The Terminator Vs. Rambo.

[Chaos Marine]

The Terminator continues as it was up until the club scene where Reece shoots the Terminator with his shotgun and flees with Sarah. Except when trying to flee from the Terminator, Reece bumps into Rambo who's taken to the life of a wandering vagrant and found himself in the club. He's nursing a beer when the action starts and goes to investigate. And by bumps into, I mean tussle as he thinks Sarah's being kidnapped.

The Terminator stands up and gets off a shot on Reece, mortally wounding him, Rambo grabs the shotgun and fires a shot into the Terminator, noticing metal sparking from the buckshot and thinks, "He's wearing body armour." The Terminator regains it's footing as Reece is grabbing onto Rambo's coat and Sarah's arm pleading weakly for them to run. Rambo seeing the Terminator bringing his pistol to bear aims up and shoots him in the head, sees the buckshot impacting and redirecting away along with flashes of metal under the Terminator's skin. Reece finally managers to gather the strength to yell at them to run and the three escape to find a car to hotwire and escape. Reece then tells both Sarah and Rambo about the Terminator, when he's from, how you can't talk to the Terminator, can't negotiate, it'll never stop what it's programmed to do etc. Rambo takes over as Sarah's protector (Becoming John's father as well).

How differently would the story turn out? Instead of pipe bombs, would Rambo raid an armoury ala the robbery scene from Commando. Would the movie end in a military base instead of a factory?

 

[Husky_Khan]

I'm glad you added the bit of Kyle Reece being mortally wounded but only after offering up the same explanation he gave Sarah Connor in the car. Plus you gave John Rambo some fairly clear evidence that while Reece might be crazy, some aspects of what he said could have some legitimacy even if the time travel stuff and whatever might feel like nonsense. I have to remind myself what Kyle Reece actually said though...



So it does give a basic lowdown on the Terminators capabilities as well as the fact that it (and he) come from the future... but watching the clip there is something interesting, Kyle doesn't disclose why Sarah Connor is important to the future until they ditch the old car and find a new one. It seems reasonable to assume that mortally wounded, Kyle might actually expire or be left behind (as a distraction or too weak etc) as Rambo and Sarah Connor change cars so he might never get to be able to explain why Sarah Connor is important which is because she's the Mother of John Connor, savior of Humanity etc. And also that means there's no explanation of Cyberdyne Systems and a lot of the stuff hinted at in the Terminator film (especially deleted scenes) as well as the continuation of the saga in Terminator 2.

This may have ramifications for later.

With that said Rambo is far more capable of hiding and evading himself (and others) in the present day (of the 1980's) simply because he's been living as an itinerant wanderer type for years now. It seems likely even that John Rambo and Sarah Connor could actually evade the Terminator from the Parking Garage better then John Connor did (and thus they might be able to avoid the whole police station detainment and then massacre) and thus go to ground fairly quickly. If this occurs Rambo could take Sarah Connor to hiding... and more likely do so in the wilderness as opposed to a motel. But then again, John Rambo could relent and have them stay at a motel in the rural areas out somewhere.

But the Terminator then will strike at Sarah Connor's loved ones. Sarah Connor revealed their position (after a fashion) by calling her Mom and the Terminator was able to track them down that method. Would John Rambo be savvy enough to tell her not to contact her loved ones... would Sarah listen? He can't be with her 24/7 and she'd likely be very despondent after a few days/weeks of this sort of living. Plus more importantly would John Rambo be content letting this Terminator go around murdering Sarah Connor's loved ones willy nilly?

Fuck no.

How differently would the story turn out? Instead of pipe bombs, would Rambo raid an armoury ala the robbery scene from Commando. Would the movie end in a military base instead of a factory?

Another advantage John Rambo has compared to Kyle Reese is he's more familiar with the world they are in. Gun store. Police armory. Mexican Cartels! Some army truck with an M60 Machine Gun in the back!

He'd be able to do a weapons equipment montage far better then Kyle Reese could ever imagine. And his fieldcraft is impressive. Pitfalls and spike traps and explosive arrows to use from his bow. And that's just if you give him a knife. I'm pretty sure John Rambo could make homemade explosives (though perhaps not "plastique" explosive pipe bombs) I'm sure he could make something similar.

The other curveball is... since you bring up a military base, is if John Rambo would try and contact Colonel Trautman about this whole mess. It could end up at a military base with the US military actually taking John Rambo into custody for being a bloody loon and Sarah Connor as well being detained like she was at the military base. Then the T-800 would show up and John Rambo would have to find a way to the armory to pick up an M72 Law or an M79 Grenade Launcher and go have some fun saving the day while the military guys end up getting mowed down like ignominious mooks.

