Rocky III (1982)

Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Mr. T, Carl Weathers, Talia Shire, Burt Young, Burgess Meredith, Hulk Hogan, and Tony Burton with a cameo from Frank Stallone
Grade: Classic

Sylvester Stallone, Mr. T, Hulk Hogan, and Carl Weathers? You cannot find a movie that honors the 1980s better than this.

Summary

To remind audiences of what happened previously, the final moments of Rocky II are replayed, with Rocky Balboa (Stallone) falling to the canvas after nailing Apollo Creed (Weathers) with a haymaker that drops him. The two exhausted boxers both try to get up before the 10 count, with Creed’s trainer Duke (Burton) yelling for Creed and Mickey (Meredith) yelling for Rocky. At the same time, Rocky’s wife Adrian (Shire) and her brother and Rocky’s best friend Paulie (Young) scream at the TV for Rocky to get up. In the end, Rocky beats the 10 count and Apollo falls. Rocky becomes the world champion in the upset of the century and shouts out Adrian in his speech following Apollo handing him the title and showing him respect.

To show where we’re at in the current day, we get a montage of Rocky’s successful title defenses as he hasn’t lost since beating Apollo for the title. Attending a lot of his fights and rising in the ranks himself is the vicious southpaw Clubber Lang (T). Still, Rocky is on top of the world. He’s the most recognizable face in boxing, he’s doing commercials, charity events, he’s rich, and he even appeared on The Muppet Show, the real barometer of success. Clubber Lang is on the come-up however, and even Mickey takes notice as he goes and scouts him for a couple of fights. At the end of Lang getting another knockout win, he points out Mickey in the crowd directly, telling him that he wants a fight with Rocky and how nobody can stop him. At a bar, Paulie watches Lang being interviewed on TV where he talks about how Rocky can’t duck him forever. Going back to the main anchor on the news program, it is said that Rocky has successfully completed a 10th title defense and will take on the worlds heavyweight professional wrestling champion Thunderlips (Hogan) in a charity benefit match for a local youth foundation. Nevertheless, Lang is officially the number one contender for Rocky’s title. Paulie gets up to leave the bar, and the bartender tells Paulie to give Rocky his best. An annoyed and drunken Paulie points out how he’s been coming there for years, and the bartender should give him his best for once. After seeing the Rocky poster on the wall before he leaves, and another bar patron telling Paulie to greet Rocky for him, Paulie goes to an arcade. Still sipping on the bottle that he has in his jacket, he becomes enraged at the sight of a Rocky pinball machine and throws the bottle at it, shattering the glass of the machine. Following this, a suit-wearing Rocky has to bail Paulie out from jail. Paulie is quick to let Rocky know he doesn’t owe him anything, and Rocky doesn’t fight it. Paulie rambles how he used to be tight with Adrian until Rocky came into the picture. Rocky lets him know that Adrian doesn’t know about this jail incident, but the ungrateful Paulie tells him they can go to hell.

Rocky tells him to watch his mouth, so Paulie invites a confrontation.

Rocky tries to get him to knock off the crazy talk, but Paulie gets mad over all the stuff Rocky has done for himself and not Paulie. He complains that he hasn’t even gotten a job from him, as Paulie clearly forgot about how Rocky got him one with Gazzo in Rocky II. According to Paulie, all he got was an Ex-Lax watch he doesn’t care about. With this, Paulie throws his watch on the ground. Rocky goes to pick it up, but Paulie kicks it further while telling him to leave it. He goes on about how Rocky used to get laughed at back in the day and how he would defend him. Rocky is quick to point out they were both being laughed at, but Paulie refuses to believe this saying, “No one laughed at me!”. He tries to take credit for fixing up Rocky with his first woman, but Rocky points out how she was pregnant. Paulie doesn’t care, adding that Rocky wasn’t a prize either. To Paulie, he thinks he’s the only giving one in their friendship, bringing up how when Rocky bought a new house, he brought in Mickey but didn’t ask Paulie to move in. He questions if there is something wrong with him and talks about how he has feelings too. Rocky counters with the fact that everyone has them. Paulie rudely responds, “To hell with everybody!”, prompting Rocky to suggest, “No, maybe it’s to hell with you“. Paulie doesn’t want to hear it, but Rocky continues. He lets him know that nobody owes him anything, including a living. It’s all up to Paulie, but he doesn’t see it that way. He legitimately thinks friends automatically owe each other, so Rocky has to give him a reality check. Friends only do stuff because they want to. Paulie accuses Rocky of keeping him down, and Rocky can’t believe it. He sees Paulie like a crazy brother, so he’s cool in being honest with him. He’s not down, and he’s not a loser, but he does tell Paulie that he’s a jealous, lazy, bum. Paulie tries punching Rocky, and Rocky plays defense and doesn’t hit back. Once Paulie tires out, he asks Rocky for a job. Calming down and almost chuckling, Rocky says all he had to do was ask. He compliments Paulie’s punches on the way to the car, which Paulie appreciates.

Paulie then compliments Rocky’s expensive car, only to ask if he has another one.

Back at the Balboa home, which is now a family mansion, Adrian asks Rocky if he had any trouble with Paulie, but Rocky chalks it up to “nothing unusual” while they lay in bed. Adrian changes the subject to ask if he’s really going to fight the big wrestler in Thunderlips, but Rocky thinks it will be fun. He then sings to her and has her sing the background vocals of “Take You Back” until he forgets the rest of the lyrics, resulting in them getting intimate. Sometime after, Rocky is at the charity benefit to fight Thunderlips. Already, Mickey doesn’t like this because he knows how big wrestlers are and the damage they can inflict. Rocky is still in a playful mood however and doesn’t think this is a big deal. Then, Thunderlips makes his entrance. Paulie asks why they are carrying him, but Mickey explains that he’s just walking. It’s just how big of a man he is. Mickey wants to call it off, but Rocky insists since it’s for charity. Announced at nearly 7’0” and 390 pounds stands “The Ultimate Object of Desire” and “The Mountain of Molten Lust” Thunderlips, and he’s already talking trash to Rocky. Adrian is in the Rocky-slanted crowd, and she’s worried. Rocky jokingly asks Mickey how much he thinks Thunderlips eats to which Mickey replies, “About 202 lbs” just as the announcer announces Rocky at that weight. It is then shown that Clubber Lang is in the crowd too, and he’s not pleased with the crowd cheering for Rocky. Rocky and Thunderlips meet in the center of the ring, and the ref reminds them to take it easy since this is for fun and to give the crowd a good show. With this, Rocky asks to get a picture with Thunderlips after the match. Thunderlips doesn’t acknowledge his comment, tells Rocky he’s in trouble, and pushes him back a few feet with one hand. Rocky laughs it off, and Mickey reminds him this is entertainment, so he wants him to make faces and move around the ring. Rocky does a quick prayer before the bell. As soon as it rings, Thunderlips runs at him while he is at the post, prompting Rocky to move away at just the last second. Rocky gives him credit for how fast he moves and tries to talk him through how they are going to entertain the crowd, throwing some pulled punches to make it look real. However, Thunderlips ignores all of this and knocks him to the ground with an arm to Rocky’s back.

