Today we have a very special matchup as we pit the modern action hero John Wick against
the classic action blockbuster hero of yesterday, John Rambo.
Both men are highly trained killers with body counts that number in the hundreds- yet when
put face to face in an ultimate death match, who would come out on top?
This is a battle of new school versus old school, the talented rookie versus the crafty
veteran, as today we find out once and for all who would win in a battle to the death-
John Wick or John Rambo.
John Wick may be the new kid on the action hero scene, but he's still a middle-aged assassin.
In the comics, Wick is forced to fend for himself from a young age, making his living
as a thief in a poor Mexican village, until his thievery drew the ire of a group of gunmen
who decimated his small town.
In the film series though, Wick is portrayed as an orphan from Belarus who was taken under
the wing of a top assassin and brought to the US, where he was taught to take up his
mentor’s trade.
Whatever origin story you prefer, the next phase of Wick's life involved a brief stint
with the US Marine Corps, where he served as an infantryman- though the lack of available
information on Wick's service record indicates he may have actually spent some time as a
special forces operator.
His time in the service didn't last long though, and Wick left the corps to become a professional
hitman, joining the Continental, a chain of hotels that caters exclusively to criminals.
Wick's expertise in hand to hand combat and firearms both quickly drew the attention of
top crime bosses, and soon Wick had developed a close relationship with Russian mobster
Viggo Tarasov, working as his top cleaner.
One day though Wick met a woman, and after falling in love with her asked to be released
from his duties as a killer.
Tarasov agreed- but only if Wick could accomplish an impossible task: eliminate all of Tarasov's
rivals in just one night.
Much to Tarasov's surprise, Wick was able to complete the seemingly impossible task
and looked forward to spending his life with his new wife.
Sadly, she would soon die from cancer and gift him a dog to help ease his grief.
Wick and his dog would live happily ever after and nothing horrible ever happened to that
dog - Just kidding, you know perfectly well what happened and what a mistake that was.
Despite being on the slightly older end of middle aged, Wick is still in peak physical
condition, as is befitting a man of his skill.
He is adept in multiple martial arts and is a master marksman, fully versed in the operation
of various firearms including pistols, rifles, and shotguns.
He is also a skilled sharpshooter, and is as proficient with a long gun as he is any
close-in weapon.
If forced into hand-to-hand combat, Wick can call upon a wide range of disciplines including
Judo, Sambo, Jiu-jitsu, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, Aikjutsu, and Krav Maga.
One of his greatest assets though is his incredible mental fortitude, with the ability to suppress
even extreme amounts of pain and maintain his concentration.
He is fluent in several languages, including English, Russian, and Italian amongst others,
and can even use the American Sign Language- so even deaf criminals won't be spared from
a final one-liner.
Despite all of his killing skills this though, Wick only uses violence as a last resort,
and much prefers to intimidate or discourage opponents from seeking out the violent alternative.
He also makes it a point to ensure that innocent people are not harmed during the course of
his work, taking great pains to avoid any collateral damage.
Despite all of his strengths though, Wick suffers from several key weaknesses.
Wick's overbearing need for revenge and his anger both often force him into inopportune
situations, and can blind him into ceding the tactical advantage to his enemy.
Often Wick will prefer a brute-force approach over a more carefully thought out strategy
if the target he is pursuing is someone who has offended him personally, and this can
be used to manipulate Wick.
In the other corner is John Rambo, the Cold-War era action hero and all-around American bad
ass.
Born in Bowie, Arizona, Rambo had a tough childhood and his mother died while he was
still young.
This left him working on his family's ranch, with a father who was an alcoholic and often
abusive.
With no friends and no family life to speak of, Rambo sought out the companionship of
the Native American elders living nearby, and they taught Rambo how to hunt and use
their traditional weapon: the bow and arrow.
They also taught Rambo tribal hand-to-hand wrestling and striking techniques, forging
the budding teenager into a formidable opponent.
One day shortly before receiving his draft notice for the Vietnam War, his drunk father
attacked him with a knife, trying to kill him.
Rambo disarmed his father and shot him with an arrow, almost killing him before running
away.
With no other options in life, Rambo enlisted with the US Army.
Rambo entered into infantry training but was selected to become an airborne Ranger, graduating
from Ranger school in May of 1966.
His first deployment would be later that year in September, as he accompanied the legendary
101st Airborne to South Vietnam.
After two tours of duty, Rambo volunteered for special forces training, and he returned
to the US in December of 1967 to undergo special forces training at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
Eventually Rambo would become a fabled Green Beret, these 'snake eaters' as they are known
are one of the most feared special units in the world, and their very long history of
operating deep behind enemy lines speaks to their fearsome reputation.
