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So did Adrian die somewhere between Rocky V and Rocky VI?

Stallone: Yes. I needed something that would relate Rocky to people. Everyone deals with loss. How do we cope with it? I felt Rocky needed something that was so overwhelming to him—and there could be nothing more grievous than the loss of his soul mate.

The first four movies did well at the box office, but Rocky V &hellip

Stallone: You can say it. It tanked!

OK, it tanked. And critics hated it. Why didn't you just shut the door on Rocky at that time?

Stallone: Because that film was not the message that I wanted to leave behind. Unfortunately, I miscalculated when I wrote Rocky V [a riches-to-rags story as the title character retires and then loses everything]. I thought, Well we've seen the upside of the man's life, we've been through the whole journey. When everything is taken away, how does he deal with it when he goes back to obscurity? And it just didn't translate. I think people were very disappointed that it was not an uplifting film.

If anything, Rocky V left us on a dour note. And that ate at me for 15 years. Every day, I would think about it. I thought if I could ever get the opportunity again … But of course my age was going against me, and they [MGM] rejected it year after year after year. But finally a miracle happened: I found one man who was willing to give it a chance. And well, here we are today. I think this one, besides Rocky I, is the best of the group.

Training looks like a barrel of fun for Rocky here

Who is this one man you're talking about?

Stallone: Joe Roth from Revolution Films. I had been rejected by the producers, by the studio, everyone. It was just a dead issue. But when I showed Joe the script, he read it, and three days later he says, "I'd love to make this film." He says, "I'll put up the money. No one else will, but I will." And this is after eight years of me trying to get it made. Eight years.

When you wrote the first Rocky, did you have this long story in mind, covering six films?

Stallone: I had it written as three parts. But along the way, I thought I should have the character change. In Rocky II he wants another opportunity at redemption. In Rocky III he becomes a bit arrogant and he loses everything; he has to get back to basics with The Eye of the Tiger. Then Rocky IV was about sacrifice and putting one's life on the line for an ideal when he goes to Russia. So each one of them had a morality tale.

I thought Rocky suffered permanent brain damage in that fight in Rocky IV. So how can he fight again now?

Stallone: Yes, he did have brain damage. And I thought, How can I get out of this [when writing the new script]? But medical tests today are much more sophisticated, and what was considered a career-ending declaration by a doctor some years ago, now, with more specific tests, they're actually having fellows come back. What can look like a severe concussion on a CAT scan or an MRI is not necessarily career-threatening. It is something that requires a great deal of rest.

So Rocky has been retired for all these years, and he goes back for a retest, they say, "We had a misdiagnosis in the beginning." We've had a lot of misdiagnosis when it has come to brain injury, especially in the NFL. If you were to see some of the football players' CAT scans 10 years ago, you would have said they had brain damage. But now you see it's just trauma. So, that's what happened to Rocky.

I hear that Rocky in this film is a man of faith. Does that come through clearly in the film?

Stallone: Well, Rocky has always been a man of faith. He always crosses himself before he fights, and he's spent many hours in the chapel when his wife was in a coma. He seeks out Father Carmine in three of the films. But Rocky Balboa is by far the one where he really relies upon faith.

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