From: Rocky
Genre: Movies
Who said it?: Ivan Drago
The story behind the quote: The quotes comes from the antagonist of the 4th Rocky film, Ivan Drago. The second quote is probably more obscure, but since it starts earlier in the film, we’ll start with that.
The Soviet Union (yes, not Russia. It was 1985) sends a delegation of people including a monster of a man named Ivan Drago (played by Dolph Lungren) to the United States and puts an open challenge to any American boxer in order to prove the Soviet’s superiority in the sport. Motivated by pride and patriotism, Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) takes on the challenge. Although Apollo displays a lot of bravado prior to the fight, as shown in the big production number for his entrance to the ring (with a performance by James Brown, no less!), this is quickly erased soon later. As Apollo trash talks Drago and tries to slam his gloves down on the Russian, Ivan’s hands stay up, not moving an inch and informs the former Heavyweight champ that he will lose.
Now for the next, and more popular, quote in the movie.
After Apollo’s crushing defeat (and ultimately, his death… sorry, spoilers!), Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) decides to avenge him by travelling to Drago’s home turf in Russia. After another training montage (around 20 minutes of the film is training montages, I think), Rocky and Drago finally face off in the ring. Mirroring his interaction with Apollo, Drago informs the Italian Stallion that he will break him before pounding his fists into the American’s.
Geek wisdom: What made Drago such a freakingly strong boxer? Sure, it may be the (implied) steroid use as shown in the training montage, however, there is ulitmately a different reason. Ivan Drago had only one goal: beat people up. Its his single purpose and his only job.
What we can learn from this is, with or without steroids (probably), there’s a lot we can accomplish as long as we dedicate all our effort in doing the task. On the flipside, if you look at Rocky’s training in Russia, it also shows his dedication and what also made him a force to reckon with. It’s this focus and intensity that made both of them fierce boxers.
My Geek Wisdom 