Rambo, the name, has more cultural impact, but the character and the movie of Rocky are both much more culturally relevant. Rambo himself isn’t so much culturally relevant, as what people think Rambo is.
I’d call that the definition of being culturally relevant. If people remembered the character Rambo and the scenes in the film, then the film Rambo would be culturally relevant. The fact people remember the name Rambo and the headband wearing meat head in a wife beater machine gunning bad guys, shows “Rambo” as a concept is more culturally relevant than “Rocky” as a concept IMO
But the point is, that isn’t “Rambo as a concept”. The actual concept of Rambo was “guy trying to find justice for his fellow veterans who were abandoned by the government”. Which is a concept that hasn’t had much cultural impact at all.
Truly an American icon.
I don’t disagree with your separating out the first film on most grounds, but “deserving of their fate” was definitely present in the first movie.
“They drew first blood.”
Rocket J Squirrel was actually my first thought when I saw the thread title.
Yeah but we aren’t dead yet dammit! So right now Rambo wins 
Fine if you choose Rambo, but this is probably the worst possible route to argue it. All the newer Rocky films are highly rated and well received while Rambo: Last Blood is one of the worst movies ever made.
There was a Netflix documentary about the making of John Wick. They definitely weren’t taking their ideas from Rambo; the opposite. Rambo was the classic quick-cut violence of the 80s. The biggest influence on the first John Wick was Safe (2012) with Jason Statham, but ironically, Safe ended up cutting what they were focused on: “Gun Fu” plus long takes where you don’t cut away from the action. Apparently, Statham wasn’t feeling the Gun Fu thing so they mostly edited it out of the final cut, but one scene remained.
I think they were able to view a rough cut of Safe, were totally blown away, and then both disappointed and happy that the final version cut most of that stuff, leaving John Wick to fill the void. It’s worth noting that they were longtime stuntmen, so for them, stunts and style were first, story second.
Rambo was maybe not the earliest, but perhaps most successful early expression of distrust at how government treated people serving them (as troops, public servants, cannon fodder etc). I think if you start at the current MAGA-Jan 6 distrust of government, you can trace back strongly to attitudes emerging after Vietnam with how veterans were disregarded and then a similar experience befalling those involved in later American wars. The first Rambo movie was very strong on alienation and American society (and The Man) reaping the consequence of what it had sown (as are the Bourne films more recently). The later Rambo movies devolved into lone hero fantasy-wank, but the first had something to say about a broader cultural shift against trust in government.
Gonna be a looooooong while before that happens. My dad’s still alive, and he’s from the Silent Generation – that’s the generation before the Boomers!
The Newburgh Conspiracy
Shays’s Rebellion
The Slave Power
“Rich Man’s War, Poor Man’s Fight”
The Bonus Army
Battling Bastards of Bataan
All before First Blood, some by almost two centuries.
Which is to say that it’s a long-term current of thought in the American consciousness, and while Rambo may be a present-day expression of the idea, it builds upon a long tradition of mistrust of government leaders and their motives. I don’t think I’d characterize it as “early”.
Thanks - not being American, these were all new to me. Perhaps I should have qualified Rambo as being an ‘early cinematic’ portrayal? I’d be interested in what other movies responded to this popular (and seemingly well-deserved) vein of distrust in quite as strong a manner before Rambo (and the case is making is not that just someone in power is a bad and corrupt person, but that the institution is designed to exploit people and disregard the consequences).
The Rocky Steps—outside the Philadelphia Museum of Art—is the most enduring example of tourists recreating a movie scene anywhere in the world. Even in 2026, you can stand there and watch people run up the steps, reach the top, and celebrate with their arms raised, just like in the movie. It happens all day, every day, and there isn’t another specific place on Earth where a single movie moment is reenacted so constantly and so publicly.
I can’t decide, but the fact that there is a discussion about this is proof that The Dope is the Best Message Board on the Internet!
Too bad it’s not the Diner scene from When Harry Met Sally
In 1990, I’d say Rambo, but now? Rocky by a mile. Rambo is a barely-remembered caricature of bad 1980s action stars. He’s no James Bond, he’s no Indiana Jones, he’s no John McLane; he’s basically a joke. Plus, he’s inexorably linked to the American obsession with the Vietnam War, which has mostly died out by now, thank God.
Rambo, OTOH, is the quintessential fictional boxer - the one all others are measured against. Ask anyone to name a boxer, they’ll say Muhammad Ali; ask them to name two boxers, they’ll say Ali and Rocky. That’s immortality.
I dunno. I experimentally asked my 15 year old if he knew Rocky and then Rambo. He never watches movies (ASD, no interest in sitting through a 90-120+ film). He blanked on Rocky but was able to give an idea on what “Rambo” meant in an adjective sort of way. So obviously the cultural osmosis of Rambo exceeded that of Rocky in this instance even here in 2026.
See? Even YOU had Rambo foremost on your mind! 
I’d go Mike Tyson before dipping into the well of make believe boxers. “Rocky” sounds like an admission that I can’t think of any more real people.
I’ll say again that having the character immortalized as a term in the dictionaries (both US and UK) puts Rambo well above Rocky in regards to cultural impact in my mind, regardless of how many people jog up some stairs.
I wonder how many tourists are still re-enacting the Joker dance on that stairway in the Bronx…
Googling, nine films in the Rocky’s franchise made nearly two billion worldwide; Rambo’s five movies eight hundred million. While obviously not a direct measure of cultural importance I do think indicates how much exposure people had to them respectively.
Culturally I suspect Rocky has the edge worldwide just because Rambo is more America-specific in its politics and themes.
Never seen any of the movies, but I would say I have a lot of reference points with Rocky and almost none with Rambo. Simply put, Rocky has made its way to me despite my lack of interest, and Rambo hasn’t. Based solely on that I would say Rocky for sure.
I’d agree on the first two. But not the last one. The movie Did Hard had far more cultural impact than any Rambo movie. But the character Rambo has far more cultural impact than John McLane.