Geopolitics are a difficult beast for Hollywood, and Sly Stallone’s Rambo 3 almost featured a now-deleted ending that would have dated horribly.

Originally, Rambo III had a very different ending — here’s why the alternate finale would have dated horribly in the years since its 1988 release.

The John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) character was first introduced to the world via 1982’s First Blood. An American veteran of the Vietnam War, Rambo struggles to find peace in the years following his time overseas.

Of course, First Blood also shows the devastating consequences of a small-town police force pushing the already tortured — and superbly combat-trained — man over the edge wite

In 1988, Rambo III brought the Sylvester Stallone trilogy to a close in bombastic fashion (though it would later be revived for more installments). Rambo III follows the title character as he heads into Afghanistan to save his friend and mentor, Colonel Sam Trautman, played by Richard Crenna.

Trautman went to Afghanistan to aid the Mujahideen rebels in their fight against the Soviet occupation. However, the old soldier was captured by the Soviet invaders, and it’s up to Rambo to save his friend and escape the war-torn country.

While the movie is generally regarded as the worst in the Rambo series, the original ending would have made the movie’s reception even worse — especially for today’s audiences. Here’s what happened in Rambo III‘s deleted ending, and why it would have aged horribly.

How Rambo 3 Ends

At Rambo III’s end, the namesake warrior has successfully rescued Trautman, killed the villainous Soviet colonel, and brought a fleeting measure of temporary peace to a small corner of Afghanistan.

Rambo and Trautman leave the country, and the film concludes. Interestingly, this Sylvester Stallone movie franchise installment also ends with a dedication that reads, “to the gallant people of Afghanistan.”

Originally, however, an alternate ending would have seen John Rambo decide to stay and fight alongside the Mujahideen in their struggle against the Soviet Union.

Why Rambo 3’s Deleted Ending Would Have Aged Horribly

Although Rambo III‘s original ending might’ve made sense in the context of the movie itself, events that have occurred since would’ve meant that it aged absolutely terribly.

In the 1980s, the Soviet Union (at the behest of the pro-Russian local government) was locked in a bitter struggle with the rebel Mujahideen forces.

The war in Afghanistan was a tremendous folly for the USSR, and is considered one of the greatest failures in Soviet histor

y. Sam Trautman has a provocative line of dialogue in Rambo III (Sylvester Stallone co-wrote the film, as he did with the other series entries) where he directly connects the Soviet-Afghan War to America’s misadventure in Southeast Asia.

He states to his Soviet captors, “We already had our Vietnam. Now you’re gonna have yours.”

The bitter irony here should be obvious to any student of recent history, or any veteran of America’s more recent foreign wars. After Russia pulled out of Afghanistan in 1989 (before ultimately dissolving in 1991), the various Mujahideen groups were unable to reach a unified consensus regarding how to move forward.

Afghanistan remained locked in civil war for many years until the United States invaded Afghanistan following the unprecedented events of September 11, 2001.

While this summation significantly simplifies the situation, Rambo III’s alternate ending featured Stallone’s main character joining up with a group — members of whom would ultimately form the Taliban and team up with al-Qaeda, the terrorist organization that carried out the 9/11 attacks.

The optics of this creative call within the Stallone-led Rambo movie wouldn’t be good anyway, but especially with Rambo himself being such a symbolic American film character.

Needless to say, this now-lost conclusion would have caused the film to age horribly in today’s geopolitical climate. Even without the original ending, Rambo III still lays bare how the United States has spent around two decades meddling in a country it openly supported back in the 1980s.