Character mistake: When Rocky makes his speech after his fight with Drago, he says that it's better that one person fights another instead of a million fighting a million (a US USSR war). The Russian translator misinterprets his speech and says that this is better than a million dollars. You don't have to understand Russian (although I do) to hear the translator says million dollars to confirm this blunder of a mistake. (01:22:25)
Rocky IV (1985)
1 character mistake
Directed by: Sylvester Stallone
Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Dolph Lundgren, Burt Young, Carl Weathers, Brigitte Nielsen, Talia Shire
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Apollo is playing with his dog in his pool while hearing the news of Ivan Drago on television, he has three tennis balls in his hand. In one shot he throws 2 of the tennis balls to the dog, and in the next shot he is seen with 3 balls back in his hands while looking at the television.
Adrian: It's suicide. You've seen him, you know how strong he is. You can't win.
Rocky: Oh, Adrian. Adrian always tells the truth. No, maybe I can't win. Maybe the only thing I can do is just take everything he's got. But to beat me, he's going to have to kill me. And to kill me, he's gonna have to have the heart to stand in front of me. And to do that, he's got to be willing to die himself. I don't know if he's ready to do that. I don't know.
Trivia: Sylvester Stallone, actually tore a muscle in his heart while filming the training sequence in which he lifts the sleigh that everybody was sitting in. Filming had to stop for two months so doctors could make sure that he healed properly and the chances for him having a heart attack would be reduced.
Question: To elaborate on the question regarding Drago facing criminal charges for killing Apollo: when he pushes the ref aside you say that in real life the fight would have been stopped, however, he almost lands the fatal blow right afterwards so he didn't give anyone time to stop it, wouldn't he be charged with criminally negligent manslaughter or something similar? I can understand him not facing charges if it had happened during the normal course of the fight, but the fact that he didn't allow the ref to stop the fight leads me to believe that he was negligent and thus responsible for Apollo's death.
Answer: Yes. Not only would Drago have been suspended from boxing indefinitely for pushing the ref aside, but, he also would have been charged with manslaughter considering that Drago landed the blow that killed Apollo immediately after the official stopped the fight. If the blow that killed Apollo had occurred during the fight however, Drago wouldn't have faced any charges.
In reality, Rocky was responsible for Apollo's death because he would not throw the towel when begged to. Furthermore, had this been a real fight, Apollo's entire corner would have flooded the ring since it got so out of hand. So, there wouldn't have been a fatal blow; it would have been total chaos with one corner coming to the defense of their fighter.
Join the mailing list
Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.
Answer: Unless Drago did something deliberately illegal to increase damage (altering his gloves or wraps like Luis Resto), then no. Risk of severe injury is a standard for contact sports and boxing especially.
Greg Dwyer