Why Apollo Creed Had to Die in Rocky IV

I can almost hear people wanting to criticize me for this one since no one wanted Apollo Creed to die, and it would appear that even Sylvester Stallone is regretting killing off the character in Rocky IV. But it was necessary as a lot of people might agree since the death of Apollo made a lot of things possible in the movies to come and created an impact that might not have been felt in the same manner had he managed to make it to the final movie. As traumatic as the loss was, it should be easier for a lot of people to admit that it wasn’t really that tough since when the thought really kicks in, he was a fighter, someone that was more comfortable in the ring than anywhere else at times. Hell, in Rocky II he was ready to jump out of his wheelchair following the fight with Rocky Balboa and go another few rounds. True, no one would have let him do such a thing, and Rocky probably wouldn’t have done it, but Apollo Creed was a guy that didn’t like sitting still. 

That’s why his death had to happen in the fourth movie. In the first and second movies, he was trying to thump Balboa the first time and prove that the newcomer had gotten lucky by challenging him to a second fight. Pushing Rocky to a place where it was either win or die wasn’t wise of Apollo at all, but it was kind of expected since Creed was a very obsessive person, and couldn’t simply ignore the people who were claiming that he’d taken a payoff to make the fight interesting. Creed had a serious issue with being unable to walk away, which was what caused him to lose in the second movie since Rocky busted him up in ways that he hadn’t expected. But by the third movie Apollo had made his peace with it, for his own reasons, and because he still believed in Rocky in a big way. It’s kind of humbling when someone beats you at something that you excel at, but it takes a big man to come back and admit that it happened. 

Apollo had come a long way to realizing that Rocky was something that he’d been a long time ago. Every boxer realizes that the reality of the sport is that when they’re first coming up they’re hungry, they’re lean, and they’re willing to go to lengths that they might not even know exist yet. When a boxer gets to be a champion however they start relaxing, and that’s where the edge tends to go soft, and the fire goes out just a little, if not entirely. Apollo’s fire wasn’t out by the third movie, but it had changed a bit since he’d become the trainer, the teacher, rather than the fighter. That inner fighter was still there, but had matured finally and made him a different person, someone that was ready to see someone else shine for a change. But by the fourth movie, one would have hoped that he would see someone like Ivan Drago and think that despite his conditioning that he was a bit outmatched by someone who was younger, bigger, and stronger. That’s now how Apollo saw it though. 

Instead, that inner higher roared a little louder and he decided to show Drago just what Americans could do in the ring. The problem is that Apollo had come full circle, but without remembering what had happened when he’d tried to humiliate another fighter. He tried something similar to what he’d done to Rocky in the first movie, which was to treat the match like a joke, as he came to the ring while accompanied by an intro sang by James Brown with lights and dancers and a cacophony of noise that might have unnerved Drago if not for the fact that he was there for one reason, to beat Apollo senseless. Of course, we all know how that one went, since the lights were out in Apollo’s eyes before he even hit the mat. No one’s bound to say that Apollo was stupid, or that he was a fool for thinking that he could take on Drago. But much like he did with Rocky, he forgot one of the biggest rules in any fight. It’s not wise to step into the ring with someone unless you happen to know something about the person you’re fighting.

Apollo Creed didn’t have to die just because he’d come full circle though, his death served as a catalyst for the rest of the movie and for Rocky’s motivation to get back at Drago. It would also serve to make Creed II what it was years later since Drago’s son would take on Adonis, and this would in turn show the evolution of Ivan Drago, who was eventually humbled at Rocky’s hands in the fourth movie as a result of Apollo’s death. Sometimes, to allow a greater story to unfold, a good story has to kill off one of the main characters in a way that no one will soon forget.