Sylvester Stallone feared for his life after heart ‘started to swell’ after ‘Rocky IV’ fight

Sylvester Stallone revealed that he almost died while filming Rocky IV and had to be rushed to a hospital as a result.

The actor recalled his experience in the documentary “The Making of Rocky vs Drago by Sylvester Stallone.”

After filming the fight sequence with Captain Ivan Drago (played by Dolph Lundgren), Stallone said he was rushed to intensive care.

The 75-year-old said that his entrance in the film was shot before Lundgren’s, followed by “the introductions.”

Then he got “really injured’ in the fight and had to fly from Canada to a hospital in Santa Monica, California.

Sign up to our new free Indy100 weekly newsletter

“Well, [Lundgren] pulverised me. And I didn’t feel it in the moment, but later that night, my heart started to swell. My blood pressure went up to 260, and I was going to be talking to angels. Next thing I know I’m on this emergency, low-altitude flight.”

While in intensive care for four days, he explained that he was “surrounded by nuns.”

But afterwards, he had to “finish the fight” in the 1985 classic boxing film.

The punch by Dolph Lundgren that sent Stallone to the hospital was kept in the final version of the movie.

“How could you take that out?” he said.

Rocky IV is the fourth installment in the renowned Rocky franchise. Stallone portrays Rocky Balboa, a tenacious boxer who established himself as a champion by the fourth film.

After his friend Apollo Creed (played by Carl Weathers) is killed by Drago, he heads to the Soviet Union to face him.

Stallone admitted that killing Creed in the same film was a “foolish” decision.

“If I had to do it all over again, I would never have killed Apollo,” the actor remarked, preferring to have Creed survive and become Rocky’s new instructor.

On November 11, a director’s cut of Rocky IV will be shown in select theaters for one day only.