The 1980s saw action movies push themselves to the forefront of cinema and dominate at the box office. With the 70s being filled with angst-ridden, anti-hero-driven movies like Taxi Driver and A Clockwork Orange, the 1980s saw a shift in a totally different direction and cinema lovers witnessed the birth of a collection of larger-than-life action heroes. While there were many action stars to emerge in the 80s, there were two stars who battled it out for the top spot – Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Stallone and Schwarzenegger both emerged in the 1970s, Stallone with his breakout role in the Oscar-winning Rocky, and Schwarzenegger with a role in Stay Hungry, opposite Jeff Bridges. However, it was the 1980s that saw the two tough guys become global superstars. Stallone went on to take the Rocky movies to new heights and also took on his next big role with Rambo: First Blood. Schwarzenegger quickly became one of the biggest stars on the planet when a small-budget sci-fi movie called The Terminator became a smash hit. So, with their titan levels of fame making them two of the most sought-after talents in Hollywood, of course some feuding was going to occur.
Stallone & Schwarzenegger’s Rivalry Explained
Arnold Schwarzenegger led an impressive career as a professional bodybuilder before crossing over to acting, so naturally he has an intense competitive nature. And seeing as Stallone and Schwarzenegger were appearing in movies at the same time year by year, a feud was inevitable. The two stars would compete and hit out at each other in a variety of ways and were unafraid to do so in their movies as well. In Ivan Reitman’s Twins, Schwarzenegger’s character spots a movie poster for Rambo III, and immediately compares muscles with Stallone – before laughing him off.
By the late 80s, Stallone had turned his Oscar-nominated role as Rocky Balboa into a fully-fledged action hero of sorts, with 3 smash hit sequels. He also inflated the persona of war veteran, John Rambo, to massive degrees with two extravagant sequels. By this point, the intense feud became about who could kill the most bad guys in a single movie, who had the better physique, and who made the most money at the box office. Even when the two actors started to be seen mixing with each other at the gym and certain Hollywood events, they were still secretly feuding. Schwarzenegger has boasted in recent years about how he convinced Stallone to take on one of the biggest flops of his career with Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot.
How Schwarzenegger’s New TV Series Faces Off Against Stallone
While Stallone and Schwarzenegger have patched things up in recent years, they are both very open in talking about how they used to hate each other. When speaking with Forbes in 2022, Stallone admitted “We really disliked each other immensely,” – and went on to say – “off-screen we were still competitive and that was not a healthy thing at all, but we’ve become really good friends.” The two have since gone on to star in a number of movies together, like The Expendables, where they played on their rivalry for the film’s comedic value, and Escape Plan, where their characters ironically start out hating one another before teaming up at the end of the movie.
The two Hollywood titans seem to have a healthy competitive side to their relationship to this day, as they both take on similar projects in their later years. Schwarzenegger’s comeback to acting after retiring from politics has been a little hit and miss, while Stallone has brought back his classic characters to a successful degree. Stallone also made his first foray into TV with Paramount Plus’ Tulsa King, and it seems Schwarzenegger has followed suit with his role in Netflix’s spy series, Fubar. So, while the two action legends are now dear friends, Stallone and Schwarzenegger are looking to go to battle on streaming services with their latest projects.The Terminator
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