‘Professionalism be damned’: Why Rocky IV is an Eighties classic

Get our free weekly email for all the latest cinematic news from our film critic Clarisse Loughrey Get our The Life Cinematic email for free Get our The Life Cinematic email for free SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Rocky IV had not been going particularly well by the time Lundgren, playing Soviet Ubermensch Ivan Drago, delivered his fateful – and potentially fatal – blow to Stallone’s chest. open image in gallery ‘A streetcar named Drago’ – Dolph Lundgren as the imposing Soviet Union boxer Ivan Drago “He struck me so hard in the chest that my heart slammed against my breastbone and began to swell, so the beating became laboured, and without medical attention the heart would’ve continued to swell until it stopped,” Stallone continued. “And I've suffered a lot in my life.” Cogler’s Creed movies, which chronicle the boxing career of Apollo Creed’s secret son from an affair, are a self-consciously grounded rebooting of Rocky. He was a cold machine, kind of like The Terminator.” “While the Rocky franchise is quite cheesy, it has a huge popularity within the boxing world,” agrees the British Boxing Blog’s Andrew Newton.