Sylvester Stallone became an icon thanks to his heroic roles, but one of his first major roles showed his talent as a villain. Stallone found his breakout role in Hollywood with the iconic sports movie Rocky. While Rocky Balboa was a role he returned to many times, Stallone also became one of the biggest action movie actors.
Along with his other career-defining character of John Rambo in the Rambo movies, Stallone played crowd-pleasing hero roles in the likes of Tango & Cash, Cobra, Cliffhanger, and other action movies. He helped define the persona of the ’80s hero, and even played against type as a more vulnerable hero in Cop Land.
However, as much as it is hard to separate Stallone from his heroic roles, the actor scored one of his biggest roles pre-Rocky by playing a villain. While it is a somewhat overlooked movie in Stallone’s career, it suggests that the iconic actor should play the bad guy more often.
Sylvester Stallone Was A Solid Antagonist In Death Race 2000
Stallone Stole The Show As “Machine Gun” Joe
After playing extras in movies like M*A*S*H and Klute, as well as some smaller supporting roles, one of Sylvester Stallone’s biggest movies came with the exploitation movie Death Race 2000. From the legendary Roger Corman, this low-budget action movie was set in the future, in which drivers compete in a deadly cross-country race.
He is silly and fun while also remaining a threat as the toughest driver out on the road.
David Carradine stars in the movie as Frankenstein, the fan-favorite driver who is secretly a rebel fighter. However, it is Stallone who steals the show as “Machine Gun” Joe, the second-best driver in the sadistic sport who desperately wants to beat his rival, Frankenstein. He also gleefully takes part in the sport’s rules of earning points by hitting pedestrians.
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With Carradine playing a more subdued hero, Stallone steals the show as this over-the-top gangster character who fires his Tommy gun from his souped-up convertible. The movie is a cheesy B-movie, and Stallone perfectly leans into that tone. He is silly and fun while also remaining a threat as the toughest driver out on the road.
Sylvester Stallone’s The Expendables co-star Jason Statham starred in the Death Race remake in 2008.
While the movie was a smaller movie, making for a modest success, it was one of the last roles that Stallone would play before his career changed. Just one year after Death Race 2000, Stallone debuted as Rocky Balboa, and from there, made his transition to more heroic roles that helped him become a star.
Sylvester Stallone Didn’t Play A Villain Again Until Decades Later
Spy Kids 3-D Saw Stallone As A Family-Friendly Villain
Despite how effective Sylvester Stallone was in his villain role in Death Race 2000, he has largely avoided such roles ever since. In fact, the next time Stallone played a villain was nearly 30 years later when he played the supervillain, The Toymaker, in Spy Kids 3-D. Of course, this was a much different bad guy role.
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Seeing Stallone play the villain again was interesting, but the family-friendly vibe of the third Spy Kids movie restrained the actor from having the same violent and wild fun he had in Death Race 2000. In fact, the movie ends with The Toymaker turning over a new leaf and becoming a hero again.
It would be a lot of fun to see Stallone take on a true villain role again, especially in an action movie.
Stallone has played several protagonists who are on the shadier side of the law, such as in Get Carter and even his action hero role in Cobra. He even pushes some ethical boundaries in the crime series Tulsa King. However, it is always clear that the audience is meant to be rooting for his character.
It would be a lot of fun to see Stallone take on a true villain role again, especially in an action movie. He remains active in the genre, albeit in lower-budget fare, but with a juicy role in a new action movie, Stallone could really deliver a fun performance that shows a side of him we have not seen recently.
