Arnold Schwarzenegger And Sylvester Stallone's Feud, Explained

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To anyone who didn't experience it directly, it's hard to explain just how massive Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone were during their prime — and not just in terms of their ridiculous physiques. In the 1980s, these two titans of action moviemaking were at the very top of their game, epitomizing a new age of action hero that was all about uber-macho posturing and ridiculously high kill count. With that in mind, it's not hard to imagine why a rift might have formed between the two pre-eminent action stars of the decade.

Sly had made his name with 1976's "Rocky," penning a draft of the script in three days and catapulting himself to stardom. Though he undeniably became a hero as the hangdog pugilist from Philly, it would take a little while for him to transform into the mountain of a man that fronted the "Rambo" films. Even 1982's "First Blood," the first "Rambo" movie, was nothing like the bombastic, all-out action entries that would follow. It was only after 1985's bewilderingly-titled "Rambo: First Blood Part II" that Stallone became a real action icon.

Meanwhile, Schwarzenegger had charted a different route to stardom. The Austrian never did have the sensitivity that allowed Stallone to write as well as he did. But he did have massive muscles, which earned him roles as a man with massive muscles in films during the late '70s and early '80s. 1982's "Conan the Barbarian" was his first significant starring role, and 1984's "The Terminator" showed he could play a darker, more villainous part just as well. But 1985's "Commando" was what really cemented the Austrian Oak's action movie bonafides. After that, competition between Sly and Schwarzenegger was pretty much unavoidable. But the rivalry actually started prior to them becoming the biggest action stars in the world.

Anyone who's seen 1977's "Pumping Iron" will know that Arnold Schwarzenegger was a bit of a bully. The man clearly reveled in mocking a young Lou Ferrigno (who was eventually cast over Arnie in "The Incredible Hulk") during their bodybuilding days, and while it was all ostensibly a mind game to undermine his competition, Arnie seemed to be enjoying it a little too much. The same year that documentary debuted, Arnie attended the 34th Golden Globe Awards where he and Stallone came face to face for the first time — and wouldn't you know it, Arnie couldn't help but try the same mind games on his new rival.

In a Variety interview, Stallone recalled that first awards night meeting, which saw the pair seated at the same table. "I'm going, 'Who is this big guy?,'" explained Sly, "and he goes, 'I'm Arnold Schwarzenegger, new talent of the year,' and I go, 'Excuse me, all right.'" While Stallone's "Rocky" had been nominated in numerous categories, Arnie was indeed up for New Star of the Year following his role in 1976 comedy drama "Stay Hungry" (he played a bodybuilder, in case you were wondering). He won.

According to Sly, Schwarzenegger was "gloating and gloating and gloating" and when "Rocky" lost in multiple categories, it only got worse. Finally, "Rocky" did win for Best Picture, and Stallone took the opportunity to respond to Arnie's gloating. "I managed to grab this giant bowl of flowers and it heave it in his direction," recalled the actor. "I went, okay the gauntlet is down." Indeed, when he threw that bowl of flowers, Sly had truly thrown down the gauntlet, thus beginning what the actor referred to as a "10-year battle royale."

In 1977, when the pair first met, Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger were yet to truly go head-to-head at the box office. Over the next few years, however, they would do just that. Before "Rambo: First Blood Part II" competed with "Commando" in 1985, Schwarzenegger's "Conan the Barbarian" debuted the same year as "Rocky III" and "First Blood," the inaugural Rambo film born from two harrowing stories about war veterans. While "Conan" helped Arnie's star power, Stallone's two 1982 films confirmed he was the real movie star at the time.

In 1983, Sly directed "Saturday Night Fever" sequel "Staying Alive," which was the only movie he ever directed in which he didn't also star. It was a major flop. Arnie, meanwhile, was gearing up to debut as the titular cyborg in James Cameron's "The Terminator," which arrived the following year and changed sci-fi filmmaking forever.

By 1985, then, Schwarzenegger was catching up to his rival's standing in Hollywood, and with "Commando," he cemented himself as the challenger to Stallone's action dominance. The rivalry was in full swing. What followed was a mud-slinging match in the press and a competition to see who could be the most deadly on-screen killing machine possible.

Debuting in October of '85, five months after "First Blood Part II," "Commando" was a chance for Schwarzenegger to out-Stallone Sylvester Stallone, showcasing its star as an unstoppable force capable of mowing down entire armies single-handedly. That was essentially what Sly had done with his "Rambo" sequel, transforming the formerly haunted Vietnam vet John J. Rambo into an equally formidable one-man army. After that, the gloves were well and truly off, and the pair seemingly went into every movie with the goal of one-upping the other.

