Every 'Rocky' Movie, Ranked

Director: John G. Avildsen
Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire, Burt Young, Sage Stallone, Tommy Morrison, Burgess Meredith

It’s fashionable to bash this movie, and in all fairness, it is the weakest one of the franchise. But it has some good ideas and themes that, in more capable, motivated hands, could have gelled into something special.

Instead, we got Rocky V. In the film, Rocky is broke again; thanks a lot, Uncle Paulie. He has a traumatic brain injury from fighting Drago in Rocky IV. And forced to retire, Rocky begins living vicariously through a young boxer named Tommy Gunn, while neglecting the actual son he has right in front of him.

There is one indispensable scene: a flashback of Rocky bonding with Mickey (played by a then-82-year-old Burgess Meredith). It is one of the greatest scenes in the entire franchise, which adds insult to injury. To see it, you’ll have to wade through an exaggerated Don King impression and a street fight that, no matter how violent, can’t measure up to the drama of a 15-round fight.

Director: Sylvester Stallone
Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire, Burt Young, Carl Weathers, Burgess Meredith, Mr. T

By Rocky IV, Rocky was an All-American caricature. But this process of sanding down the Italian Stallion’s edges began with Rocky III. In Rocky III, Rocky finally has a taste of the good life. He’s raising his family. He’s appearing on The Muppet Show. He’s knocking out opponent after opponent. But then he learns that Mickey has been protecting him by handpicking his opponents. He’s no longer hungry—or “civilized”—as Mickey puts it. And when Rocky faces Clubber Lang, who is hungry and angry, he has to reignite his passion.

Rocky III redeems Apollo, who is a blowhard and a heel in Rocky II. In this movie, Apollo becomes Rocky’s trainer and replaces Mickey after his death. Through Apollo, Rocky learns footwork—something he should study, since he has the unconventional technique of blocking his opponents’ punches with his face. Of all the Rocky movies, Rocky III is the most conventional. The franchise had settled into its groove, with a formula it could repeat, remix, and redeliver over and over again.

Director: Michael B. Jordan
Starring: Michael B. Jordan, Tessa Thompson, Jonathan Majors, Wood Harris, Mila Davis-Kent, Florian Munteanu, Phylicia Rashad

Creed III tells a natural, logical extension of Adonis’ story at a time when most franchises would descend into self-parody. Adonis does not forget and relearn the same lessons. He’s always moving forward.

This is Michael B. Jordan’s directorial debut, and Jordan demonstrates both flair and humility. Flair, because of bold artistic choices: like his decision to remove the crowds from the middle rounds of the final fight and his use of high-frame-rate IMAX cameras to emphasize the impact of the punches. Humility, because this is a co-headlining feature. Creed III is as much about Damian Anderson as it is about Adonis Creed, and the final fight feels like both a tragedy and a triumph.

Damian (Majors), Adonis’ old friend turned opponent, has a legitimate, sympathetic reason to be angry. We can disagree with his actions and how he applied that anger, but we cannot deny the rawness of Adonis’ betrayal, nor Damian’s hurt at being forgotten by the one person who should have remembered him.

Director: Sylvester Stallone
Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire, Burt Young, Carl Weathers, Burgess Meredith

Rocky II is not bad. But it suffers from its proximity to the original movie, and it adds a lot of cheap sentimentality that, by Rocky III, became an unfortunate franchise trademark. The 800 kids running up the steps with Rocky? The detached retina and Adrian’s coma? Like many sequels, it’s too much of everything, and it all happens in too short a time frame.

It also undermines the first movie. The point of Rocky was that it did not matter that he lost the fight. He now had Adrian, and he had proven his worth to himself. Rocky II gives us the ending we wanted but didn’t need. Paradoxically, Rocky II manages to be the most inessential and essential movie in the franchise. It was, at the time of its release, an unnecessarily saccharine addendum to the original. But without it, none of the preceding films would have been possible, which means we have to love it.

Director: Steven Caple Jr.
Starring: Michael B. Jordan, Sylvester Stallone, Tessa Thompson, Wood Harris, Florian Munteanu, Phylicia Rashad, Dolph Lundgren

Decades after the “exhibition fight” that killed Adonis’ father—and the subsequent, unsanctioned fight that gave Rocky brain trauma and PTSD—Adonis fights Ivan Drago’s son, Viktor, in a grudge match. In one corner is Rocky. And in the other corner is Ivan, reprised by Dolph Lundgren.

The fights are visceral and intense; you feel the impact when Adonis gets his ribs cracked and his kidney ruptured. And because of the characters’ history, there’s a sinister undertone to all this violence; somebody might end up dead. The story writes itself—of course, Adonis would want revenge for his father’s death. But Rocky and Ivan steal the show; they’re essentially fighting a proxy war through Adonis and Viktor. And that isn’t the right focus, especially in a movie called Creed II.

