Goofs

As Rambo makes his way through the cave looking for an escape route, he crawls through waist-deep water, only to emerge completely dry.

On the helicopter, Galt is holding a rifle. When he falls, there is no rifle visible. The next shot shows the rifle on the rocks below.

When Rambo is driving truck over the bridge road block towards the end of the movie, it is daylight. When he reaches the town which is not that far from the bridge, it is dark.

Rambo steals the 2 1/2 ton truck. It has an M60 machine gun in the back. Rambo jumps the cop cars with the truck. The truck lands and the tail gate flips open with no gun. When the truck drives away the tail gate is up. When Rambo stops the truck he gets out and the M60 is just sitting in back with ammo ready to grab.

When Galt is shooting at Rambo after he jumps, the helicopter is very close to the ground: Perhaps as close as 7 or 8 meters. But when he falls, the distance is at least four times higher. (It cannot be attributed to the helicopter having got higher, since the pilot is trying very hard not to move at all.)

Galt and the pilot speak on-board the helicopter without radio headsets. This would be impossible over the sound of the chopper.

Colonel Trautman mistakenly wears a U.S. Army Special Forces *crest* on the patch of his "green beret". As he is an officer, he should be wearing the insignia of his rank, i.e. a silver eagle, on his beret patch. The error was corrected for the next two films in the series, Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985) and Rambo III (1988).

Improper Military "RTP" (Radio-Telephone Procedure): When COL Troutman tries to make initial radio contact with Rambo, he does not use the proper military procedure that would have been second-nature to both Rambo and him. A full colonel would not have made such a mistake, since it was a "civilian" method depicted. Rambo should have been suspicious of such a mistake, as an unthinkable error by his former commander. Troutman uses the format "Covey Leader to Raven"; i.e., "caller to callee." Proper military RTP, which Troutman would have used, should have been "Raven, this is Covey Leader"; i.e., "callee, this is caller." Incorrectly regarded as goof: Trautman could have deliberately disregarded radio protocol as a means of alerting Rambo that communications were being monitored. This is a standard military practice.

The police station in the small town of Hope where Rambo is arrested is too much of a maximum security facility. Most likely, this small town would not have intricate code boxes to open doors and zoo-type jail cells complete with fire hoses for 'bathing' the prisoners in the basement. The facility is in fact a Sheriff's office, hence a county office and not a city office. In a rural area of Washington state, where counties are relatively large, it would be built to accommodate multiple prisoners of varying levels of offense, hence the additional size/security measures are not unrealistic.

When Rambo got the flashback where he was tortured by the Vietnamese interrogator, the interrogator spoke a sentence in Cantonese, not Vietnamese.

When Rambo and Trautman talk, Rambo never keys the mic on the radio. However, he could have the mic set to voice-activated, a common feature on radios.

When Rambo picks up the tarpaulin to use as a coat he throws away the sheath from his knife. You then see him pick the knife up from the tree and run off. Later in the film he is seen using the sheath again. But seeing as he threw the wire he used to tie up the tarpaulin in the same direction, he probably retrieved the sheath along with the wire, and the camera angle hides the sheath from sight.

Like anywhere else, a person arrested in Washington state has rights, many of which were denied to Rambo, notably a right to an attorney and the right to a phone call. It is likely that if the story allowed for a phone call, Rambo could have called D.C. and being a decorated vet with a medal of honor he would have been released immediately, therefore killing the movie, however the phone call usually occurs after said prisoner was processed, and Rambo's breaking point occurred during his processing. If he hadn't snapped he would have probably gotten his phone call.

Rambo pins the sheriff against a tree and slices into his neck after telling him to "let it go". In the next shot, the sheriff has no marks on his neck. Incorrectly regarded as goof: Rambo presses the blade to Teasle's throat without actually slicing. This would leave a temporary mark from the pressure, visible immediately afterwards, but fading within a few minutes.

During their first meeting, Trautman tells Teasle that he's surprised Rambo allowed any of his men to live. While delivering the line, "Strictly speaking, he slipped up. You're lucky to be breathing.", Trautman appears to be pulling some sort of document or map from his coat. In the next shot, Teasle slams the papers down and says, "Well, that's just great!" It's never explained what those papers were.

It's possible Trautman simply was referring to something for his own verification. A movie is not required to explain every action a character makes.

When Sheriff Teasle (Brian Dennehy) gets out of his squad car to arrest Rambo, he has a visible twitch in the blinking of his eyes. In an interview, Dennehy related to talk show host Merv Griffin that he took Rambo's knife out of the sheath and then, while handling the knife, accidentally jammed it into his hand, but Dennehy continued with the scene even though the pain was causing his eyes to visibly twitch.

None of the rifles or machine guns eject empty cartridge cases when they are fired. Also, they do not recoil.

When Rambo runs the trooper off the road after escaping the cave and taking the army truck, the trooper's car runs into the back of a car parked on the side of the road. However, the parked car explodes before the trooper's car hits it.

When Rambo is first arrested and booked, one of the officers locks Rambo's large hunting knife in a locker and puts the key in his shirt pocket. However, when Rambo later makes his escape, his knife is sitting out on the counter top, and he quickly grabs it on his way out.

Ramp can be seen when Rambo jumps over railroad tracks with motorcycle.

