Rocky II

"Once he fought for a dream. Now he's fighting for love!"

1979 1h 59m EN

👍

7.3

SOLID

🍅

68%

FRESH

👌

METACRITIC

⭐

7.3

IMDB

★7.3TMDB · 4,990🍅68%Rotten Tomatoes●61Metacritic★7.3IMDB · 244,365

DramaAction

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

After Rocky goes the distance with champ Apollo Creed, both try to put the fight behind them and move on. Rocky settles down with Adrian but can't put his life together outside the ring, while Creed seeks a rematch to restore his reputation. Soon enough, the "Master of Disaster" and the "Italian Stallion" are set on a collision course for a climactic battle that is brutal and unforgettable.

“Once he fought for a dream. Now he's fighting for love!”

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Cast

Sylvester Stallone
Robert 'Rocky' Balboa
Talia Shire
Adrianna 'Adrian' Balboa
Burt Young
Paulie Pennino
Carl Weathers
Apollo Creed
Burgess Meredith
Mickey Goldmill
Tony Burton
Tony 'Duke' Evers
Joe Spinell
Tony Gazzo
Leonard Gaines
Agent

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Sylvester Stallone
Writers: Sylvester Stallone
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Grossed $200M — a 28.6× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

47 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

CINEMA

Did you know

Part of the "Rocky Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Sylvester Stallone, shot by Wilmer Butler. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Bill Conti. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Janice Hampton shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Sylvester Stallone and Talia Shire and Burt Young carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "Once he fought for a dream. Now he's fighting for love!".

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Sylvester Stallone directs. Wilmer Butler behind the camera. Bill Conti scores. Janice Hampton cuts. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Grossed $200M — a 28.6× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.
247 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
3Part of the "Rocky Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
4Directed by Sylvester Stallone, shot by Wilmer Butler. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
5Original score by Bill Conti. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
6Editor Janice Hampton shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
7Sylvester Stallone and Talia Shire and Burt Young carry the top of the cast.
8Marketing tagline: "Once he fought for a dream. Now he's fighting for love!".
9IMDB entry: tt0079817 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
10Classified under 19 themes, including "hero", "husband wife relationship", "coma", "transporter".
11Released under 13 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Wilmer Butler
Original score: Bill Conti
Editing: Janice Hampton
Costume design: Sandy Berke Jordan
Makeup / hair: Philip Goldblat
Stunt coordinator: Jimmy Nickerson
Runtime: 119 min · 1h 59m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $7,000,000
Box office: $200,182,160
Return: 2860% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): PG
IMDB: Rocky II (1979)
Rotten Tomatoes: 68% 🍅 Fresh
Metacritic: 61/100
IMDB rating: 7.3/10 · 244,365 votes
MPAA: PG

Awards

2 wins & 2 nominations total

Part of

Rocky Collection

These sport drama films begin by telling the rags to riches American Dream story of Rocky Balboa, an uneducated but kind-hearted working class Italian-American boxer working as a debt collector for a loan shark in the slums of Philadelphia.

Also by

Sylvester Stallone

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

John Chard2020-05-23
★ 8/10
There's one thing I want you to do for me. After pushing champ Apollo Creed all the way in their title fight, Rocky Balboa retires from the ring and basks in gallant loser glory. However, he soon finds he is down on his luck and accepts a challenge to a rematch with the ever irate Apollo Creed, something that is much to the chagrin of Adrian. Judging by the rating and some of the comments on the net, it would seem that I like this sequel more than most, but I honestly feel this is a worthy sequel to the first (and rightly much beloved) film. It still has credibility at its heart (something that would vanish as each further cash in sequel was trundled out), and crucially, it still has enough rags to riches nuance to keep the audience in its palm. For sure it's guilty of over sentiment at times, Adrian is now the ever loving wife, here pregnant and an authoritative voice in Rocky's life. Yet this continues the emotional heartbeat from the first film, there is, when all is said and done, a quite beautiful romance at the core of the early Rocky movies. Rocky 2 extends that and utilises it to its benefit. When Adrian, after rousing from a coma, tells the big Italian tank to go win, it's akin to some President or Prime Minister declaring "we shall not be defeated", it's inspiring stuff, and of course it sets the wheels in motion for ultimate training and the mother of all punch ups with Apollo Creed. And of course Stallone, again writing and directing, gets to deliver the alternate ending from the first film. Fanciful and safe it be, but Stallone closed down the 70s with a biff bang ball of strained sinews and heroic testosterone. This is unadulterated entertainment to enjoy with a good pint of blood and a roast ox burning on the spit. 8/10
GenerationofSwine2023-01-12
★ 10/10
I haven't seen Creed yet, either of them, and that has me concerned mainly because I hadn't even heard of them until after they were released. So I can't weigh in on all the Rocky movies just yet... ... But Rocky II is what I consider to be the last real Rocky movie. That doesn't mean I don't like the others, but it means that there was a dynamic shift for the series after II. I and II were heavy on the characters and relationships in the universe (although Creed was under-developed in I). In Rocky II they make up for that and you get to know Creed as someone who is a pompous and arrogant poser on the surface and a much deeper and respectable character underneath. And that other side to him comes out in the final bout. He's deeper than just flash, and Action Jackson did a stellar job at portraying that in a way that was essentially nonverbal at the end. It's actually a very enjoyable performance It's also a performance that rounds his character off to the point where you can believe he did what he did in Rocky III. It adds nicely to Adrian (who after II became a regrettable side character), Paulie, and Mickey. In the end what you have is the last great Rocky character film before the franchise drifts away to highlight boxing, only to come back to it's roots in Balboa.
Nathan2023-03-03
★ 9/10
Rocky II is an incredibly worthy sequel to the 1976 hit. The story picks up immediately after the conclusion of the first fight and follows Rocky as he tries to cope with his new-found fame and return to normalcy. I found this aspect to be incredibly impactful. He has very little to offer the white-collar world, forcing him to return to a life of menial labor with only one true dream: to fight again. The true conflict of the film is between the internal desire to fight and provide versus the external pressures to retire. It is in this fight that we dive deeper into the psyche of Rocky. He is a broken and unconfident man, wanting to be more and do more. But the only talent he has is fighting. The journey to this realization may be slow at times, but the payoff is totally worth it. Once the fight is set and Rocky is committed, the movie takes off and never lands. The final fight sequence was intense and invigorating—one of the best sports cinema experiences I have ever had. The acting is much better in this film, which is bolstered by an improved script. Sylvester Stallone is excellent here, and his chemistry with Talia Shire is superb. The two really come into their own with these characters and step out as the true leads to the franchise. Even though the script is better with more digestible dialogue, the overall screenplay is slightly weaker. The story of the first film is perfect and nearly impossible to replicate. Overall, this movie is excellent. It does everything a sequel needs to do and nearly surpasses its predecessor. Score: 87% | Verdict: Excellent