First Blood
Plot
Teasle organizes a search party with his fellow deputies, air support and dogs. Galt ignores Teasle's orders and attempts to shoot Rambo from a low-flying helicopter, but falls to his death when Rambo throws a rock that causes the pilot to lose control. Teasle soon learns that Rambo is a former Special Forces soldier and recipient of the Medal of Honor, but refuses to cancel the search. Not wanting to cause more trouble, Rambo attempts to surrender, but is fired upon by the deputies and flees into the tree line. Rambo uses bushcraft to create traps to subdue the pursuing officers, threatening Teasle at knifepoint to abandon his pursuit before fleeing further into the woods. Washington State Patrol officers and Washington National Guard forces are dispatched to assist with the search, along with Rambo's mentor and former commanding officer Colonel Samuel Trautman. Trautman advises Teasle to relent, but Teasle refuses. Over radio, Rambo refuses Trautman's pleas to surrender, condemning Teasle and his men and insisting that "they drew first blood."
Plot
Rambo falls back to an abandoned mine, where National Guard units fire an M72 LAW to collapse the mine after suppressive fire fails to force Rambo to surrender. Teasle and the others initially presume Rambo to be dead, but Rambo escapes the mine through a ventilation shaft and returns to town after hijacking a military transport truck, intent on confronting Teasle. Trautman again fails to convince Teasle to cancel the pursuit, while Rambo creates a distraction by causing a gas-station explosion, cutting power to most of the town and destroying a gun store. After shooting indiscriminately in the sheriff's office, Rambo shoots Teasle in the leg, grievously injuring him with an M60 machine gun that Rambo had taken from the military truck. Trautman arrives and appeals to Rambo, who finally relents and surrenders after relating his negative experiences from the war and from his return home. Trautman comforts Rambo before escorting him into federal custody. Teasle is taken to an ambulance for treatment of his injuries.
Development
After Mario Kassar and Andrew G. Vajna of Anabasis Investments read the book, they became interested in doing an adaptation as the first production of their studio Carolco Pictures funded by "in-house sources". They purchased the film rights from Warner Bros. for $375,000 and Sackheim and Kozoll's script for $125,000 in 1981. Ted Kotcheff, who had been involved in the project in 1976, returned after Kassar and Vajna offered to finance one of his projects. Kotcheff offered the role of John Rambo to Sylvester Stallone, and the actor accepted after reading the script through in a day.
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