Although Sylvester Stallone’s Rambo franchise continues to chug along, a 131-minute Netflix action thriller has proven itself to be the true 2020s answer to Rambo’s original legacy.
In September 2024, Netflix released Rebel Ridge. It stars Aaron Pierre as Terry Richmond, a former Marine who comes to a small town to bail his cousin out of prison, only to get caught up in a war against its corrupt police force. Pierre, who will soon also portray John Stewart in the DC TV show Lanterns, was joined by Don Johnson, AnnaSophia Robb, David Denman, and Emory Cohen, rounding out the movie’s stellar cast.
Rebel Ridge quickly garnered critical acclaim, as evidenced by its “Certified Fresh” status on Rotten Tomatoes with a 95% critics’ score. The positive reception included ScreenRant’s own review of Rebel Ridge, in which writer Mary Kassel called it a “nuanced political thriller.” The Jeremy Saulnier-written and directed feature also won several awards, including the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Television Movie and Critics’ Choice Television Award for Best Movie Made for Television.
Rebel Ridge has since been described as “Rambo meets Reacher,” and this is no exaggeration. The Netflix Original movie serves as a perfect replacement for Rambo, largely because of the nuanced and grounded way it handles the genre’s action-driven storytelling, surpassing most of Rambo‘s sequels in every way.
Netflix’s Rebel Ridge Shows Where The Rambo Movies Went Wrong
The Rambo saga began in 1982 with First Blood, an adaptation of the novel by David Morrell. Sylvester Stallone’s John Rambo is a Vietnam War veteran who gets caught up in his own conflict with the police officers of a small town. First Blood certainly has many action-packed scenes, but more importantly, it explores PTSD and presents John as more of a tragic figure rather than a stereotypical action hero.
Rambo: First Blood Part II goes down a similar narrative path when John changes his mission in Vietnam, opting to rescue the POWs rather than only track them down. However, as the Rambo film series continued, these cinematic, character-driven stories transitioned into more conventional action-movie fare. That wouldn’t have been so bad had the later movies not gone so overboard with said action and delivered increasingly ridiculous premises.
Rebel Ridge doesn’t fall into that trap. The movie wisely keeps the story and action more focused and balanced. Terry Richmond is a skilled combatant and marksman, but he never fully embraces the traditional, gruff, no-nonsense action hero role or forgets what he’s fighting for. That’s one of the reasons Rebel Ridge succeeds: it has the same heightened emotional and atmospheric feel as First Blood.
Rebel Ridge Remains One Of Netflix’s Best Original Movies
Rebel Ridge was well-regarded when it was first released, and it still deserves to be seen as one of Netflix’s best original movies. Beyond the stellar action sequences and stunt choreography, it’s also tightly written, and Pierre shines as its main protagonist. It’s no wonder that Rebel Ridge gave the actor’s career a major boost, paving the way for him to be cast in the aforementioned Lanterns and Star Wars: Starfighter, among other projects.
What remains to be seen is if the near-perfect Rebel Ridge will follow in Rambo’s footsteps and evolve into an action film series. Netflix hasn’t officially announced a sequel, and even if it were in development, Pierre is clearly keeping busy with other acting endeavors. Still, the prospect of never seeing Terry Richmond again shouldn’t detract from Rebel Ridge’s quality. If anything, it might be better off as a standalone story.
The Rambo franchise will continue with a prequel movie titled John Rambo, with Noah Centineo playing a younger version of the character. Regardless of how the prequel is received, it’s clear that the last several movies lost what made First Blood special in the first place. Rebel Ridge, on the other hand, has solidified its place as the 2020s’ answer to the original Rambo.
- Release Date
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September 6, 2024
- Runtime
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131 Minutes
- Director
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Jeremy Saulnier
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Aaron Pierre
Terry Richmond
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This story originally appeared on Screenrant