Then, Thunderlips starts whooping his ass, turning the whole thing into a real professional wrestling match, complete with punches, suplexes, a hip toss, an elbow drop, and the leg drop. Finally, he picks Rocky up and throws him into fifth row in the crowd. The crowd starts throwing garbage in the ring, and Thunderlips attacks the referee. As Mickey starts to have legitimate issues with his heart, Thunderlips starts throwing security guards off the ring apron. As the ring girls that came with Thunderlips start attacking people in the crowd along with Thunderlips himself, Rocky has Paulie pull out a knife to cut his gloves off. Next, Rocky runs back into the ring, bypassing Mickey who tries to stop him. Now, Rocky invites Thunderlips back into the ring. Rocky starts hitting him with real body shots, so Thunderlips chokes him into the air. Paulie gets in the ring and breaks a wooden chair over Thunderlips’s back, but he no-sells it while dropping Rocky and turning to Paulie. Paulie is down to fight, but Thunderlips punches him out quickly. Rocky jumps on Thunderlips’s back and locks him in a chokehold. He gets Thunderlips down, wails on him with a series of punches, picks him up, and lifts him over the top rope and into the crowd. Clubber Lang leaves the match in anger. Thunderlips gets back into the ring ready to go, but the bell is rung and the match is deemed a draw while the two are separated. After the match, Thunderlips is cool and tells him it was a great match, prompting Rocky to question why he got so crazy on him. Thunderlips simply responds, “That’s the name of the game”. Now that they’re cool, he agrees to take the photo with Rocky, Adrian, and Rocky Jr., and Rocky jokes to Thunderlips that sometimes charity hurts, garnering a chuckle out of Thunderlips. Despite the craziness of the attraction match, they raise $75,000 for a youth club charity, so it was all worth it. Sometime later at home, Rocky rides a golf cart around while telling Rocky Jr. the story of Pinocchio and how his nose would grow when he told a lie, prompting Rocky Jr. to ask why his ears didn’t grow, which gets a laugh out of Rocky who notes how he didn’t write the story. He is happy to hear that Rocky isn’t fighting today however because he likes it when Rocky is there, which is something every dad likes to hear.

He takes Rocky Jr. inside for breakfast and talks about Goldilocks and Three Bears. When Rocky Jr. asks what happened to Goldilocks, Paulie jokes that she got busted for trespassing and got 30 days. Just then, they are interrupted by Adrian and Mickey who are there to go with him to a ceremony. Rocky leaves Paulie with his son but reminds Paulie to not take him to the track. Following this, Rocky, Adrian, and Mickey are present for the huge ceremony outside of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Because of Rocky’s accomplishments and his continued charity work for Philadelphia, they unveil this memorial to represent the “indomitable spirit of man”, a larger-than-life statue of Rocky with his arms raised. It’s sight overwhelms Rocky. In his speech, he goes on about how he appreciates the city and the sport itself, but he uses this moment to bring up his discissions with Adrian and Mickey. He is going to retire from boxing. The crowd is not receptive of this news in the slightest. Suddenly, Lang appears in the crowd and walks his way near the front, demanding his title shot. Mickey tells him to leave, but Lang tells him to shut up. He calls Rocky a puppet champion and Rocky notes Lang’s big mouth, prompting Lang to invite him over to fight on the spot. Rocky moves forward but Adrian holds him back. Lang shouts to the crowd how he’s ranked number one, how Rocky has only faced bum challengers, and he’s willing to fight Rocky anytime and anywhere for nothing. He says Rocky only fights set-ups, so Mickey calls Lang a disgrace to the sport. Lang again tells him to shut his mouth and demands a fight if Rocky isn’t a coward. Rocky is about to agree to it, but Mickey refuses aloud. He even says that he doesn’t care what Lang’s rank is. Rocky talks quietly with Mickey and questions what he’s doing because he’s down to fight Lang. Mickey says it’s fine if he wants the fight, but he will do it without Mickey. Mickey storms off because he doesn’t want any more of this, leaving Rocky bewildered. Lang then turns his attention to Adrian and talks about how she needs a real man in her life and probably dreams about it, inviting her to his apartment so he can show her a “real man”.

An enraged Rocky storms over and tells him he has the fight while trying to get at Lang, and the two have to be separated.

Following this, Rocky gets home and goes straight to Mickey’s room where he’s packing up his things to leave. Rocky says they have one more fight, but Mickey tells him that he has one more fight, not the both of them. Rocky stops him from packing and demands Mickey tell him why he’s doing this. Finally, Mickey admits that Rocky can’t win this one. He foresees Lang killing him in three rounds, referring to him as a “wrecking machine” who’s hungry. He doesn’t think Rocky has been hungry like that since he won the belt from Apollo all those years back. Rocky points out how he’s had 10 title defenses, but Mickey aggressively admits it was all easy because they were hand-picked. They weren’t set-ups per say, but they weren’t killers like Lang. Lang is someone who will knock him into tomorrow. Saddened, Rocky sits down, wanting to know why Mickey did it. Mickey calms down and admits that the beating from Apollo should have killed him, but it didn’t. It was Mickey’s job to keep Rocky winning and to keep him healthy. Rocky somberly asks Mickey if he really thinks he doesn’t have anything left. Sitting next to him, Mickey gives credit to the Rocky of three years ago, saying he was supernatural. He was hard, nasty, and had a cast-iron jaw, but then the worst thing happened to him that could happen to any fighter. He got civilized. This is why he should retire. However, Rocky can’t retire now that he knows all of this. Mickey implores him not to push it, but Rocky knows Mickey has been carrying him. Mickey doesn’t see it as carrying but rather protecting him. Still, Rocky wants this last fight, promising to live in the gym. Mickey persists and tells him they don’t need it, but Rocky says he needs it. He wants Mickey to train him one last time and jokes that if he doesn’t, he’ll tell everyone Mickey hasn’t bought a new pair of underwear in 10 years. An emotional Mickey chuckles and reluctantly accepts, adding “It’s your head, kid. It’s your head”. Following this, Rocky holds a public workout as a publicity thing. They’re selling Rocky-related merchandise, there is live music (where we see a cameo from Frank Stallone), there are decorations, photographers and everything else you could imagine, with plenty of fans there to gawk at things and purchase items.

