Hope Is in B.C.

First Blood, starring Sylvester Stallone, was filmed in Hope, B.C. We are coming up on the 40th anniversary. First Blood has grossed US$150 million on a budget of 15. Hope is small, a mountain town a couple hours north of Vancouver by car. 

This cinema opened up in Hope in 1945. First Blood (above) was showing when we were in town. There is a walking tour Hope for the filming of First Blood that takes one around four or five blocks of the town, with 13 stops: 

1. Sheriff Teagle picks up John Rambo on Water Avenue, which runs along the Fraser River and serves as Hope's bypass. The Fraser River starts in Prince George, my hometown, around 1000 kilometers north. It empties out through Vancouver into the Pacific. The sheriff takes an immediate dislike to Rambo and his kind, although he has no idea about him because he has never met Rambo before. 

2. Rambo jumps tracks at Third Ave. 

3. Rambo speeds past the H tree on Hudson Bay St. An H tree has twin trunks.

4. Sheriff Teagle's police station was put up in front of District Hall. The actual police station in Hope is manned by the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police), so that wasn't going to work. The town is supposed to be in southern Washington state, not southern British Columbia.

5. Mountain State Savings was supposed to be at 10-300 Third Avenue. There is no such place in Canada that I am aware of. Fake bank.

6. Realizing justice is something he cannot hope for, Rambo breaks out of jail and commandeers a motorbike. He speeds down the sidewalk of Wallace Street as pedestrians scramble to make way. Message to the town and especially its sheriff: I tried it your way and that did not work. Make a path. I'm coming through.

 

Rambo on the sidewalk in Hope.

7. The Outpost Gun Shop was made for the film. Rambo took it out.

8. Rambo walked under a "Welcome to Hope" sign at the start of the movie. Like lots of Canadian small towns of the eighties, he found out this one wasn't so welcoming. The sign is gone. I looked up the definition of hope. I found two noun classifications of hope and one verb: "A feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen." Or, "a feeling of trust." For verb, "want something to happen" or "to be the case." To be the case to me means wishful thinking, which is good explanation for any destination or place we would like to settle down in. 

9. A gas station was constructed the Crowsnest Highway for Rambo to blow up.

10. Sheriff Teagle drives John Rambo to the other side of town and tells him not to come back because they don't like his kind around here. Rambo, mystified by the inhospitable behavior of Teagle, decides to circle back to figure out what's what. Actually, nobody believes that. This has become a dick-swinging contest between a small town sheriff and Vietnam vet. If Rambo had taken the sheriff's advice, the movie wouldn't have  had anywhere to go. First Blood would have been over after fifteen minutes. And Rambo absolutely did not draw first blood. The sheriff drew first blood by harassing Rambo and calling him a hippie. True, Rambo was looking shaggy and unkempt, but nothing could be further from reality. 

11. Rambo speeds through a Chevron Station. It's the Hope Pizza Place now.

12. Rambo Lane. There's a Stallone's Bar in town as well. One can order a Rambo Burger for $Cdn.25 (two burgers, eggs, pickles, onions, vegetables and bacon). 

13. Rambo blows out a transformer. A FIELDS sign is behind him. FIELDS is an old school five and dime, like a small town version of Walmart selling cheap shit before we importing it from China. FIELDS is still in Hope.

The downtown of Hope is ten avenues by fifteen streets. I suppose many people would consider it dated. I don't want to pay for museums in Canada because they are so expensive. I find a museum version of history on the streets instead.