Ivan Drago is a Soviet amateur with a 2,000 psi punch and no expression. Apollo Creed comes out of retirement to fight him as an exhibition in Las Vegas, enters the ring with James Brown singing Living in America, and is killed in two rounds. Rocky agrees to fight Drago in Moscow, unpaid and unsanctioned, on Christmas Day. Rocky IV is the shortest film in the series at 91 minutes, and roughly a third of that is montage.
The Fight, The Training And The Montages
Rocky trains in a Siberian farmhouse, chopping wood, pulling a sled through snow and climbing a mountain, while Drago trains in a lab with steroids and a treadmill. The contrast is the whole argument of the film. Adrian flies out to join him, Paulie gets a robot, and the fight itself runs fifteen rounds in front of a Soviet crowd that slowly turns to Rocky’s side. His closing speech about change got applause in cinemas in 1985.
Why It Became The Biggest Rocky Film
It made more money than any other entry in the series, over 300 million dollars worldwide, and Dolph Lundgren became a star from a part with about nine lines. The soundtrack, with Survivor’s Burning Heart and John Cafferty’s Hearts on Fire, was a hit on its own. Stallone released a recut version, Rocky vs. Drago, in 2021 that removes the robot and adds forty minutes of unused footage.
Watch Rocky IV On GoMovies
The original 1985 theatrical cut, 91 minutes, in HD. Press play above.