Rocky is lightly training while photographers take pictures and the constant flashes become obnoxious for a traditional trainer like Mickey who is stressing advice and strategy to Rocky about how he can’t stand toe-to-toe with Lang because of his strength and toughness. Mickey is incensed over training in a spectacle like this, but Rocky is playful about it and talks about how they should go out in style. This pisses off Mickey who tells him that if he wants to go out in style, he needs to go out in one piece. He wants to go back to the old gym. He wants blood, sweat, and tears, but Rocky tells him to just relax. He poses for some pictures and mentions to Mickey how the people love it. Meanwhile, Lang is in his own gym training furiously by himself. This is juxtaposed with Rocky doing a leg workout and letting a fan kiss him on the cheek mid-set. Adrian sees this from afar and walks away, and Mickey is even more pissed off than her. Lang isn’t going to kiss him. He’s going to kill him! Rocky jokes by trying to kiss Mickey on the cheek, but he doesn’t find it funny. This back-and-forth between their workouts are continuously shown. Lang is hitting the heavy bag hard, Rocky hits the speed bag but stops to pose for a picture, Lang does some rapid crunches, Rocky jumps rope near the live band, and Lang does pullups. Towards the end, it looks slightly better for Rocky as he pulls a bike Mickey is on with a rope attached to him while he runs, and Lang shadow boxes the mirror. Later, Rocky spars, and Mickey has to quiet the band from playing the Rocky theme music in the background. He coaches Rocky to pull his front punches and then ends the session on a good note. Rocky makes sure his sparring partner is okay before going over to Mickey. In a private moment between them, Mickey tells him that he’s not one to get emotional or talk about these sorts of things out loud, but he does reveal to Rocky that he’s proud of him, which Rocky appreciates. They end the workout and joke about what they’re going to do after all it’s over, with Mickey joking about the possibility of joining the circus.

It’s time for the fight!

It’s described by the commentators as Rocky’s final and possibly most difficult title defense. In a pre-match interview, Rocky confirms he feels like he’s in the best shape of his career. At the same time, Lang is being questioned by reporters, but he refuses to talk on account of doing his talking in the ring. They continue, but he demands to be left alone. With Rocky, he confirms this will be his last fight. When asked what he will do after, he jokes to Mickey that they might join the circus, though Mickey adds they will “just have some fun”. With Lang, they ask him to take his robe off for some reason, and he gets enraged. He punches a locker, heads over to the reporters, and smashes two cameras in anger. Meanwhile, Apollo Creed is brought to commentary and asked his opinion on how he sees the fight. Apollo gives the strength advantage to Lang “while experience and the world’s hardest head would have to go to Rocky Balboa”. In the locker room, Mickey reminds Rocky of the gameplan. Don’t trade with Lang. Take your time and wear him down, but don’t stand toe-to-toe with him. He’s never gone 15 rounds before. Rocky is ready. Back with Apollo, he predicts Rocky is going to win the fight. The commentator asks if Rocky can really hit that hard, so Apollo rhetorically asks as a joke, “Why do you think I’m sitting out here with you?”. In the locker room, Rocky makes his way out with his team and the place is so small that Lang exits his locker room at the same time. Immediately, he starts trash talking Rocky about how washed up he is and how he considers himself the baddest in the world. They get into a scuffle and have to be separated before they get too close. Mickey is caught in the middle of it, and Lang pushes him out of the way. He is sent directly into the wall and falls, clutching his heart. Lang is pulled away, and Rocky and Adrian rush Mickey back into the locker room while calling aloud for a doctor. Rocky rushes everyone out of the room and tells Paulie to call off the fight, but a clearly sick Mickey tells him the fight is on. He just needs to catch his breath.

Rocky doesn’t want to fight under these conditions because there’s too much to worry about now, but Mickey tells him to take Lang and get this all over with. Rocky looks at Adrian and asks what he’s supposed to do. Mickey grabs Rocky and questions how he doesn’t know what to do after all these years together. He tells Rocky he should be ashamed of himself and to go out there and do it. He encourages him further saying “You’re the best”. Rocky is somewhat inspired and agrees to go out there, with Paulie leading him out. Immediately, Mickey loses the energy he had and lies on the table with Adrian next to him. A distraught Rocky pokes his head back in and tells Adrian to take care of Mickey. After this, both fighters are in the ring, and Apollo is brought in to greet the both of them. He goes to Lang first, but Lang pushes his hands away unprompted. He calls Apollo a has-been and threatens to beat his ass right there. A stunned Apollo tries to ignore him and goes over to greet Rocky while Lang calls Apollo a chicken. Apollo tells Rocky to give everyone a present by dropping Lang. He even wishes Rocky good luck. During Lang’s introduction, Rocky wonders to Paulie how Mickey is doing, as his head clearly isn’t in the fight. Apollo sits back down with commentary, and they note how he exchanged words with Lang and if he has any comments. Apollo simply responds, “No comment”. Rocky and Lang meet in the middle for the referee to talk with them. They stare at each other without flinching, but there is worry in Rocky’s expression. Once the ref is done talking, Lang states to Rocky, “Dead meat”. Lang goes back to his corner and notes how Rocky is scared. He saw the look in his eye and knows it. Rocky goes back to his corner and Paulie lets him know that he’s no trainer, so he just tells Rocky to go out there and kill him. The bell rings, and Rocky comes out hard swinging. He connects on every punch and looks great to start. Then, Clubber comes back strong, and the two trade bombs. Towards the end of the round, Lang does some damage and hits hard enough at the bell where Rocky has to be helped back to his corner to catch his bearings.

