Rambo: Last Blood, the fifth film in the action franchise, has released its first plot and character details. The upcoming sequel, presumably the final one in the series, follows up 2008's Rambo, which brought the human embodiment of war back to theaters after a 20-year absence. Star Sylvester Stallone has been teasing the production for almost a decade. But it seems to have finally started casting.

The previous Rambo had the war-scarred Vietnam veteran living a quiet life in Thailand. A group of Christian aid workers charter his boat to travel to Burma, which is in the middle of a decades-long war. Rambo ends up taking up his old ways again to rescue them. At the end, he returns to his family farm in the United States, and the new film will apparently pick up there.

According to GWW, Rambo 5 will send the character up against a gang of human traffickers operating out of Mexico. Casting is also in progress, with audition tapes circulating online. From the scene readings, it looks like Rambo will be mixing some interrogation in with his stabbing and shooting. The new characters include Robert Siedel, an American involved in the criminal enterprise; Hugo, a low-level operative; Victor, a more calculating villain; and Gabrielle, a Mexican woman who seems to be bad at cutting hair, if we're hearing the audio correctly. The plot details are below.

"Rambo teams up with a journalist to track down and rescue a group local girls that have been kidnapped by a Mexican sex trafficking ring, after trying to settling down to a quiet life stateside at the family ranch in Arizona after spending decades abroad."


This premise matches the bulk of the series. In addition to those missionaries in Burma, Rambo also rescued American POWs in Vietnam in First Blood Part II and his former commanding officer from Afghanistan in Rambo III. This will be the first film to take place in the United States since the original, which put the former Green Beret up against a small-town sheriff's department. After the first movie's commentary about veterans' struggles to rejoin society, the series has leaned more to spectacular violence, and the latest looks to continue the trend.

The original plan for Rambo 5, which was subtitled "Savage Hunt," was an adaptation of the novel Hunter. This version would have returned the action to the Pacific Northwest setting of the original. It also would have put the hero up against a rogue genetic experiment, a half man and half beast that escaped from an illegal research lab in the Arctic Circle. Mixed responses to this premise led Stallone, who is directing, to stick with a more traditional premise.

Rambo 5 will start filming soon and may release in 2019.