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What do you want audiences to take away from Rocky Balboa?

Stallone: That life is full of peaks and valleys, and when you reach a certain age you have to make some strong decisions on how to live the last of your life. You may feel as though your worth has come and gone, that you don't contribute that much to society any more. But that's not true. This is about fighting for respect, the ability to go on and be a constructive and useful citizen to yourself and to the people you love.

The film ends, appropriately, on the Philadelphia Museum of Art steps

It's a story about symbols and metaphor, and how older people wonder, "Has the best of life come and gone?" I believe it hasn't. I just want to show that the heart is the last thing to age in somebody. You still have that fire inside, and it needs to be released. But often society goes, "No, you had your moments, so just move on and watch the parade go by." I'm not ready to watch the parade go by. And what Rocky has lost in skill, he's made up in will.

Do you feel at heart like the same 30-year-old guy who ran up those steps at the Philadelphia Museum of Art?

Stallone: Actually, every year I become more and more immature. Rocky Balboa ends on those steps, and the moment we ended, it started to snow, and I was profoundly moved. I said, "I've ended up here 30 years later, on the same steps." The sun was going down and I felt true sadness. But I also felt incredible joy that 30 years later, the final story, the message I wanted to leave from the beginning, was accomplished.

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