Director: Sylvester Stallone
Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire, Burt Young, Carl Weathers, Brigitte Nielsen, Dolph Lundgren

This is the Rocky franchise at its dumbest and most jingoistic. Rocky IV drops any pretense that Rocky is a down-on-his-luck bum; now he’s an American hero fighting evil Soviet Russia, embodied by Ivan Drago. Everyone is an overblown cartoon character, and the servant robot that Rocky gives to Paulie is a much-mocked, unnecessary distraction.

The movie ends with the anticipated Rocky vs. Drago fight, in which Rocky is so brave, so noble, and good that the Russians begin cheering for him instead of their countryman. And then, Rocky gives a speech to end the Cold War, accomplishing what multiple presidents and diplomats could not achieve after decades of brinkmanship. It’s preposterous, on its face.

And yet, there are so many wonderful sequences. Remember the parallel workout sequences of Drago and Rocky, where Drago uses exercise equipment and Rocky, good old-fashioned America that he is, uses farm equipment? Or how about the scene where Apollo dances with James Brown, mere minutes before his tragic death?

Objectively, this might be one of the worst movies in the Rocky franchise. But it commits, wholly, to its premise, and it is memorable, which is one of the best things a movie can be.

Director: Sylvester Stallone
Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Burt Young, Antonio Tarver

Sylvester Stallone was unhappy with Rocky V. He viewed it, as many fans do, as a poor end to the franchise. His attempt at rectifying this mistake was Rocky Balboa. In fact, if you watch Rocky Balboa after Rocky IV, you would never know that anything’s missing. By refusing to reference Rocky V or even use its events in the subsequent movies, it’s as if the movie never existed.

When the story begins, Adrian is dead from “woman cancer,” as Rocky puts it. He owns a restaurant called Adrian’s where he tells his old stories, and he spends the rest of his time wandering around his old neighborhood, feeling sad. He’s lured back to the ring, one last time, to face the heavyweight champion of the world: Mason “The Line” Dixon.

Rocky Balboa retreads a lot of the same ground that Rocky V does—the loss of old friends, the pain of growing old, the self-doubt, and the feeling that you might not have “it” anymore—but does it far better.

Director: Ryan Coogler
Starring: Michael B. Jordan, Sylvester Stallone, Tessa Thompson, Phylicia Rashad, Anthony Bellew

Creed manages the unenviable task of being a Rocky movie while also staking out its own identity. It tells the tale of Apollo Creed’s illegitimate son, who got adopted from a youth detention center by Apollo’s widow (imagine the mixed emotions that go into that decision). When Adonis decides to become a boxer, he needs a trainer, so he goes to Philadelphia to find Rocky.

One of the best things about the Rocky movies is the sense of lineage. Duke Evers trained Rocky. In this movie, Duke’s son, Tony “Little Duke” Evers, trains Adonis. That’s how director Ryan Coogler anchors this story firmly in Rocky’s world, even though he makes it about Adonis and his support system. Tessa Thompson is radiant as Adonis’ love interest Bianca, a musician with progressive hearing loss. Phylicia Rashad is perfectly cast as Mary Anne Creed.

Creed is about boxing, but it’s also about social class, belonging, and family. Adonis was raised in wealth and is college-educated; he doesn’t have to fight the way Rocky did. But he’s still driven, because, as he says to Rocky, he wants to prove that he’s “not a mistake.” And by embracing the father he never knew, he also embraces Rocky, the father figure he never had.

Director: John G. Avildsen
Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire, Burt Young, Carl Weathers, Burgess Meredith

The first one is the best one. Rocky is not only the best movie in the Rocky franchise, but it is also one of the greatest movies ever made. Before Rocky became the world champion, he was a washed-up boxer with nothing to lose because he had nothing to begin with. Then, he gets a lucky chance to fight Apollo Creed, the heavyweight champion of the world, for the title. He trains as hard as he can to beat the odds and prove to himself, and the world, that he’s not a bum.

The striking thing about Rocky, especially watching it today with fresh eyes, is how it dares to be unglamorous and “warts and all” about Rocky’s life. He’s a debt collector for a loan shark. His best friend, Paulie, is an emotionally abusive alcoholic. He is not a smart man, and he is not a good fighter either. The only thing he has that’s working in his favor is his heart.

That heart isn’t enough to beat Apollo; Rocky loses the fight in a split decision. But he’s made such strides in his life that he doesn’t even care. And that’s the beauty of this film; it’s not about winning or losing—it’s about the growth and the journey.