When Galt dies, Rambo is seen stripping off his jacket. However, the jacket is not seen again, even though it would be useful for warmth. OR Rambo strips off Galt's jacket, and later on it appears Rambo uses the jacket to make the 'scarecrow' that the officers shoot at, and then send the dogs after, in the forest which is unlikely because the 'scarecrow' didn't have Galt's jacket on it.

When Trautman shows up after Rambo blows up the gas station, the Sheriff tells him Rambo stole an Army truck and blew up a gas station across town - but shortly before the Sheriff and a couple deputies look out their window to see the gas station on fire- hardly "across town"

2:45 Why did the woman have to drag it out. "He's not here," she told Rambo about her husband, Rambo's friend, and kept on about other things. The first thing she should have said was, "He died last summer" (from agent Orange) instead of giving Rambo hope that his friend was still alive.

1:19:20 Rambo shoots his 60-cal. machine gun at the two transformers, which would have shredded them. But after he shoots them, they are perfectly intact.

When Rambo is racing down the pavement on the motorcycle, shouting "get out of the way" to terrified pedestrians, his mouth indicates he is shouting "fucking move it".

During the bike/patrol car chase in the beginning, Rambo rides a Yamaha XT 4-stroke bike - the sound effect is that of a 2-stroke.

When the police are hunting Rambo is the woods, Mitch say something along the lines of, "Hunting? We ain't hunting him. He's hunting us." If you look closely at his mouth, it's not even moving.

When the owner of the dogs has been shot you can still hear more than 1 dog barking, even though the other 2 are already dead.

During his conversation with Sheriff Teasle (just before the "body bags" comment), Col. Troutman's mouth movements are slightly out of sync.

When Rambo falls from the cliff through the trees, you can see a crew member on the right side (more or less 12 seconds after he jumps)

When Rambo jumps onto the top of the army truck, a landing pad can be seen underneath the canvas.

When Rambo is driving the truck and pushes the cop car into the path of the broken down car, the explosion starts the second the cars make contact. In the next shot during the fireball, the two cables that held the static vehicle in place are visible.

When Rambo falls off the cliff and crashes through the tree, you can somewhat see the yellow landing pad at the bottom of the tree.

If you look closely just before the rock hits the windshield of the helicopter, there is a blemish of some sort the exact same size/shape/location as the center of broken area after the rock hits. This is most likely the squib or pyrotechnic used to break the plastic, and simulate a rock striking/breaking the windshield.

Even though the movie takes place in the USA, there are several speed limit signs through the movie that are labelled in KM per hour. Also, the clearance on the bridge at the roadblock scene is marked in meters.

The film is supposed to portray a fictional town in Hope, Somewhere, USA, but is in fact filmed in real Hope, B.C. Canada. A revealing indication of its true location is the Turbo gas station appearing in the town shots. Turbo Gas was a Canadian-only franchise that had a logo with a Canadian maple leaf in it.

In the scene where the gas station explodes, an Esso station can be seen further down the street. The film was supposed to be taking place in Hope, Washington, US, in 1982. The Esso name was changed Exxon for US stations in 1972 but remained Esso in Canada, where the picture was actually filmed.

When Teasle asks Rambo which direction he is heading, Rambo says "north". Teasle then gives him a ride and while driving, Rambo says he is heading to Portland, which Teasle says, "Portland is south, you said you were heading north." However, a minute later, Teasle drops Rambo off and says Portland is straight ahead but he never turned the car around so he would have still been heading north before dropping Rambo off.

The helicopter Galt falls from clearly has a Canadian registry on the bottom, even though it is supposed to be a US registered police helicopter.

If John Rambo were indeed a "Medal of Honor" recipient then considering that most are awarded posthumously, the event of his arrest and escape would have been front page news and a major media event. Despite how the sheriff and his men felt about Rambo, it's unlikely that the political bosses of the city of Hope would have allowed his arrest to stand or Rambo to be mistreated.

After assaulting two officers while escaping the police station, as Rambo jumps over the front desk, a woman can be seen in the background calmly going about her business.

When Rambo is talking to Trautman on the radio, he blames Teasle for the trouble that has been caused, saying "the man kept pushing." But Teasle only conducted the initial arrest. It was Galt who was physically abusive to Rambo in the jail.

While telling Teasle Rambo's accomplishments, Col. Trautman should have listed the last as the Medal of Honor. As a high ranking Army officer, he would know that it is not called the "Congressional" Medal of Honor. The Medal of Honor is awarded in the name of Congress, but given by the President.

Col. Trautman lectures the sheriff, describing Rambo's tombstone in Arlington National Cemetery as saying "Here lies John Rambo ... killed in Jerkwater, USA". In reality, Arlington does not inscribe tombstones with such sayings. Stones simply bear name, rank, dates of birth, death and a Cross, Star of David, or Islamic crescent. (May count as "intentional goof" as Trautman may have been simply making a point to sheriff).

When Gault is shooting from the helicopter, he's using his left eye (as a right-handed shooter) through the rifle's scope, which is not impossible but highly unusual. Incorrectly regarded as goof: While not common, it is not "highly unusual." People who are right handed with visual impairment in their right eye can and do sight with the left. It is much easier to change which eye you use than which hand is dominant. This comes from firsthand experience as a right hand/left eye shooter.