
Sylvester Stallone
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TORONTO — The original wooden bridge on which John Rambo, played by Sylvester Stallone, was arrested in the classic 1982 movie First Blood is to be torn down.
Local residents of Hope, the tiny British Columbia town around 100 miles north of Vancouver where First Blood was shot, on Sunday gathered to celebrate the iconic yet now rickety “Rambo Bridge” before it is torn down and replaced by a new bridge.
“We wanted to get one last big splash to let the fans know that this is their last opportunity to see the bridge, walk on the bridge, photograph the bridge, celebrate the bridge,” Inge Wilson, manager of the Hope Visitor Centre and Museum Complex, told the Vancouver Province newspaper on Saturday.
The Kawkawa lake bridge, framed by lush forests and steep mountains, helped put Hope on the tourist map after it featured in a key opening sequence for First Blood where a stone-faced Stallone, playing a Vietnam war veteran and drifter, is barred from entering the town by local sherriff Will Teasle, played by Brian Dennehy.
After John Rambo refuses to be run out of town, he’s arrested and, before long, all hell breaks loose.
“We tried to save it, but because the bridge is made of creosote-soaked timbers, there are some environmental concerns,” Inge Wilson added.
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