Creed II

Steven Caple Jr.’s 2018 film sets Adonis Creed against Viktor, son of the Ivan Drago who killed his father in the ring in 1985. Destitute in Ukraine since that defeat and abandoned by Ludmilla, the Dragos are nobody’s heroes now. The first bout is at the Barclays Center, the rematch in Moscow. The emotional knot inverts an old scene. In Rocky IV, Rocky and Duke begged Apollo from the corner to stop the fight; he refused and died. Here the towel comes from the opposite corner: Ivan quits for his son. Without it the ending is only a result. Stallone announced on 10 October 2017 that he would direct, then handed the chair over, saying youth must be served, and stayed on as writer. Caple Jr. says plainly that he welded the shape from Rocky III, for the rematch, and Rocky IV, for the revenge. Florian Munteanu, who plays Viktor, was a professional boxer in his first major role, cast by Stallone off audition tapes. It is the eighth Rocky film; Creed III in 2023 went to Michael B. Jordan, with no Rocky in it. A good fit if you know nobody threw the towel in 1985 and want this read as the answer. Not for anyone starting here: the director names the two older Rocky films behind it.