Apollo, who was clearly rooting for Rocky during the action of the first round, looks noticeably down seeing Rocky end the round like that. Rocky is sat in his corner, and he worryingly asks for Mickey because he needs him. At the same time, Lang yells how Rocky is nothing while looking fresh in his corner. Realizing what he’s up against and sporting a swollen right eye, Rocky admits to Paulie that Lang is too strong, he can’t keep him off, and he’s losing it. Again, he asks for Mickey. Unbeknownst to him, Mickey is dying in the locker room, and the medical team has to administer CPR as a last-ditch effort. The second round begins, and Lang goes in on him. As Paulie tries to remind Rocky not to stand toe-to-toe with Lang, it falls on deaf ears and Lang destroys him with a series of right crosses and a devastating knockout punch. Apollo even yells for Rocky to get up, and he does try. Unfortunately, he can’t make the 10 count. In one of the biggest upsets since Rocky beat Apollo, Clubber Lang beats Rocky and becomes the heavyweight champion of the world. Meanwhile, Mickey is in dire straits. Wounded emotionally and physically, Rocky goes right back to the locker room to check on Mickey, and Adrian says Mickey wouldn’t let them take him to a hospital. Rocky goes over to Mickey, who is talking at a whisper and asks what happened. Rocky says it ended by knockout in the second round, and Mickey smiles knowing he was right. Even so, they did it. Rocky says it’s over. He assures Mickey he doesn’t have anything to worry about and it’s all going to be okay. Rocky pleads with him to go to the hospital as a tear comes down from Mickey’s face, but Mickey goes on about how they did everything right. An emotional Rocky tries to tell him they have more to do and how they can do whatever he wants to do, but Mickey ignores it. He just calmly states, “I love ya, kid. I love ya”. The last thing heard out of his mouth is, “It hurts”. Seconds later, Mickey passes away.

Rocky has now suffered two of the most devastating losses of his professional and personal life, his title on his retirement night and his trainer and closest friend. The only thing that can make Rocky feel whole again is vengeance.

My Thoughts:

Rocky III may not be the critical darling the first movie is nor is it as written as well as Rocky II, but the third film in Sylvester Stallone’s saga is an enduring spectacle that is pure entertainment, becoming one of the most beloved entries of the entire franchise. Along with the iconic Rocky IV, this sequel is everything we loved about the 1980s. Stallone at his peak playing one of the greatest movie heroes of all time, Mr. T becoming an overnight sensation as one of the greatest one-off villains ever, Hulk Hogan just before he rocketed to worldwide stardom, one of the best examples of the decade’s obsession with working out and bodybuilding culture, and a soundtrack that would live on for generations, Rocky III is unadulterated, mainstream cinematic fun, the prototypical blockbuster.

This is a very different Rocky Balboa this time around. Progressing the story logically like a fine-tuned chapter book, we open Rocky III to see that the protagonist’s days on the streets as a slower, forgotten, journeyman boxer struggling in life is long gone. Instead of his traditional hood-wear of a leather jacket, fingerless gloves, and fedora, Rocky dresses the part of a world champion. If he’s not wearing an expensive suit, he’s looking like a clean-cut family man. In addition, his speech and grammar have improved to where he’s the most professional that he has ever looked. Being at the top of his profession, a lot of responsibilities and opportunities are thrown Rocky’s way. There are charity functions, commercials, and TV appearances that fill up the champion’s schedule, and Rocky has answered the call. It may seem like a detachment in characterization from the previous two films, but it’s actually not. Rocky’s remarkable improvement in his speech and the professional way he carries himself is a callback to how he was ridiculed in Rocky II for his failure to read those cue cards in his first ever commercials. He dropped out in 9th Grade and didn’t read much, which led him to speaking in the memorable and often imitated way he does. Once he was insulted in that second film however, he started reading and even wrote poetry for Adrian at some point. Now, he’s trying out new phrases like telling Paulie not to get “irregular” in an effort to sound more intelligent. Where he is at to begin Rocky III shows the considerable improvement and dedication he’s had in that department, as he has fully embraced the role of a regular public figure and face of boxing after Apollo Creed retired. In this film, he has become the confident and beloved world-famous Rocky Balboa, with the screenplay for Rocky III seemingly mirroring Stallone’s own career at the time. In 1976, Stallone was a struggling actor and screenwriter, and the character arc of Rocky paralleled that of Stallone’s humble beginnings and eventual triumph. At the time of the release of the franchise’s third entry in 1982, Stallone was one of the biggest box office stars in Hollywood, just as Rocky is the dominant world champion. Paralleling the star actor’s real life, Rocky is untouchable at this stage of his career, and he’s feeling himself.

Ever since he defeated Apollo Creed in Rocky II, Rocky hasn’t lost, racking up 10 straight title defenses. He’s at his peak in popularity, earnings, and dominance in the sport, and he’s looking to close out his career for good this time around. It’s not like before. This time, he’s serious. He’s been hugely successful, is the undisputed king of boxing by a wide margin, he’s one of the most popular celebrities in the country, and he’s so far removed from his days of barely scraping by that he’s put it behind him. He’s got a mansion and everything his family could possibly need. Rocky has nothing else to prove because he’s achieved it all. It’s time to go out on top. Unfortunately, just as things looked to be perfect in his life, the cracks begin to show, as the new dog inevitably enters his yard. At the same time Rocky is winding down his career, loudmouth challenger Clubber Lang starts getting a lot of attention rising the ranks of the sport. Taking a page out of the Apollo Creed handbook, Lang does what any top boxer would do, publicly calling out the champion in Rocky for his title shot. Knocking people out left and right to achieve number one contendership status, Lang is looking like a monster in the ring, and he makes sure to let the world know every chance he gets, along with Rocky. However, it’s not showmanship trash talk to try and get a huge payday like it would be for someone like Apollo. Lang means every word he says. On the night of the rematch, he dictates that he doesn’t need a strategy. Though his workouts were fueled by rage just like before, Clubber details how predictable and stupid Rocky fights by coming straight ahead. He knows Rocky is tailor made for him and practically enjoys telling the interviewer how Rocky is going to get hurt or remarking like a comic book villain that his prediction for the fight is one word: “Pain”. When he’s interviewed about the rematch, he answers quickly and efficiently that he hopes it’s soon. He’s no Churchill with it either stating firmly, “I can’t be beat and I won’t be beat and I’m gonna train even harder!”. Even though he nearly looks as if he’s reading off a cue card at one point, he tells the reporter how “There won’t be no quick knockdowns. I’m gonna torture him. I’m gonna crucify him – real bad”.

