BBC Documentaries

When The Terminator met Rambo (2002x33)

: 03, 2002

When The Terminator met Rambo is the story at the heart of When Muscles Ruled the World, the time when Arnie took on Sly in a superb exhibition of bulging biceps, rippling thighs and mighty pecs. There was incredible rivalry between Arnold Schwarzenegger and Italian stallion Sylvester Stallone to be the biggest and the best muscle hero in Hollywood and attract the attention of the same woman - Amazonian Brigette Nielsen. Women action heroes muscled in too - when Sigourney Weaver played the lead in the movie Alien. And not forgetting when muscles went pop - with Diana Ross I Want Muscles, Olivia Newton John's Let's Get Physical and Spandau Ballet's Musclebound. The show goes back to an earlier era to find how the muscle obsession began, starting with spinach hungry cartoon hero Popeye and then the Incredible Hulk. It was a time of DIY muscles at home with the Charles Atlas programme, while cult heroes were made from Britain's strongest man Geoff Capes and Superstars squat thrust king Brian Jacks. Interviewees include Jackie Stallone, Lou Ferrigno from the Incredible Hulk, Brigette Nielsen, Geoff Capes, Brian Jacks, Actor Richard Crenna - "Colonel Trautman" in Rambo, Tony Holland - "Opportunity Knocks" Muscleman, Tony Hadley from Spandau Ballet, "Wolf" from Gladiators.