4 Years On, Sylvester Stallone’s Superior Rocky IV Recut Returns To Theaters For Just 2 Nights

The director’s cut of Rocky IV was released in theaters for one night only in 2021, and fans have another chance to see it in 2025. The Rocky franchise began with Sylvester Stallone’s own script, which helped make him a massive Hollywood star. However, since that release, there have been ups and downs, but mostly the franchise has been good fun, with only one real letdown of a movie. The fourth release, Rocky IV, remains, if nothing else, a cult favorite. In this film, Rocky fights his biggest nemesis, the giant Russian Ivan Drago, played by Dolph Lundgren in his breakout role.

There were some questionable decisions in Rocky IV, and Stallone, who also directed the film, released a new director’s cut in 2021. However, this was released in theaters on one night only on November 11, 2021, and then digitally the next day. Now, fans get a second chance to see it in theaters, with it arriving on two different days next month, on November 5 and November 9.

What Makes Rocky IV Director’s Cut Different From The Original

Rocky IV tells the story of a giant Russian boxer named Ivan Drago, played by Dolph Lundgren. The film starts with an exhibition fight between Drago and former champion Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers). However, Drago takes the fight too far and ends up killing Creed with a savage blow in the match. When Drago says in the press conference, “it he dies, he dies,” it sets up the eventual revenge fight against Rocky Balboa.

The fight between Rocky and the evil Russian at the height of the Cold War in the ’80s was the selling point, but there were some questionable decisions that Stallone remedied in the director’s cut. The biggest of these is Paulie’s robot. In the original cut of the movie, Paulie had a robot companion that helped him with tasks he could no longer perform due to his deteriorating health. Created by International Robotics Inc., the robot had special meaning for Stallone, too, as it was used to work with his son, Seargeoh, treating his autism.

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Thanks to the robot’s success with Seargeoh, Stallone added it into Rocky IV and had it help Paulie with his household tasks. However, in the director’s cut, Stallone deleted the robot from the film. “The robot is going to the junkyard forever, no more robot,” Stallone said, according to The Hollywood Reporter. This was always one of the strangest additions to the movie anyway, despite its real-life origin.

There were other changes, some that worked and others that seemed puzzling. Stallone removed many of Brigitte Nielsen’s scenes, including her interaction with Apollo Creed’s wife before the tragic fight and many scenes in which she speaks for her husband. This diminished the eventual news that she left Drago after he lost, which was revealed in Creed 3. However, it did make Drago a better character, and showed he realized, even at the time, that the Soviet Union was using him and didn’t really care about him at all. This is an area where the Rocky IV director’s cut improved his character drastically.

There was also a change to the ending. In the original Rocky IV cut, Stallone clearly wanted to show that boxing could save the world, and the Soviet regime leaders applauded Rocky when he said everyone could change for the better. It never felt authentic, so Stallone removed it and had them walk out instead, which better fit the movie’s theme. There was also a change in music, with Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger” replacing John Cafferty’s “Heart’s on Fire” during the closing credits. In the end, it made for a better movie experience, and now fans can get one more chance to see it again on the big screen.

The Rocky IV director’s cut returns to theaters on November 5 and November 9, from Fathom Entertainment.

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