Of course, in the pre-match interview before the climactic rematch, one line Lang delivers ends up defining the rest of Mr. T’s career and will surely follow him to the grave. He is asked if he hates Rocky. With how personal this got because of Lang’s actions and public statements, it’s a fair question. Surprisingly, he states, “No I don’t hate Balboa, but I pity the fool, and I will destroy any man who tries to take what I got”. That’s the headspace of one Clubber Lang. He’s anger, intensity, and unfiltered rage personified, and it makes the Chicagoan the hungriest challenger the heavyweight division has seen since Rocky himself. However, it’s not his heart that people have to worry about. It’s his constant, one-note, rampage mode that he lives in at all times, fueling him in his fights and training. It practically turns Lang into a supervillain, instilling fear in everyone. Hell, he even defeats the superhero in Rocky, and it leads Rocky into a dark place, a place we have never seen him in before. When Apollo approaches Rocky with the offer to train him, he wants Rocky to win more than Rocky does himself. Apollo loves the sport too much and has too much self-respect for someone like Lang to run amok and talk shit to everyone. He knows the duties a true professional carries and Lang is not that, which is why he knows with Rocky’s heart, strength, power, and iron jaw, combined with all of the new skills Apollo can teach him, they can beat Lang together. Even so, Rocky is at his lowest. He took the biggest ass kicking of his life and his mentor and best friend in Mickey (fuck Paulie) died in the span of like 20 minutes. He doesn’t know what to do with himself after that fateful night, and it’s hard to blame him. He should be living a happy retirement with his family like he planned, but dealing with the public humiliation on what should have been a celebratory night and then a death of the person who helped him become a future Hall of Famer is a hell no one would want to live in. He sees that statue of himself, a symbol of pride and overcoming the odds, and he can’t stand the sight of it. He’s ashamed of his failure. He feels like he let the city, Mickey, and his family down, along with himself.

Throwing his helmet at the statue while he sits on his motorcycle, Rocky shows why this is a failure he cannot get over. Even when Apollo finds him at Mighty Micky’s after hours and Apollo excitingly talks about how he can teach Rocky, how he can make some big money by promoting the rematch, and can make it even bigger than their fight in Rocky II, Rocky is too dejected. He talks openly about how he doesn’t need nor want this anymore, but Apollo can relate as a fighter and a competitor at the highest level. When Rocky beat him, he hurt all over and didn’t want to hear from anyone, “Not even my kids”. He lets Rocky know that a fighter taking such a loss can get sick inside trying to live with it. The advice of having to make it right or being sorry that he didn’t is on point. Knowing the secretly sensitive person Rocky is at heart, he wouldn’t be able to get over something like this. Being a fighter, it’s instilled in him to fight back. For him to call it quits after such a colossal loss would be devastating to his psyche and personal life. It’s not until Rocky struggles in learning from Apollo in Los Angeles to where we find out the real problem Rocky is having. It’s what has been holding him back. It’s something every man refuses to admit in the face of a threat or danger, as we are taught to be the leader for our loved ones from a young age. It’s something difficult to admit because we try our best every day to put on a brave face in an effort to instill confidence in those around us. On that beach in LA, Apollo and Rocky race in a sprint, with both of them wearing socks and shoes for some reason (Is this standard? It can’t be, right?). In slow-motion, Rocky struggles and visions flash in his mind of losing to Lang, the disheartening words from Mickey commenting “You can’t win Rock. Hell, you haven’t been hungry since you won that belt” and “He’ll knock you into tomorrow, Rock!”, the image of Mickey’s casket being stored, and Rocky falling to the canvas face-first in that fight. He stops right there, mid-race. He can’t get his mind right and doesn’t even look in Apollo’s direction when he angrily asks what’s wrong with him.

Adrian knows Rocky the best and seeing her husband in this state, she knows it’s more than what he’s been leading on about. While the others wait aside, Adrian goes over privately to Rocky with the ocean behind them and wants her husband to at least tell the truth to her about why he came here. If it’s over because Rocky wants it to be over like he says, she’s glad. Rocky doubles down with a quick response of “I do” with this in mind, but Adrian can’t take it at face value anymore like she did in the previous two movies by just letting Rocky talk himself into oblivion. They have come too far as a couple and love each other too much for Adrian to not intervene in a serious matter. She sees Rocky at his most vulnerable and hears his words, but she knows he’s not telling her what is truly bothering him. He’s never quit anything since she’s known him, so she’s not buying what he’s saying. Rocky begins to let her in a bit, emotionally talking about how he wrecked everything by not thinking for himself and questions why Mickey wasn’t honest with him with where he was at, as it led him to thinking he was better than what he was. It led to Rocky feeling too comfortable going into the Lang fight and basically Mickey dying. Now, he doesn’t know who he is anymore. He breaks down talking about how he never fought anyone in their prime and how there was always some angle to hold onto the title longer than he should have. Truthfully, that weighs on a fighter who considers the sport their life because this revelation makes it feel like all of their accomplishments aren’t earned. That hurts. If he didn’t hold the title as long, it wouldn’t have mattered to him because he wanted it to be real. The ride-or-die Adrian counters with how it was still real, but the confidence-shot Rocky shouts, “Nothing is real if you don’t believe in who you are! I don’t believe in myself no more! Don’t you understand? When a fighter don’t believe, that’s it! He’s finished! It’s over. That’s it”. Nevertheless, that’s not it. What is the truth? He tries to say that he feels like he will lose what he has and it was different when he was by himself, but Adrian knows everything he’s worried about now is replaceable. What is the truth?

“I’m afraid! All right? You wanna hear me say it?! For the first time in my life, I’m afraid”.

Stallone completely breaking down on this beach scene and embodying the broken spirited fighter who has to admit to his wife that he’s scared for the first time in his life is just powerful, and Talia Shire meets him there as the loving wife who gets him to let it out and use it as motivation. This isn’t the old Adrian. If you remember in the first movie when Rocky had his doubts about beating Apollo the night before, she just accepts what he says and asks, “What are we gonna do?” and comments how he worked so hard. However, it shows you how comfortable Adrian is now, how much she loves and understands her husband, and how much she’s evolved since 1976. At his lowest, she’s here to care for him but also pump him up when he needs it most. She’s afraid too but stresses to him that there is nothing wrong with being afraid and how he has no right to feel guilty over what happened because Mickey was a grown man making his own decisions. Rocky was a champion and did exactly what he was tasked in doing. They lined up challengers, he worked his ass off, and he defended that title by knocking them down. Just like Mickey said, they weren’t set-ups at all. They just weren’t someone like Lang. Rocky still had to put in the work and win because any boxer has that puncher’s chance, so his resume isn’t nearly as cloudy as he thinks it is. Still, it doesn’t matter what Adrian believes. Rocky is the one who has to carry that fear inside of him of how he will be remembered. In a sobering moment that any prideful man in the prime of his life may need to hear, she reminds him that when the smoke clears and everyone stops chanting his name, it’s just going to be him and her. Just like Apollo said to him when he first offered to help, Adrian also knows that it will bother Rocky for the rest of his life because “Look what it’s doing to you now!”. They all believe Rocky can do it, but he has to pull this off for the right reasons. He has to do it for himself. Bearing their hearts to each other just when they need it most, Rocky brings up the possibility of losing again, but Adrian is fine with it.

