How Sylvester Stallone fought to change the original ending of his blockbuster film ‘Rocky’
An excerpt from the memoir ‘The Steps’, about Sylvester Stallone’s journey from struggling actor to Hollywood star.
Black News 
After twenty-eight days of filming in the dead of winter, months in the editing room across the summer of ’76, and the divine intervention of Bill Conti as our composer, our little movie was complete. It took a lot of blood, sweat, and tears. We needed every penny of our $900,000 budget. And yet, in the end, we still hadn’t taken the audience’s emotions to the max.
Something was very wrong.
The ending did not work.
I sat in the editing room alone with John and we watched the ending over and over again. We agreed, it was actually kind of sad.
The original ending that I first wrote was pretty simple. Rocky and Apollo are in the ring. Apollo is declared the winner and the arena cheers for the great champion. Meanwhile, Rocky, battered and bloody, hugs Mickey and steps out. The crowd’s cheering fades and Rocky finds Adrian near the curtain. They embrace. By now, the majority of the crowd has left. Rocky and Adrian head toward the dressing room. Ahead of them, discarded food wrappers, beer cups, and other trash litter their path. (The image of Rocky and Adrian holding hands while they walk past all the debris is the actual movie poster, even though...
