First Blood: Rambo's Hope

First Blood opens not in Hope but on the Pitt River, where John Rambo walks to the home of his old army buddy Delmar Barry and learns that Barry has died from Agent Orange exposure. The cabin stood on a private estate north of Minnekhada Regional Park and is long gone; only the river and the forest remain. The scene sets Rambo walking with nowhere to go, toward the town that will arrest him.

Location precision: The cabin was a set on a private estate on the Pitt River; the pin marks Minnekhada Regional Park, the nearest public land.

Sheriff Will Teasle picks Rambo up on the edge of Hope and drives him to the other side of town, dropping him at the limit where Kawkawa Lake Road crosses the Coquihalla River. The metal girder bridge seen in the film was demolished in 2011 and replaced by a plainer road bridge, so the exact span is gone. Rambo walks back into Hope anyway, and the arrest follows.

Location precision: The girder bridge was demolished in 2011; the pin marks the Kawkawa Lake Road crossing area east of downtown Hope.

Teasle's police station was a set built at the northeast corner of Wallace Street and Third Avenue, in front of where Hope City Hall now stands. On screen this is where Rambo is processed, abused by Deputy Galt and the other deputies, and finally breaks free, stealing a motorcycle. He escapes west along Wallace, scattering pedestrians on the north sidewalk. The street and the corner remain; the station was built for the film.

Visitor guidance: The City Hall corner marks where the station set stood.

Rambo's escape includes its famous leap: the stolen motorcycle jumps the railway tracks where they cross 3rd Avenue, a few blocks south of the station. Rambo is on the stolen bike with the police close behind. They chase him out of town and into the surrounding mountains. The level crossing is still there, with the town's streets on one side and the mountains beyond the tracks.

Visitor guidance: The crossing is a few blocks south of downtown Hope, on 3rd Avenue.

Rambo flees into the rocky woodland above Coquihalla Canyon, filmed at the Othello Tunnels east of Hope. The tunnels were part of the Kettle Valley Railway, running beside the Coquihalla and Nicolum rivers. In the film the cliffs above them become Chapman Gorge, and Rambo's reckless plunge into the tree branches was shot above the entrance to Tunnel 2. The tunnels are now a walking route; Tunnels 10 and 11 reopened in August 2024.

Visitor guidance: Tunnels 10 and 11 reopened in August 2024; check access and the rest of the route before setting out.

With Rambo in the woods, Washington State Patrol officers and National Guard units join the search, and the film's National Guard headquarters is set up beneath the bridge where Golden Ears Parkway crosses Gold Creek. The location is in Golden Ears Park, northwest of Alouette Lake, in the Coast Mountains east of Vancouver. The forest here stands in for the backcountry of the story.

Location precision: The scene was filmed under the Golden Ears Parkway bridge over Gold Creek; the pin marks the Gold Creek trail area in Golden Ears Park.

Visitor guidance: The bridge is inside Golden Ears Park; the Alouette Lake area has the nearest day-use access.

Rambo comes back to town in a hijacked military truck and destroys it in a gas-station explosion. The gas station and used car lot were sets built on the southern outskirts of Hope, not far from the spot where Rambo first walked into town. He then shoots down power lines to black out most of Hope before the ambush.

Location precision: The gas station was a set on Hope's southern outskirts; the pin marks the Hope Lookout Trail on the south side of town.

The final gunfight moves to The Outpost, a gunshop set built at the intersection of Commission Street and 3rd Avenue, a block north of the police station. Rambo sets off all the ammunition to create a diversion, then ambushes Teasle on the roof of the police station. The shop was constructed for the film rather than being a real store.

Location precision: The gunshop was a set at Commission Street and 3rd Avenue; the pin marks that corner in Hope.