If he loses, he will at least lose with no excuses and no fear. She knows he can live that, and she’s right. It frees our protagonist to embrace the challenge. It’s just like what Apollo later says to him about remembering what happened, remembering what they said about him, and remembering what it took to get back there. Don’t forget it. USE IT! Leave no stone unturned and room for an out. He needs to make sure there are no excuses. This way, he can live or die with the final result because he will at least know he gave it his all. Nevertheless, his embracing of the fear and keeping it inside his head makes him work even harder, forcing him to dig deeper to work on controlling every variable he can before that fight commences. That is when the switch turns on. The frustrations and anger were there, but now, the confidence is fighting internally with the fear, and each subsequent workout helps him climb another rung on the ladder in defeating the fear to where he gets nerves of steel by fight night. It’s the edge that he needed. It’s the hunger he had before, but it’s turned up tenfold to combat the man who previously instilled fear in his heart. Becoming the most complete boxer put to film for that rematch and showing off one of the greatest physiques in the history of cinema to represent the change the character had to go through, Rocky meets Lang in the middle of that ring in the showdown of the century. Matching Lang’s stare and intensity without flinching or blinking, Rocky stands inches away from Lang as if they are the only two people in the arena. Lang is first to comment, “I’m gonna bust you up”. Stallone’s stern delivery of “Go for it” as a response is the goosebump-filled movie moment that has made this franchise the endearing pop culture phenomenon that it is. Rocky signals to the audience with that dead-eye stare and that line that he’s ready for war. Basically, he’s got the eye of the tiger.

To achieve the eye of the tiger that Apollo stresses is needed to defeat Lang, the training regimen needs to be just as good if not better than previous Rocky outings. This isn’t just switching his dominant hand for the fight or fixing his balance with a string tied around his ankles. This is a change in fundamentals. Apollo is known as one of the purest boxers in the history of the sport while Rocky was the hard-hitting brawler with heart. When someone matches his hard hits like Lang with an extra level of hunger not seen before, Rocky has to take a different angle. Going toe-to-toe with Lang for the whole fight won’t work. His fundamentals and real boxing skills need to be improved, which is why Apollo is the perfect teacher for this fight. The workouts Apollo leads him through don’t have to look as strenuous as before, but it needs to show why learning this is so difficult for the flat-footed Rocky. Without a doubt, they accomplish this in spades, with Apollo showing him the importance of being light on his feet, swimming to improve his endurance, bouncing a small ball in succession to improve his reaction time, and focusing on speed, flexibility, quickness, rhythm, and the ever-important cardio. Once again, it lights a fire under you. For Rocky to consume all of this knowledge and adapt this late into his career in an effort to win shows you how complete of a fighter he becomes. It’s also not completely Apollo’s work either. They do have a strategy (“rhythm and power, then jab him!”), but when Rocky’s confidence is at an all-time high during the match, he changes the gameplan midway through because he knows he’s got Lang where he wants him. Rocky’s adaptability might be his greatest attribute as a fighter. Before the rematch, the commentator states, “Balboa doesn’t really have any boxing skills, but I’ve never seen a fighter with as much raw determination…”. However, when looking at all boxing movies and the characters in them, Rocky in Rocky III might very well be the GOAT cinematic boxer. No one is stopping that Rocky in a title match. The eye of the tiger is too strong.

Possessing the eye of the tiger is an unbreakable mentality needed to beat the greatest of fighters. When they go into Apollo’s old gym and they all stare at Rocky, Adrian, and Paulie walking in with Apollo, he tells Rocky to see the look in their eyes. When Apollo fought Rocky, he trained hard, but he didn’t have that look. Rocky had it, and that’s why he won. It’s the eye of the tiger, and he has to get it back. Apollo incessantly reminding him of the term is the film’s calling card, but it’s needed. In their sparring session, the viewer gets frustrated with Rocky just as much as Apollo does. Apollo is taking Lang ultra serious and again, he wants it more than he does (“There is no tomorrow!“). Again, it’s not just the body, it’s the mind that needs to find the eye of the tiger. It’s a phrase that represents the importance of growth and change. This ideal also played a major factor in Rocky II when they worked the right-handed strategy to throw Apollo off, but this change is totally different. To defeat someone like Clubber Lang and all of his strengths, there needs to not only be a change in Rocky’s training but his mindset. You either adapt or die. It’s that simple. There has to be a total change in philosophy, a full evolution as a fighter and as a man. He needs the edge like he had before. He needs that ferocity and a burning desire to take his challenge head-on for all its worth. In doing so, he can channel this energy into the world champion fighter he needs to become to defeat his ultimate test. You can’t just say it and do it. You have to believe in the approach. You need the eye of the tiger in mind, body, and spirit. Only then will Rocky have a chance at pulling this off. Then, Rocky can address his fears head-on and channel it into his training.

