When Sylvester Stallone ended up in hospital for days after co-star's punch

Hollywood veteran Sylvester Stallone recalled the near-death experience he once had while shooting a fight sequence for his sports franchise ‘Rocky’.

One of the most successful sports drama franchises of Hollywood, the ‘Rocky’ film series has given some of the most iconic and realistic fight sequences, one of which even sent director and star, Stallone to hospital for almost two weeks.

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The incident happened so on the sets of ‘Rocky IV’ when in an attempt to make the scene look seamless, Stallone’s co-star Dolph Lundgren critically albeit not intentionally injured him.

Given that CGI and special effects were not a thing back in the 1980s, Stallone ordered Lundgren to hit him as hard as possible for the scene to look realistically great to the audience.

“Just go out there and try to clock me. For the first minute of the fight, it is going to be a free-for-all,” Stallone had told the fellow actor. “He was the boss. I did what he told me,” Lundgren added.

However, this impromptu choreography wasn’t a success and landed the former in the hospital for days.

“Dolph Lundgren put me in the hospital for nine days. I knew I was in trouble when I showed up and nuns met you at the ICU,” Stallone recalled.

He explained that the injury didn’t affect him instantly but trouble ensured at night when his heart began to swell up and blood pressure shoot up to 260.

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‘Rocky IV’ was a Box Office success and the highest-grossing film of the franchise.