Arnold Schwarzenegger recalled the most intense phase of the feud during a 2017 Beyond Fest Q&A, where he said, "All of a sudden it became a competition about who has the most muscular body. So I said, 'Sly, forget about that now. Because there's only one seven-time Mr. Olympia, and it's me!'" But it wasn't just about physique. As Arnie explained:

"He had to use bigger weapons. So then it was a competition of who had the biggest gun, and then who uses the biggest knife. Do you remember the Rambo knife became so big it was like a sword? No one has a knife like that! But Stallone had one built, so I had to come in with a bigger one. This is how it went. Who has the most unique killings? Who kills more people on screen? Who makes more money at the box office? Who has less body fat when he goes into production? All of this s*** started happening, and it didn't stop! It was unbelievable."

Meanwhile, the two stars were hurling insults in the press. In a 1985 interview with The News of the World (via Vulture), Arnie said he'd be angry to hear his name "mentioned in the same breath as Stallone's," adding, "Stallone uses body doubles for some of the close-ups in his movies. I don't." More jabs came in a 1988 Playboy interview, in which Schwarzenegger said that Sly "just gives off the wrong vibrations." Then Stallone hit back. A story broke accusing the Austrian star of being a Nazi sympathizer, and in "Fantastic: The Life Of Arnold Schwarzenegger," biographer Laurence Leamer claims Stallone was the source. 

After that, Arnie struck one of the most devastating blows of the whole fiery feud.

In 1992, Arnold Schwarzenegger pulled a downright dastardly move, tricking Sylvester Stallone into a shocker of a flop with "Stop! Or My Mom will Shoot." Sly has seemingly remained ashamed of the comedy ever since. "You sit there and you go, 'Okay, I was on drugs,'" he told Variety. "It had to be, someone put LSD in my toothpaste, this can't possibly have happened." As the story goes, Schwarzenegger put it out there that he was interested in starring in Roger Spottiswoode's buddy cop action comedy. He explained during the Beyond Fest Q&A:

"I said to myself, 'I'm going to leak out that I have tremendous interest.' I know the way it works in Hollywood. I would then ask for a lot of money. So then they'd say, 'Let's go give it to Sly. Maybe we can get him for cheaper.' So they told Sly, 'Schwarzenegger's interested. Here's the press clippings. He's talked about that. If you want to grab that one away from him, that is available.' And he went for it!"

By this point, however, there were already signs that the pair were ready to squash the beef. In 1991, Schwarzenegger, Stallone, and Bruce Willis opened the first Planet Hollywood restaurant, signaling a thawing of hostilities. On the movie side, the "Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot" debacle notwithstanding, the pair were seemingly more interested in merely referencing rather than outright insulting one another. Schwarzenegger kicked things off with 1988's "Twins," but was still making light of the rivalry in 1993's "The Last Action Hero," where Stallone is depicted as starring in "Terminator 2: Judgment Day." Meanwhile, Sly included his own nods to the feud in 1989's "Tango & Cash" and even "Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot."

By the 2000s, both Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger were struggling with their careers. Sly almost played a live-action Batman in a fan-made project while Arnie was trying to reinvent his reputation with "The 6th Day." (It didn't work.) On the plus side, the stars appeared to be on better terms with one another. Talk of a Stallone/Schwarzenegger collab began to emerge, though that long-awaited team-up wouldn't arrive for some time.

In the meantime, Stallone attended campaign events during his former rival's bid to become California Governor, and even donated to his re-election committee. Arnie returned the favor by presenting Sly with a certificate recognizing his commitment to filming in Los Angeles on 2006's "Rocky Balboa." Then, the two stars finally appeared on-screen together for the first time in 2010's "The Expendables." 

This was far from the Stallone/Schwarzenegger vehicle fans had been waiting for (Arnie just had a cameo), but it was a start. Arnie showed up in the next three "Expendables" movies, but eventually walked away from the franchise. In 2013, however, he and Stallone fully co-starred in "Escape Plan," a prison break action thriller that saw Sly play a security analyst with a proclivity for locking himself inside his own high-security prisons before trying to break out and discover security weaknesses. After he's thrown in a max security facility for real, he joins up with Schwarzenegger's inmate to once again break free.

Ever since that point, the two former rivals have seemingly been great friends. As Stallone said on his reality series, "The Family Stallone," "Even though we were very adversarial when we were younger, because we were competitive, we realized we're incredibly alike. Cut from the same cloth. And now I love the guy."