Sylvester Stallone has revealed he nearly died after filming an iconic Rocky IV fight scene alongside Dolph Lundgren for the 1985 classic.
The actor was rushed to hospital in Canada after a fight scene in the film went very wrong on set and he was ‘pulverised’ by his co-star, who played Ivan Drago.
Recalling the now-legendary film for his YouTube channel in a clip titled The Making of Rocky vs. Drago by Sylvester Stallone, the 75-year-old actor, who played Rocky Balboa, revealed doctors feared that he would be ‘talking to angels’ after the scene.
The star even said he had nuns praying for him in intensive care. Speaking ahead of the release of a new recut version of the film, Sylvester said:
‘The first thing we shot [was] my entrance, his entrance and the introductions and then I got really injured during the fight and I had to be flown into intensive care to California from Canada.’
Encouraging Dolph to show his ‘dominance’ in the scene, Sly went on: ‘In the first round, where he knocked me down, that is for real.
‘He pulverised me and I did not feel it at that moment but later that night my heart started to swell. He had bruised the perio cardio sac, which is when the heart hits the chest – like in a car accident when your chest hits the steering wheel.’
He continued: ‘My blood pressure went up to 260. They thought I was going to be talking to angels.
‘Next thing I know I’m on this emergency, low-altitude flight. I’m in intensive care surrounded by nuns and then after that, I had to go back and finish the fight.’
Despite returning to set, after being in intensive care for four days, Sly revealed Dolph’s punch to his chest is ‘what’s in the original movie’.
Sly previously admitted that he was ‘furious’ not to receive a cut from the iconic Rocky movies, despite the fact that he created the franchise and wrote the screenplay for the first six films.
The Rambo actor told Variety in 2019:
‘I have zero ownership of Rocky. Every word, every syllable, every grammatical error was all my fault.
‘It was shocking that it never came to be, but I was told, “Hey, you got paid, so what are you complaining about?” I was furious.’
However, the star was pleased that his iconic character gave him a ‘voice’, noting: ‘It’s the only voice that I can say what I want without being ridiculed, or being silly, or being precious or sentimental, because he is that way.’
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