EXCLUSIVE: Brutal Realities of Making 'Rocky IV' Revealed on 40th Anniversary of Cold War Boxing Blockbuster — From Savage Casting Process to Sylvester Stallone Almost Dying After Shooting Fight Scene
'Rocky IV' continues to be one of the most popular films in the franchise.
Nov. 28 2025, Published 5:20 p.m. ET
The making of Rocky IV was so bruising Sylvester Stallone ended up in intensive care after insisting on taking full-force punches during its climactic fight, RadarOnline.com can reveal as the blockbuster marks its 40th birthday.
Its Swedish star Dolph Lundgren, then a 27-year-old, 6ft 5in karate champion, cast as Soviet powerhouse Ivan Drago, was a relative unknown when he joined Stallone's fourth outing as Rocky Balboa, shot in the mid-1980s at the height of Cold War tensions in the United States.
The Fight That Sent Stallone to ICU
Stallone landed in intensive care after taking full force punches on the set of 'Rocky IV.'
Stallone wrote, directed, and starred in the 1985 film, which pitted Rocky against Lundgren's lab-built Soviet "fighting machine" in a blood-spattered bout that ended up mirroring the era's geopolitical anxieties and ultimately became the biggest box office hit of the Rocky series.
Lundgren recalls the brutal realism of that final 15-round showdown came at a serious cost once Stallone ordered him to abandon pulled punches.
The towering action mad recalled: "He said, 'Hit me, Dolph!' I think I hit him a little bit too hard a few times... ."
Lundgren's blows to Stallone's chest were actually so fierce his heart swelled, and his blood pressure shot up, landing him in intensive care for more than a week.
A Commitment to Brutal Realism
Dolph Lundgren hit Stallone hard during the film's climactic fight scene.
He has also recalled how the production pushed both him and Stallone way beyond normal stunt work, using unforgiving 8oz gloves and improvising punch combinations closer to a genuine heavyweight contest than a choreographed movie sequence.
Lundgren said: "The fight scenes were tough. But I was very tough in those days. I was a contact karate fighter – I was used to getting beaten up for real. I was always impressed by Stallone. I was 10 years younger, and I was a karate champion. He kept up with me. We did hit each other, especially in the body. Even to the face sometimes."
The Savage Casting Process
Stallone chose Lundgren over two Russian fighters for the part of Ivan Drago.
But landing the role of Drago was itself a punishing process that nearly passed Lundgren by. Before being cast, Lundgren was a former chemical engineering student dating singer and actor Grace Jones. The future star was bouncing between open auditions when he walked into a casting office and noticed a sign reading Rocky IV behind the agent's desk.
He said: "I was turned down. The woman said, 'How tall?' I said, 'Six-five.' She said, 'Next!'" Refusing to give up, Lundgren sent a photograph to Stallone while working a small role as a KGB heavy in the James Bond film A View to a Kill, and soon found himself on a plane to Los Angeles.
The actor continued: "I was starstruck. He was about to shoot Rambo II. He was all tanned with long hair."
Stallone told him there had been thousands of hopefuls for Drago, but that it had boiled down to Lundgren and two Russian fighters who, in Lundgren's words, read the part like "Mr. T in Russian."
IVan Drago's Icy Legacy
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Lundgren delivered the iconic line, 'I must break you' with icy stillness.
Lundgren opted instead for an icy stillness that turned Drago into a near-silent emblem of state power.
He explained: "I did a cool Soviet officer version," a choice leaving him with just nine lines, including the now-iconic, "I must break you," and the chilling ringside verdict over Apollo Creed's broken body, "If he dies, he dies."
The character's stoic, mechanical menace helped cement his status as one of Rocky's most memorable opponents. Yet Lundgren insists Drago was never meant to be a simple villain.
The actor has long compared him to a Cold War Frankenstein's monster – a manufactured product of Soviet science and politics who slowly rebels against the system that built him.
Lundgren said: "They kind of embraced me as one of their own – as a bit of a Soviet hero because in the movie he's like Frankenstein's Monster, he's not Frankenstein."
"The system created him... I think they looked up to me the way they looked up to other Soviet athletes. The fact that I stand up to the system in the movie came across as a good thing. I'm sure most Russians were tired of the Soviet state at that point."
Decades later, the legacy of Rocky IV and Drago's impact continues to evolve, with Lundgren returning to the role in Creed II and in Stallone's recut Rocky IV: Rocky vs Drago, which was made to mark the film's 35th anniversary and leans further into the character's humanity.
Reflecting on the film's message, Lundgren connects its climactic plea for understanding to the real world beyond the ring at the time, declaring it was a symbol of "full-on Cold War Eighties."
