What are the charges against John Rambo by the end of First Blood (1982)?
In the movie First Blood, Vietnam veteran John Rambo is arrested on trumped-up charges of vagrancy and resisting arrest. By the end of the movie he has clearly committed a large number of crimes including actually resisting arrest, assault of several police officers, arson (terrorism?), vandalism, theft of several vehicles, theft of several guns, etc. The audience is never told the charges or possible sentence that Rambo is facing by the end of the movie. Instead the movie ends abruptly on a freeze-frame as he's walking out of the police station in handcuffs.
If we ignore the charges that lead to his initial arrest, what charges would John Rambo be facing when he surrendered to the police at the end of the movie? Bonus question (might be better for the Law community): what kind of sentence would he be looking at for those charges?
The reason I'm curious is because I've heard people say, "He didn't actually kill anyone, so he probably wasn't given a life sentence." This seems a little silly to me: just because he didn't kill anyone doesn't mean he isn't going to prison for a very long time. The sum total of his charges could easily add up to an equivalent life sentence.
Best Answer
Since it all started with brutal police abuse of a decorated war hero, that would tend to make what might happen a not-straightforward assessment. Local authorities might not want to further highlight the actions (which could lead to them losing their positions or even facing charges, themselves) leading up to the more spectacular events, and any good defense attorney would make a huge deal out of it to leverage a plea bargain, at the very least.
As far as the officer in the helicopter (mentioned in another answer), there are no witnesses to what happened. Rambo's defense would be "how would I take down a helicopter, in flight, with my bare hands?" A destroyed helicopter would not have damage indicative of a thrown rock ("look, rock damage" "well, it did plunge from hundreds of feet in the air into the rocks"). So that would not even have charges, unless he confessed somehow.
I think the implication was that the US military ushered him away, claiming jurisdiction of some kind, out of the control of local authorities who would be the ones who would file charges.
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What happened at the end of first blood?
Rambo dies, satisfied that he has come to a fitting end. Trautman returns to the dying Teasle and tells him that he managed to finish off Rambo with a shotgun. Teasle relaxes, experiences a moment of affection for Rambo, and then dies.Why did Rambo turn around?
Now cornered, Rambo rages about the horrors of war before collapsing in tears and talking about his traumatic experiences: watching his friends die in Vietnam, being unable to hold a job due to his PTSD, the cruel treatment he received from his fellow Americans when he came home, and being forgotten by the country that ...Rambo First Blood (1982) Alternative Ending
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Answer 2
He did killed one police officer, that guy that was shooting at him from the chopper. Rambo throws the rock at chopper and causes the guy to fall down. He will surely charged with murder, probably not the first degree and he may defend with self-defence, that will surely be the heaviest charge against him. The cop was an a***ole and was shooting to kill instead to stop Rambo, but legaly probably was allowed to use firearms since Rambo was running after being arrested. It is not likely Rambo would walk free for that regardless of being shot at when he threw the rock.
Right after that charge are mutlipe heavy injuries caused on police officers. Regardless how cops are treating him, he is not allowed to fight, escape and esppecially not to phyisically hurt them nor anyone else for that matter. He would surely be guilty on multiple accounts. And assault in police station may be separate charge from physically hurting people in the woods.
Not sure about dogs though. Are they considered police property? Can some animal rights sue him regardless of them being police dogs? Someone else would have to clarify.
After those you have probably tons of charges you mentioned yourself, falling under different laws depending on was the deed against civil, police or army personel and property.
Answer 3
If you're talking about the movie, the only charges Rambo faced were multiple Destruction of Property charges. The rest was considered self-defense due to the sadistic actions of the officers, particularly Art Galt.
In the book, Art Galt was gutted by Rambo during the scene when he was being shaved by Teasle. Actually, the Art Galt of the book was more like the character of Mitch in the movie than he was like the Art Galt character in the movie.
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