Dead and deader

When the newest "Rambo" movie opens later this week, there's going to be a lot of death and dying. So I got myself an early copy, watched it several times through, stopping and starting along the way, to try to quantify exactly who was being killed and how. My goal was to update a chart I had done several years ago on the earlier "Rambo" movies.

The body count below includes only people who visibly fall inert after being bombed; garroted; blasted; stabbed; strangled; blown up by mines, artillery, grenades or other explosives; shot by bullets, artillery or arrows; incinerated by fires or flame throwers; bludgeoned; stomped or beaten; disemboweled or beheaded; or pushed or tossed off precipices or out of aircraft. It also includes people who had their necks snapped. In a couple of scenes, the action moved very quickly, and bodies became hard to distinguish (such as when a whole bunch of people were mowed down by machine-gun fire), but in most cases, the death toll was clear.