With the temperatures rising and Summer around the corner I decided to take a little trip. The destination: “Hope”, a tiny town in the British Columbia woods North East of Vancouver which would not probably go unnoticed if it wasn’t for Sylvester Stallone and Ted Kotcheff who created one of the most iconic and well known movie characters of all time in this little town in 1982. The movie filmed there was First Blood which kick started Silvester Stallones movie career.
The Canadian town of Hope was chosen for it’s somber, triste feeling and remoteness and the fact that nobody had ever heard of it let alone knew it was in Canada. It was supposed to be just any random unimportant small towns in the US.
Before we begin a tour through the town let’s set the mood with Dan Hill’s First Blood end credit’s song.
One of the first scenes shows John Rambo entering the city which welcomes its visitors with a giant 100 years anniversary log sign that reads “Gateway to Holidayland”.
Though the sign isn’t in its original location anymore it still exists a few hundred meters past that spot.
The Shell gas station you can see in the picture above is later being blown up by Rambo. It was rebuilt in the same spot.
After entering the town Rambo soon meets his nemesis Sheriff Teasle (Brian Dennehy) for the first time. Teasle feels that being a Korean war veteran himself he was forgotten and never got any recognition by the American public while Vietnam veterans like Rambo were getting all the attention. This unspoken premise sparks the madness that ensues across the following two hours of movie history.
Note the Chevron Gas Station in the back (blue-red arrows).
Teasle was blocking Rambo’s path coming from the exit on the right.
A little ahead the Chevron gas station also still exists.
Later Rambo shoots through it on a motorcycle trying to escape from Teasle.
Leading up to this chase Rambo gets arrested by Teasle for bogus reasons (vagrancy and resisting arrest if I recall correctly) and brought to the local police station. The movie featured the real police station of Hope.
Note the white building outside with the red letters. (Also young Horatio Caine/David Caruso from CSI Miami in the background.)
Like Rambo does, he later blows up the police station too which is why this building is gone today and in it’s place there is a little park with a wooden sculpture. Looks to me like the city of Hope abandoned the concept of ‘police’ after what happened in 1982 because I haven’t seen a new police station in the town. I don’t blame them.
After having been arrested Rambo soon bust out of jail and steals the motorcycle mentioned earlier. (Yamaha XT250)
The same location today. (Kawasaki KLR 650)
Looking the opposite direction: Rambo takes off. In the back, the white building with the red letters.
Rambo’s perspective today. The building which could be seen from the police stations window has been repainted since.
To avoid road traffic and to shake off Teasle (who follows Rambo in his police cruiser) Rambo drives on the sidewalk at high speed. Stallone did most of his stunts himself and also got badly insured when jumping from a cliff onto a tree. Several times.
The sidewalk today. In the frame above Rambo just passed the red car to my right.
Rambo (John J.) heads for the mountains in hopes of losing Teasle there.
The same railroad crossing he passes in the movie is still in operation today.
The production didn’t bother repainting the ambulances of British Columbia which deal with the wounded that Rambo leaves behind. Unlike in the book Rambo never actually kills anybody in the whole movie. Stallone insisted on this change to make the character more likable and identifiable and to not send the wrong message about returning Vietnam war veterans, dehumanizing them on camera even more than the public was already doing.
BC’s ambulances still look the same today.
After having been chased through the woods Rambo is back in the town looking for refuge. This time he is not unarmed.
The same location today.
This is where I ended my Rambo tour. It was getting dark and I still had a few hundred km of riding ahead of me. If you haven’t seen the movie go watch it! It’ might surprise you.
I left Hope one more time passing the spot where Rambo makes his first appearance.