This in turn would lead to a truly off the wall sequel that I couldn't begin to fathom how it would turn out.

I have other thoughts on this as well, but I've said enough for now.

 

[Spartan303]

Rambo has the skills but would approach this in a different way. It might work, it might not. Reece was more than capable to do the job but was limited in his ability to fight due to lack of resources and weapons. Also Reece was more concerned about running and hiding than fighting.

John Rambo would take a very different approach. He'd get all the intel he could from Reece before Reece dies and Reece will on be all too happy to do it. From there Rambo will gather resources and weapons and lure the Terminator into a trap. Whether its enough is anyones guess but I'm confident Rambo can pull it off.

 

[Husky_Khan]

Rambo has the skills but would approach this in a different way. It might work, it might not. Reece was more than capable to do the job but was limited in his ability to fight due to lack of resources and weapons. Also Reece was more concerned about running and hiding than fighting.

John Rambo would take a very different approach. He'd get all the intel he could from Reece before Reece dies and Reece will on be all too happy to do it. From there Rambo will gather resources and weapons and lure the Terminator into a trap. Whether its enough is anyones guess but I'm confident Rambo can pull it off.

I think John Rambo has a lot of advantages but if Kyle Reese croaks, there is still a lot Rambo would be in the dark of. Like Rambo might not be aware of how advanced T-800's optics and sensors are or maybe how fast or smart he might actually be. Or things like voice mimicry, his technical knowhow, and all of those other esoteric abilities he possesses.

It might be decisive if say... John Rambo lures the T-800 into the wilderness of the Pacific Northwest and discovers that the T-800 might be able to detect John Rambo via some advanced optical or thermal sensors and attempt to plink away at him while John assumed he was in concealment or whatever.

On the other hand John Rambo is amazing at laying traps and ambushes so even that I wouldn't put too much in the T-800's favor. I think what would put John Rambo and Sarah Connor most at risk (obviously) is if the T-800 begins targeting loved ones of perhaps not just Sarah Connor, but maybe John Rambo as well (if he manages to discover the new heroes identity) and force John into a quick confrontation without lots of prep and planning.

 

[Chaos Marine]

Can't believe I didn't think to post this here either:

 

[Sailor.X]

If Rambo gets a Bow and some Explosive Arrows....... You can stick a fork in any Terminator that shows up.

 

[Spartan303]

If Rambo gets a Bow and some Explosive Arrows....... You can stick a fork in any Terminator that shows up.

Thats assuming the Hyper Alloy armors can hold up.

 

[Sailor.X]

Thats assuming the Hyper Alloy armors can hold up.

I don't think the Terminator will be walking that off.

 

[Buba]

I don't think the Terminator will be walking that off.

To quote Monty Python and the Holy Grail - "it was only a model" ...

 

[Husky_Khan]

Not going to lie... but we've had Terminators inside of helicopters that got destroyed before. So far they've survived them three out of three. Granted... two of those examples were of T-1000 and the T-X but... Ahh-nuld in the T-850 survived the BIGGEST helicopter destruction of the three.



Now like I said before, I think Rambo would have a much better chance of winning... but if he's out in the open... and attempts to blow up that helicopter... it's just as likely that Ahh-nuld will gently crash land that burning helicopter on top of him in response. 😁

 

[Sailor.X]

Not going to lie... but we've had Terminators inside of helicopters that got destroyed before. So far they've survived them three out of three. Granted... two of those examples were of T-1000 and the T-X but... Ahh-nuld in the T-850 survived the BIGGEST helicopter destruction of the three.



Now like I said before, I think Rambo would have a much better chance of winning... but if he's out in the open... and attempts to blow up that helicopter... it's just as likely that Ahh-nuld will gently crash land that burning helicopter on top of him in response. 😁

When it comes to crashing a Helo into Rambo that ain't gonna happen. Rambo can run as fast as freaking Cheetor when he has too.

 

[Chaos Marine]

Not going to lie... but we've had Terminators inside of helicopters that got destroyed before. So far they've survived them three out of three. Granted... two of those examples were of T-1000 and the T-X but... Ahh-nuld in the T-850 survived the BIGGEST helicopter destruction of the three.



Now like I said before, I think Rambo would have a much better chance of winning... but if he's out in the open... and attempts to blow up that helicopter... it's just as likely that Ahh-nuld will gently crash land that burning helicopter on top of him in response. 😁

I think the explosions from a civilian helicopter and military helicopter might end up to different explosion strengths.