Rambo's service throughout the Vietnam War would remain classified to this day, though
it is known that he often operated so deep behind enemy lines that extraction by foot
was the only way home.
At one point he and his team were captured though, and all of the men endured extreme
torture until most of them had died from their wounds.
Rambo bore his torture without ever spilling his secrets, spending months living in a hole
dug in the ground with feces and urine frequently thrown on him by his captors.
To escape Rambo purposefully gave himself dysentery, and when his guard went to fetch
help, Rambo made his escape, stumbling back to friendly lines from deep in enemy-held
jungle and burning with fever.
Rambo would end his tour of service in Vietnam with 59 confirmed kills, many more unconfirmed,
two silver stars, four bronze stars, four purple hearts, the Congressional Medal of
Honor, and the Distinguished Service Cross.
Rambo is a veteran of one of the nastiest wars the United States has ever waged.
He is an expert marksman, and is fond of using a modern compound bow to achieve stealthy
kills.
He is very physically strong, able to fire an M60 machine gun from the hip without suffering
much lack of accuracy from recoil.
Despite his huge size though, Rambo is incredibly stealthy, as befits a man who for a decade
made his living by haunting the deepest jungles of Vietnam.
He is a master of camouflage, able to conceal himself from even thermal surveillance.
Trained in Jiu-Jitsu and Taekwondo during his time in the Army, Rambo is a formidable
hand-to-hand fighter, and his superior strength allows him to overpower even more technically
skilled opponents.
An extremely high pain tolerance also allows Rambo to remain clear headed despite many
painful wounds.
Despite all this though, Rambo's greatest strength is his very intelligent, tactical
mind.
A master of ambush, Rambo is extremely skilled at setting up deadly surprises for his opponents,
and rather than use brute force to overpower an enemy, prefers to shock and awe them through
a variety of distractions and surprise attacks.
Rambo's weaknesses include a distaste for civilian casualties, and he is known to back
off an attack if innocents are threatened by his actions.
Suffering from extreme post traumatic stress disorder, Rambo's psyche is also very fragile,
and he has taken to living as a hermit isolated from the world in order to deal with the very
painful memories of his own past.
Despite seeing them as necessary evils, Rambo deeply regrets every kill he has ever committed,
and seeks to redeem what he can of his soul through using his talents for violence for
good in his final years.
So we have a modern urban assassin up against the feared white ghost of Vietnam's jungles-
who would come out on top?
As in most fights, this confrontation would very much rely on the environment.
Rambo's extensive training in the wilderness would give him an unparalleled advantage if
fighting outside of a population center, where the very environment can become a deadly foe.
John Wick however is much more capable of navigating the urban landscape, and in a battle
between two trained killers seeking to remain hidden from their quarry until the last possible
moment- Rambo would stand out like a sore thumb in a crowded urban metropolis.
Both men are extremely skilled with firearms, and yet neither show a preference for one
type of weapon over another- except for Rambo's use of bows for quiet kills.
This means that both combatants are going to be bringing the weapon best suited for
the task at hand to the fight, and given their experience in combat, they would both likely
be choosing similar weapons.
This leaves neither with an advantage or disadvantage over the other, and at firefighting range,
victory would go to the man who puts sights on target accurately first.
The two are so evenly matched in this category that a winner would likely come down to dumb
luck or a lucky shot.
In hand to hand combat, John Wick is the superior technical fighter, yet Rambo is by far physically
stronger.
In most hand to hand matchups, the win is going to go to Rambo- as Bruce Lee famously
said, in a fight between him and Muhammad Ali, he believed Ali would win every time
due to his far superior strength.
While Rambo's strength may have weakened over the years due to his age, in a fight between
the two when at similar ages, Rambo would win a melee more times than not.
But who would win the overall fight?
Well, in this case John Wick actually has two glaring vulnerabilities that Rambo's keen
strategic mind could easily capitalize on- Wick's anger and his pressing need for revenge.
As has been evidenced before, Wick will often do dumb things, or at least forego strategic
advantages in his all-consuming quest for revenge.
This would be easily exploited by Rambo, who is a keen thinker and has a background in
defeating his enemies psychologically before doing so physically.
Having learned how to set up ambushes and manipulate his enemies in the deep jungles
of Vietnam, Rambo could easily manipulate Wick into a deadly ambush by perhaps, killing
his new dog and taunting Wick into retaliating.
Wick's headlong charge after Rambo would be his undoing, and at the end of the day Rambo
proves that age and experience, and keeping a cool head in combat, always prevails over
sheer aggression.
Do you agree or disagree with our verdict?
Why or why not?
Let us know in the comments!
And if you enjoyed this video check out one of our other epic Who Would Win matchups,
or check out our You Versus series as we pit you, the average Joe against all sorts of
bad guys and monsters!
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