Question
I know in the original, Rambo was the bad guy. Does Rambo end up killing any people in this movie or is he a good guy this time?
shareAccording to: https://allouttabubblegum.com/rambo-first-blood-part-ii-1985-body-count-breakdown/
Rambo personally kills 70 people over the course of the movie. Side characters like Co Bao and Lifer the mercenary kill some additional people. Most of them are soldiers of the Vietnam people's Army, and the russian spetsnaz, but Rambo also kills that boat full of river pirates, when they betray him. There appears to be no civilian casualties. Anyone who dies, does so in service of some military or agency.
Also, Rambo wasn't really the bad guy in First Blood. Sheriff Teasle was an egotistical prick, who was out of line and abused his power by pushing around an obviously mentally unstable war veteran with a very particular set of skills, which ended up causing millions of dollars worth of material damage, plus the death of a cop. (But Galt was an asshole anyway.)
Teasle refused to back down even after he was made aware of Rambo's training, and after Trautman warned him what would come, if he won't defuse the situation.
And that's where I like the novel more because Teasle was more sympathetic in the book. He actually listens to Trautman in the book and comes to sympathize with Rambo. Also, Rambo is the good guy in this. The U.S government gets him out of prison in exchange for going on a mission in Vietnam to rescue American Prisoners of War still there.
Also about the book, Rambo is a bad guy in that although he is written in a sympathetic manner despite that. The author David Morrell was trying to write about how the Vietnam War mentally scarred the Vietnam vets and wanted to write a novel where the War in Vietnam is actually brought to American soil.