On a side note, Apollo is correct in that Rocky lost the first fight with Lang because he lost his edge, but let’s not downplay the emotional toll it would be on literally anyone for their trainer to be on their deathbed minutes before the fight begins and then dying as soon as it’s over. Apollo almost comically throws Mickey’s death to the side as if it was 5% of why Rocky lost stating insensitively, “I know your manager dying had you all messed up inside, but the truth is you didn’t look hungry”. Okay, yeah, he wasn’t hungry but not only did his coach and mentor nearly die, his opponent may have been the reason why he died. No one ever brings up the fact that Lang pushed Mickey into a stone wall and triggered his heart attack with MULTIPLE witnesses there to see it. Yet, the news doesn’t report it, the journalists don’t talk about it, and no one asks Lang about it, even though he could easily be held liable for Mickey’s death! Why they don’t address this at all and Rocky is just referred to as some over-the-hill star who took the loss clean is outrageous! Lang should be answering questions from the police in at least one scene because there’s no way the district attorney in Rocky’s hometown of Philadelphia doesn’t look into this! There was like 30 or more people in that room when Lang did it. Going along with some of these gripes, the news anchors commentating on the announcement for the rematch was insulting. This one guy has the audacity to say that “The odds against Balboa making a comeback at 34 are very long indeed”. Are they? He was just world champion 2 fucking weeks ago and was red hot coming off of 10 title defenses, was he not? A comeback is coming off a layoff period of a year at the least, but the timeline of this movie happens within the year. Actually, the break between Rocky “retiring” after the first Lang fight and the rematch is only so many months. The number isn’t said explicitly, but it’s not long. What the fuck kind of long shot “comeback” was this asshole talking about? Rocky was at the prime of his career and lost one time! Granted, he was still the underdog going into the rematch just because of how the first fight went, but this anchor was talking about Rocky like he was Michael Jordan returning to the NBA to play for the Wizards in 2001 after being retired since 1998!

For those paying attention, save those comments from 2006’s Rocky Balboa.

Clubber Lang is legitimately a threat, and Mickey could see it ahead of time. He scouts Lang during the montage of Lang’s string of clean victories, and he can see how Lang is everything he says he is. Considering Mickey has seen and done it all for over 50 years in boxing, when he tells Rocky that he can’t beat Lang, he means it. The difference maker in Rocky’s two fights against Apollo was that he had that edge. That was the difference maker. Now, Lang possesses the edge as the younger challenger who’s hungrier than any opponent Rocky or even Adonis Creed later face. The edge Lang has over Rocky isn’t heart though. It’s the nastiness, it’s the unbreakable mean streak, and the hunger to be at the top of the boxing world. When one is willing to do anything to be the man, they become dangerous (see Dame Anderson in Creed III for a modern example). It doesn’t stop in interviews. Lang goes out of his way to travel to Rocky’s statue ceremony to goad him into a fight on the spot. He challenges him in person just as Rocky tries to break his retirement news to the local Philadelphia citizens at the ceremony. Considering Lang went to a separate ceremony in another part of the country AND a charity match to see Rocky, the viewer gets the sense of the threat that Lang is. He wants that title and can taste it. He knows Rocky doesn’t have it anymore because he’s too comfortable. It’s the complacency that has fundamentally changed Rocky as a fighter. Due to Mickey’s admitted picking of specific challengers to ensure Rocky’s protection, Rocky’s world is shattered on the eve of his retirement. Did he actually earn it? Did he face the absolute best there was and proved himself as the best boxer in the world? He wasn’t facing tomatoes, but Mickey’s job as a manager was to protect his friend and champion by picking title fights that would extend his reign. Again, they weren’t setups, but they might have not been the best of the best like Apollo Creed was nor Clubber Lang now. Because of this, Rocky lowered himself to the competition without realizing it. Now, he’s second-guessing everything. He always put in the work, but he didn’t challenge himself like he did against Apollo when his life and career was essentially on the line.

Echoing the brutally honest words of Mickey, Rocky hasn’t had that hunger he once had since “SuperFight II”. Just when he was about to call it a career comfortably, Rocky gets this news that his career may have been a lie, or at least that it’s not as authentic as he thought it was, as aforementioned in the beach scene with Adrian. From an athlete’s and competitive person’s perspective, I couldn’t imagine a worse hell. It’s like if Bill Russell found out 9 of his 11 championships were fixed ten years after he retired. He would feel like a fraud. A real competitive athlete wants to prove he or she is the undisputed best by beating the undisputed best and STAYING there until they go out on their own terms. Hearing it wasn’t what they thought it was due to behind-the-scenes meddling would be devastating. If anything, Rocky underplayed how huge this is to where he’s at mentality, especially considering how close he was to never fighting again. Once the idea of retirement starts to creep into the head of a professional athlete and they start to dream about life after the sport, they lose the edge. They think about how great that lifelong vacation will be. Detroit Pistons star Isiah Thomas has talked about how focused he was on the season until his Achilles tear happened. Once he went down and got time to relax and experience such a vacation, he lost the will to come back to the court. He enjoyed it too much. Rocky was straddling this fence. He got a statue, he hasn’t lost since fighting Apollo, and he’s enjoying time at home. It couldn’t be a better time to call it a career, but the challenger publicly calling him out and Rocky getting the news that he’s not the fighter he thought he was because his manager protected him too much has completely thrown him off. If they wanted to really hammer this point home, Rocky would spiral into a depression in the middle of training for the first fight with Clubber Lang, but Stallone’s decision to show how much Rocky has changed due to his status is the perfect setup for what’s to come. With fame comes complacency, and it can be a detrimental trap to fall into once you win a title.

Just ask Andy Ruiz Jr.

Since Rocky is going to retire no matter what after his fight with Lang, he doesn’t train like he used to. He holds a public workout in a ballroom, poses for pictures, and doesn’t work out with the blood, sweat, and tears model that helped make Rocky who he is, or was in this case. He’s looking at Lang like any other trash talking challenger, and he’s looking past him. It’s not that he expects to dominate Lang, as he has taken Mickey’s words of his questionable legacy to heart, but he’s blinded by the idea of retirement. He regularly mentions it during their smaller training sessions, talks about it with Mickey in the locker room before the fight instead of speaking in-depth about a strategy or praying in silence like he’s been seen doing before, and he’s all smiles in the pre-match interview where he again tells the public that this will be his final match. The eyes are off the prize, and the viewer can sense it. More importantly, Lang knows it and smells blood like a shark in the water. As a cinematic villain, Clubber Lang is one of the greatest of all time. We’re talking on the level of Darth Vader, Shooter McGavin, Pazuzu from The Exorcist, that bitch from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and fellow Rocky star, Ivan Drago, among others. In his only appearance in the entire series, Lang is an undeniable force of an ultra-villain for Rocky topple. Along with being partially responsible for Mickey’s death as he shoves Mickey into a wall without remorse, he talks shit to Adrian in front of Rocky and backs it up by shockingly beating Rocky in the second round with a ruthless haymaker in what is supposed to be Rocky’s swan song. He makes Rocky fear him! It’s not a role reversal of Lang going the distance and beating Rocky like Rocky did Apollo, it’s a massacre and Mr. T owns the part, becoming one of the most iconic characters of the entire franchise and subsequently the 1980s. It’s all due to the outrageousness of one Mr. T. This is part of Rocky III‘s legendary contributions to the entertainment industry. The third film in the series is responsible for introducing the world to one of the most recognizable stars of the 80s in Mr. T, quite possibly one of the coolest people to walk the planet.

