitalized in the psychiatric wing of a veteran’s hospital, further exploring the trauma he’d been through. That was stripped away in Stallone’s rewrite, which put the hero in a prison labor camp and removed what could have been a compelling characterization about Rambo’s mental health. There would also have been more in-depth backstories for the POWs Rambo saves, making the audience care about them more, but that was removed as well to keep the focus on Rambo and the simple action.

In a 1986 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Cameron said he chose to write First Blood: Part II because of Rambo’s underdog story. He envisioned a more serious, character-driven film. Alas, what we got was a shoot ’em up, mindless action flick, but when Cameron ran into Stallone after the movie came out, he said the lead actor told him he wished they’d used his original script. It all turned out for the best though, because Cameron took his scrapped ideas and repurposed them for his next blockbuster movie. “I used a bit of it in Aliens, having them come back from something they were traumatized by. There was a bit of that delayed stress syndrome stuff in Aliens they didn’t use in Rambo II.” No offense to Rambo: First Blood Part II, but it’s not remembered today as a great movie. Meanwhile, Aliens is one of the smartest action movies ever made.

Rambo: First Blood Part II is currently streaming on Prime.