The sixth entry to the Rocky saga is currently in production. Here's a recap of what's happened so far. Gasp, here goes. Don't read this topic if you wish to watch the other movies first:
In part 1, Rocky (a talented boxer) works for lone sharks to earn extra money between fights. The gym owner Mickey sees potential in him, but he throws it away. Rocky falls for his friend's sister, who's very shy. She works in a pet shop. One day, the current world boxing champion Apollo Creed requires a last minute replacement for an upcoming fight and he selects Rocky Balboa of all people.
Of course, Rocky doesn't think he's good enough, but people convince him otherwise. Mickey offers to train him, even though he felt Rocky was becoming a loser. Rocky almost declines his help, but he sees the light and a star is born.
Rocky puts up a titanic battle against the champ, but ends up losing by a crappy decision. In the background, there's a picture of Rocky, but his shorts are wrong. The movie itself won major awards, including best picture.
In part 2, Rocky is rushed to a nearby hospital, as is Apollo. Apollo notices Rocky and goades him into a fight. After leaving the hospital, Rocky proposes to Adrien, and they get married. Rocky uses his fame to buy expensive gifts and a new home.
Apollo gets a bunch of hate mail from random people, so he continues to goade Rocky into having a rematch, which is more or less just an excuse for Apollo to demolish the same man who embarassed him.
But Rocky's vision is failing, due to a retinal injury, so a rematch wouldn't be smart. His wife goes into a coma after delivering their son, who is also named Rocky (or Robert as he was refered to in Rocky V). But when she awakens, she tells Rocky to win, so Rocky trains harder and runs up those Philadelphia stairs again, but this time he is accompanied by a group of young supporters.
The rematch is held, and Rocky gets pwned hard for much of the match, but Rocky makes a spectacular come back and both men fall down to the canvas. Rocky gets up before Apollo with approximately 1 second to go in the last round.
In part 3, Rocky lets fame go to his head. While he defeats random jobbers, a new challenger in the form of Clubber Lang is climbing the ranks. At a press conference, Rocky is presented with a special statue at the top of the Philadelphia steps. But then he announces he'd like to retire. Clubber is present and ends up accusing Rocky of being a wuss. So Rocky gives in to him and a rematch is prepared.
But Mickey knows Rocky ain't ready. So Mickey decides to **** off so to speak, until Rocky persuades him to stay. At the event, Clubber snaps and pushes Mickey and Mickey has to rest in the locker room. During the fight, Clubber goes to town on Rocky and wins in just a few short rounds. Rocky is no longer the champion.
After the fight, Mickey passes away and Rocky loses his fighting spirit as a result. Apollo finds him at the gym and offers to help him regain that spirit. So they go to a special gym with black fighters, and they all eye up the competition.
At first, Rocky cannot regain the spirit because he is still upset about losing his title and his mentor, but eventually Rocky gets it back and faces Clubber again and whoops his butt. Rocky and Apollo end the movie by having another fight with nobody in sight.
The series is arguably less appealing come part 4. Rocky goes home to his family. They have a birthday party and Paulie is presented with a talking robot called Sicko. Apollo is playing with his dogs in his pool when he sees a Russian fighter called Ivan Drago on TV. His trainers are about to issue a challenge to the Americans.
Eventually, Apollo and Ivan Drago have a match in Las Vegas which begins with soul legend James Brown singing one of his biggest hits. Rocky attempts to cancel the fight because they haven't researched their challenger, but Apollo is hungry for some action. During the fight, Ivan goes to town on Apollo and it becomes apparent that Ivan ain't playing around. Apollo does not want the match to end, so he dies as a result of being biffed dozens of times.
After Apollo's funeral, Rocky decides to challenge Ivan himself. But due to the aggressive nature of the Americans, Ivan's people decide that the fight should only be held in Russia. As a result, Rocky goes with Tony (Apollo's trainer) and Paulie to Russia. Adrien decides to stay at home, but decides to fly over to Russia.
Rocky trains extremely hard, as does Ivan. But Rocky uses nature to train, while Ivan uses illegal steroids and expensive equipment to get pumped up. Rocky runs up a mountain and shouts "DRAGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!" very loud.
Before the non-title fight begins, Rocky and his supporters are booed very loudly, while Ivan immediately recieves the reception Russia gives their champion. During the match, both men go to town on one another. Guess who wins?
Rocky wins and Russia love it!! What's next for the boxing hero? Absolutely nothing!!
Why?! Rocky has a brain scan and discovers he must retire because Ivan really bashed his brains in so to speak. If that's not bad enough, Paulie has ended up getting the Balboa family bankrupt. So Rocky's fortune goes cheerio and they have to go back to the slums of Philadelphia.
A greedy promoter attempts to get Rocky to fight a guy called Union Cane, and Rocky's wife has to step in and tell them to get lost, to put it mildly. While all this crap is going on, Rocky is training a young stud called Tommy Gunn, who is played by the real life boxer Tommy Morrison. Apparently, he's related to John Wayne.
Anyway, Rocky's son is being bullied at school and Rocky doesn't have time for his son. Eventually, Tommy falls under the spell of the promoters and thanks them instead of Rocky when he finally wins the world title by defeating Union Cane.
The press then accuse Tommy of being a one-hit wonder or a paper champion, and lots of other things actually.
Tommy snaps and challenges Rocky to a fight. He finds Rocky down at the local bar. Paulie gets annoyed at Tommy for betraying Rocky and he pushes Tommy Gunn, so Tommy punches Paulie. Rocky tells Tommy to take the matter outside and they get into a brawl. Rocky is clearly emotional because Tommy was his protege, but he was like family as well. Rocky and Tommy continue to fight and Adrien witnesses this on TV and the entire neighbourhood gather round the two men as they battle to the death.
In the end, Rocky has a vision of Mickey and he gets up to finish Tommy Gunn. As a result, Tommy is picked up by the police and the movie ends with Rocky and his son having a classic father-son scene. Awwwwww.
Well, I think the fifth movie left a bitter taste in my mouth. Rocky should be remembered for being a champion, and Rocky V was not a very fitting finale. It was, however, very emotional and because Rocky Balboa is on the way, the Rocky series can finally come full circle in my view.
My fingers hurt.