He’s not even a great actor, but his screen presence as a movie star is undeniable, and he makes every line count with an intensity and flare that no actor could deliver in such an entertaining and simple way. Though it’s true that the character is comically one-dimensional, it cannot be stressed enough how much it works. You would never recommend Rocky III to a screenwriting class because its success is purely due to the movie being one of the best examples in existence of how you can create an iconic film purely on the back of a combination of movie stars and understanding the concept of “popcorn entertainment” on a Shakespearean level. Nevertheless, Mr. T in his role as Clubber Lang is lightning in a bottle, never to be duplicated. It’s an unprecedented performance that allows for Mr. T to utilize his limited strengths and put on the most basic, by-the-numbers villain role, and somehow becoming one of the most badass characters to ever exist in doing so. Before the rematch starts, Lang has already pushed a crowd member and Apollo in the back before the final fight (“Don’t turn your back on me sucker!”). Even when Rocky puts him down, he’s not falling apart like he was when facing Apollo. He stays in his stance, fully expecting Lang to get back up because he’s that much of a threat. Rocky knows he can’t celebrate until that bell rings because Lang is that much of a terror, and he embodies it. The viewer is just drawn to Lang because there’s nothing like him, before or since. The mohawk, the catchphrases, the feather earring, Mr. T is absolutely unforgettable as Clubber Lang, the biggest challenge Rocky has to face yet. Why Mr. T didn’t do more villain roles or parlay his charisma and star presence into continued action vehicles for himself instead of just settling with The A-Team will always be one of the biggest missed opportunities of all time. He’s still one of the greatest action heroes ever, but his contributions to action cinema should have been so much more. He had the marketability and look of someone who could compete with Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger for that coveted top spot all the greats were chasing in the 80s and 90s.

Another part of Rocky III‘s legacy as a whole is how much it changed the course of professional wrestling history. Hulk Hogan’s unforgettable appearance as the towering Thunderlips in the cross-promotional match against Rocky is basically the reason the WWE is the superpower of wrestling today. Though Vince McMahon Sr. let Hogan go because Hogan wanted to chase the movie role, that fellow wrestler Terry Funk got him due to his friendship with Stallone stemming from Paradise Alley, Vince McMahon Jr. sought out Hogan and brought him back into the fold when he took over his father’s company. He wanted Hogan to lead the then WWF as its franchise star because of his crossover appeal due to the massive success of the 1982 film. The larger-than-life Hogan achieved worldwide recognition and mainstream success because of Rocky III, and since Vince McMahon wanted to turn the wresting business into a worldwide phenomenon and shed away its label as a niche product, McMahon realized before anyone else that Hogan was the superstar to lead his company into the future. In doing so, the two took over the professional wrestling industry on the back of Hogan’s movie stardom. Hogan even used “Eye of the Tiger” as his theme song early on and famously teamed with friend and co-star Mr. T at the first WrestleMania. All of this can be directly rooted back to Rocky III. It might not be considered from a critical standpoint as the greatest movie of the franchise, but it is without a doubt the most important, as it influenced and changed numerous careers and entertainment avenues, making history in many unique ways as a result.

Not too shabby, Stallone.

To the surprise of no one, Paulie’s awful tendencies continue. Along with his vaguely racist comments (“You can’t train him like a colored fighter. He ain’t got no rhythm”), he makes Apollo work overtime because of his constant negativity about how he can’t change Rocky, just to combat Apollo’s positivity and belief in Rocky. It’s only furthered when he tries to bring it on Rocky too by saying he doesn’t like “these people” in reference to the black fighters he is training with, so Rocky counters by saying they might not like Paulie either. Naturally, Paulie’s ignorant response is, “What’d I do to them?”. I don’t know how many times I have to say it, but I would pay Paulie to fuck off at this point.

There is still a lot of humor too, a signature of the series. The commentator talking about how Rocky may “not have psychologically recovered from the vicious knockout Clubber laid on him” is such a hilarious understatement since it’s what the whole movie is about. Plus, the charity spectacle was great. The best part was the exchange between Rocky and Mickey beforehand, as it was the funniest of the movie:

Mickey: “Nobody else does this much for charity.”

Rocky: “Bob Hope would.”

Mickey: “That’s true.”

Once again, the climax is worth the buildup, and Sylvester Stallone shines as Rocky’s confidence grows while he shouts at the camera as it sits-in for the POV of Lang (“You aint so bad! You ain’t so bad! You ain’t nothing!”). He brings out a fire in us that very few films before or since have done with how he challenges Lang to knock him out with the whole world watching. It makes your hair raise, and you will no doubt be at the edge of your seat for the entirety of the fight. Rocky leveling Lang with those punches on beat with the music is a result of everything coming together at just the right time too, THE cinematic experience we wanted out of this third film. The “Favor” epilogue that follows is one for the books too. It’s probably one of the most nostalgic sequences of the Rocky franchise that can still make us smile when thinking about it (“You wanna ring the bell?” – “Ding, ding”).

And though Rocky told Adonis in Creed that Apollo won, I still think he was just being nice to the kid.

It might not be as gritty as the first two movies in the series, but it can’t be. With where our beloved protagonist is at in his life and career, Rocky III perfectly captures where the hero is at, what he is facing, and where he needs to go. As he faces challenges from a physical and psychological standpoint, Rocky faces his greatest opponents yet, and the third film in the series does not disappoint in stressing what the hero faces. With star Sylvester Stallone in his prime still making his performance as Rocky Balboa as lovable and compelling as he always is, a newfound role for Carl Weathers to solidify his status as a mainstay in the franchise, a legendary villain, awesome action, a great message, and another unforgettable theme song that should have nabbed the film an Oscar in Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger”, Rocky III has an argument for being the best sequel in the series

Fun Fact: For the role of Clubber Lang, Joe Frazier and Earnie Shavers were considered but Frazier had a stutter and Shavers had too light of a voice to sound like the menace that the character is. Since Joe Frazier had a cameo in the first movie as himself, this wouldn’t have worked anyway. Morgan Freeman auditioned for the role of Lang’s manager.