Rocky - Plot

Plot

On November 25, 1975, Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) is introduced as a small-time boxer and collector for Anthony Gazzo (Joe Spinell), a loan shark, living in the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia. The World Heavyweight Championship bout is scheduled for New Year's Day 1976, the year of the United States Bicentennial. When the opponent of undefeated heavyweight champion Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) is injured, Creed comes up with the idea of giving a local underdog a shot at the title and, because he likes Rocky's nickname "The Italian Stallion," he selects the relatively unknown fighter. He puts it in lights by proclaiming "Apollo Creed Meets The Italian Stallion." The fight promoter George Jergens (Thayer David) says the decision is "very American"; but Creed says, rather, that it is "very smart."

To prepare for the fight Rocky trains with a 1920s-era ex-bantamweight fighter and gym owner, Mickey Goldmill (Burgess Meredith). Mickey always considered Rocky's potential to be better than his effort—telling him he had heart but also calling him a "tomato" and "leg breaker for some cheap second-rate loan shark" among other endearments, and putting Rocky out of his gym locker preceding the "freak luck" opportunity that comes Rocky's way, and Rocky is initially skeptical of Mickey's motives and timing for wanting to train Rocky for the big fight. Rocky's good friend Paulie (Burt Young), a meat-packing-plant worker, lets him practice his punches on the carcasses hanging in the freezers.

A significant and prominent sub-plot has Rocky courting and eventually dating Paulie's shy, quiet, ostensibly librarian-like and potentially spinster sister, Adrian (Talia Shire), who works as a clerk in a local pet store. He draws Adrian out of her shell and, as Rocky's girlfriend, she begins to transform into a womanly, wifely figure. The night before the fight Rocky confides to Adrian that he does not expect to beat Creed, and that all he wants is to go the distance.

On New Year's Day the climactic boxing match begins. Apollo Creed does not initially take the fight seriously, and Rocky unexpectedly knocks him down in the first round (no fighter had yet floored Creed during Creed's professional career), embarrassing Creed, and the match turns intense. The fight indeed lasts 15 rounds, with both fighters sustaining many injuries; Rocky suffers his first broken nose and debilitating trauma around the eye, and Creed sustains brutal blows to his ribs with substantial internal bleeding. As the match progresses, Creed's superior skill is countered by Rocky's apparently unlimited ability to absorb punishment, and his dogged refusal to be knocked out. As the final round bell sounds, with both fighters locked in each other's arms, an exhausted Creed vows "Ain't gonna be no re-match," to which an equally spent Rocky replies "Don't want one." After the fight, there is a din wherein multiple layers of drama are played out: sportscasters and audience are going wild; the promoter George Jergens announces over the loudspeaker that the match was "the greatest exhibition of boxing stamina in the history of the ring"; Rocky calls out repeatedly for Adrian, who runs down and comes into the ring as Paulie distracts the security personnel. As the ring announcer declares the fight for Apollo Creed by virtue of a split decision (8:7, 7:8, 9:6), Adrian and Rocky embrace while they profess their love to one another, not caring about the result of the fight.