Why did he blow up half the town

I saw it as all part of Rambo's strategy.

He blew up the gas station to create a distraction to lure most of the remaining deputies out. As the cops mentioned, the gas station was on edge of town. This can also be viewed as him cutting off their ability to escape.

He blew up the gun shop next as another distraction given its proximity to the police station. Whoever is watching will look in the direction of the gun shop while Rambo sneaks in from the opposite direction. This can also be viewed as him destroying their ammunitions depot (even though the police still had enough left-over to continue the "war").

Then, Rambo destroys the lights to disorient Teasle, already having seen that he is perched on the roof from his prior distraction.

Despite Rambo's strategy, Teasle had a chance to get Rambo, but he missed. Rambo didn't.

As for not caring who gets hurt, Trautman did say that Rambo was built to kill. He probably saw any innocents killed in war as collateral damage. As long as his objective was complete and hostiles were neutralized, it was justified.

My take on this film was that there were no good guys and no villains. Like Trautman said, John pushed too. Had he been more vocal with Teasle and Galt when he met them, they may not have responded as they did. He waited until he was already in the car exiting Hope before he asked Teasle if he could grab a bite to eat in town. When Teasle asked if he was visiting anybody, that would have been the right time to mention that he was just stopping in to town to eat before continuing to Portland. And Galt patiently asked for Rambo's name about 3-4 times before he got tired of Rambo's attitude. That does not excuse his physical abuse of Rambo, but Rambo's cooperation could have prevented it.


"Simpsons did it! Simpsons did it!"

It drew ALL the police and emergency workers away from the police station where he knew the chief would be

To prove a point.

That he could.

For something to do naturally. The town looked better blown up anyway! I would like to do that to a few business's myself.

You think it's bad what happens in the movie? In the book, he kills all of Teasle's men and along with blowing up the gas station, he blows up the police station which takes out Teasle's last remaining officer. The police station also had Teasle's Purple Heart he won in the Korean War. So that's destroyed. Then again Rambo and Teasle both die in the book too. They shoot each other but right before dying Teasle feels a fatherly love for Rambo and Rambo regrets some of his actions too.