Sylvester Stallone has established himself as a household name with his Rocky and Rambo series. Since then, his grand career never looked back. He continued to elevate his overall performance leaving audiences spellbound. Given that action is an integral component in almost all his films, it is bound to affect him especially when he stays true to his craft.

Sylvester Stallone in a still from The Expendables 4

Back in 2010, he brought The Expendables franchise to life with its first installment. Jam-packed with action, it featured pretty heavy action that he decided to take on seriously, leaving a permanent mark on him. However, the interesting fact is that his on-set injuries are his grading system when it comes to his projects.

Sylvester Stallone’s Deadliest Grading System for His Films

Official still from The Expendables 3

The Hollywood action-star, Sylvester Stallone is no stranger to actions. He often prefers to experience the action in real life, reflected in his craft when the camera rolls. Given that light injuries are the unwanted part that an action actor signs up for, they often end up getting permanent injuries during the filming. In the case of the 77-year-old actor, he faced serious injuries during the production of The Expendables 3. Comparing the same, he talked about how he was not hurt in his 1992 film, Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot despite being a critical flop.

In an interview with Mirror, he gave an insight on his injuries further adding that he connects the intensity of his on-set injuries to the quality of his films.

“I grade the quality of a film by the intensity of the injuries. When I shot Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot, I never got hurt.” 

Not just a critical failure, it grossed $70.6 million worldwide. He has already told Ain’t It Cool news that this movie is “the worst film I’ve ever made by far… a flatworm could write a better script then STOP! OR MY MOM WILL SHOOT.”

He continued to share how through the course of his work in the Rambo and The Expendables series, he faced intensive injuries but the one he got in the 2014 film was way different from these. He continued to share with Mirror,

“Through Rambo and The Expendables, I break my neck and my spine and I dislocate both shoulders.” He added, “In this one here, I end up really taking a fall on my back and had some metal put in there, so if you hear any squeaking, it’s not my shoes but my back. But I’m getting better.”

Not just him, his co-stars also had to go through a similar experience with Jason Statham experiencing a near-fatal ride partly due to the former. However, all these efforts did not save the movie from being panned by critics.

Sylvester Stallone Talked About a Serious Incident Involving Jason Statham

A still from The Expend4bles

Stallone and his co-stars had to perform extreme physical activities and dangerous action sequences for their third installment in the action-packed franchise. The Rambo actor revealed in the same interview,

“Jason actually fought death in the midst of the Black Sea. He’s very modest about it but he drove a five-tonne truck 60 feet down into black mud because I cut the brake line.”

He further revealed that no one knew the fact until he confessed it in the interview. The star-studded movie included an ensemble cast involving Wesley Snipes, Mel Gibson, Harrison Ford, and Arnold Schwarzenegger ended up becoming a critical flop.

Meanwhile, it performed financially well, grossing over $209.46 million (via The Numbers) against the production budget of around $100 million. Its sequel, Expend4bles, which was released this September is both a critical and box-office flop that has grossed only $42.7 million worldwide till now (via The Numbers).

While Expend4bles is yet to be available online, one can watch The Expendables 3 on Starz and Peacock.

Source: Mirror, The Numbers, Ain’t It Cool