In the summer of 1985, in the wake of the TWA 847 hostage crisis, then-President Ronald Reagan prepped in the Oval Office for a televised address to the nation. While testing the mic for the technical staff on hand, the most powerful man in the world uttered that he was happy he'd watched "Rambo: First Blood Part 2" the night before, because, "I know what to do the next time this happens."
"It's fascinating, because I can't think of another example where you have a serving President of the United States being so friendly with a star," author Nick de Semlyen tells Wisconsin Public Radio's "BETA."
That star, of course, is Sylvester Stallone.
It wasn't the last time the President would gush over a Stallone film in front of a mic. The two famously spoke over the phone while Stallone was filming "Rambo III" in 1988.
"Reagan would show these big action movies in the White House. And you can't help but think he must have been a bit affected by what he was seeing in them because, you know, you've got his friend waging war against the Russians when he kind of wasn't allowed to do it himself. But it's a really fascinating dynamic," de Semlyen says.
Stallone headlines this era of action movies from the mid-70s through the mid-90s that de Semlyen covers in his book, "The Last Action Heroes: The Triumphs, Flops, and Feuds of Hollywood's Kings of Carnage."
"These stars were really at their absolute zenith and just cranking out these iconic films, which people still love today, and they're still inspiring sequels and remakes," he says.
Much like the country, stars like Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger were engaged in their own "cinematic arms race." Unlike his onscreen alter egos in the "Rocky" and "Rambo" franchises, Stallone was a bookish thespian with a passion for writing.
"(Stallone's) story is kind of incredible. And it was really interesting to chronicle because he really, really struggled for a long time," says de Semlyen. "It's almost unbelievable. It's almost like a Dickens novel, like what he went through to get to where he went. You know, he was basically living on the streets of New York."
After studying abroad in Europe, Stallone was determined to make it as an actor in New York City, cleaning the lion cages at the Central Park Zoo for rent money. After being peed on by the big cats and suffering through a high level of degradation just to work, he was offered a chance to funnel all of those feelings and emotions into a script.
"He got there through sheer force of will. It's almost like watching one of his own movies. He got there through writing. Writing the 'Rocky' script and then refusing to let anyone else star in it," de Semlyen says.
'They couldn't stand each other'
The other titan of the action films era was the flipside to Stallone's coin. Arnold Schwarzenegger was about as far away from Stallone's bookishness as possible, but he had a similar sheer force of will that led to a very similar rags-to-riches story.
"He just came to America and he was not going to he was not going to accept any 'No's.' He came with a list of things he wanted to do, and becoming a big Hollywood star was just one entry on his list," de Semlyen says.
Much like his decision to transform his body when he was a teen, the former Mr. Universe focused on building his career with the same intensity and focus.
"Arnold was thinking about becoming a serious actor, and he was doing these very serious acting exercises. And then at a certain point, he decided, 'I'm going to become an action star.' And I think a big part of that was just he saw that was where he was going to make the most money," says de Semlyen. "He was very upfront about, 'I'm going to make money.' And when he set his mind to something, he just went ahead and did it."
Stallone and Schwarzenegger famously feuded during their early careers. At the 1976 Golden Globe Awards, as Stallone silently stewed over the ongoing snubs of "Rocky," he grew impatient with the boisterous Austrian sitting at a nearby table.
"It was literal War of the Roses, really, because it started with an unbelievable story in which Stallone picks up a bowl of flowers at the Golden Globes and lobbed it in Schwarzenegger's direction. So, they already disliked each other at that point, or certainly Stallone disliked Schwarzenegger at first glance, and it just intensified from there," de Semlyen says.
"They couldn't stand each other," he continues. "They obviously were extremely competitive at the box office, but it spilled over into interviews where you would have Schwarzenegger talking about how much he hated Stallone's fur coats and they'd make fun of each other and each other's films."
The feud peaked when Schwarzenegger leaked he was interested in doing a comedy film, "Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot," opposite Golden Girl Estelle Getty. When Stallone got wind of it, he pulled out the stops to get in the picture. The movie flopped and Schwarzenegger laughed that he'd fooled Stallone.
They buried the hatchet for financial reasons. The two of them — along with fellow budding action hero Bruce Willis — were investors and promoters of the Planet Hollywood restaurant chain. Turns out at the time, there was no limit to the audience's appetite for action movie atmosphere.
"It was actually huge back then. They would fly around, Schwarzenegger and Stallone, in private jets. And it was through that experience that they started actually talking and realizing they were actually quite similar, which is often the way when two people hate each other, often they realize that they actually have lots in common," de Semlyen says.
For his part, Willis was fresh off his game-changing action role as cop John McClane in the film "Die Hard," which would revolutionize both action films and heroes.
"You can't overstate what an impact 'Die Hard' had. It's incredible. I can't think of another genre where you have one film come along and just completely change the course of what everyone else is doing," says de Semlyen.
"'Die Hard' set this very clean template for the action movie," he continues. "Which is, your hero is on his own, is in a contained space of some kind, and he's got this group of villains who are menacing him, who he's got to kind of outwit in a kind of game of cat and mouse."
Numerous films followed this template and still do today. But in 1988, it was fresh and thrilling, largely due to Willis' vulnerable performance and his lack of a bulky physique.
"He definitely was less formidable looking than Arnold or Sly at that time and it really made 'Die Hard' super effective because you really worry for him because he looks like an ordinary guy," says de Semlyen. "John McClane is this NYPD cop, and he's got a gun, but he spends a lot of the movie running away from the terrorists and he's hiding in advance. And at one point he cries, and these were things that just didn't happen in the action movie."
De Semlyen says Willis' performance was brave and led to a new breed of action stars.
"You then had Keanu Reeves, you had Wesley Snipes, you had all these guys in the 90s who were much more relatable guys. They weren't these giant, muscly gym guys. They were people you could relate to that kind of looked like us. And they were put into these impossible situations and often they were vulnerable," he says.
De Semlyen devotes a large chunk of "The Last Action Heroes" to some of the era's "smaller" martial arts action stars like Jean-Claude Van Damme, Chuck Norris, Steven Seagal and Jackie Chan.
"I think (Chan) does amazing things that frankly, no human should do. Again and again, I don't know how he's alive, but he has such a fearsome commitment to action. He's dedicated his entire life to it and risked his life many times over," says de Semlyen.
"He was trying to break into Hollywood several times and it just kept going wrong. And then, finally, it was Stallone who actually invited him over to Hollywood and kind of facilitated his breakthrough."
It's unknown if Reagan ever shaped his political positions on China from watching Chan's films.
"The Last Action Heroes" is available now from Crown.