Ivan Drago
Ivan Drago is a fictional Russian character from the Rocky films. He first appeared in the 1985 film Rocky IV, in which he is Rocky Balboa's rival. He also appears in the 2018 film Creed II, in which he serves as the trainer to his son Viktor. He is portrayed by Swedish actor and martial artist Dolph Lundgren. A poll of former heavyweight champions and prominent boxing writers ranked Drago as the third-best fighter in the Rocky film series.
Character biography
Ivan Drago is an Olympic gold medalist and an amateur boxing champion from the Soviet Union, who had an amateur record of 100–0–0 wins. He is billed at and 261 pounds. Drago is carefully fitted and trained to be the consummate fighter. His heart rate and punching power are constantly measured via computers during his workouts. Drago is seen receiving intramuscular injections in the movie, implied to be anabolic steroids, though the actual nature of the injected solution is never explicitly stated, instead Ludmilla, his wife stated as a joke that Drago is like a Popeye and eats spinach everyday.Ivan Drago was forced to leave Russia and move to Ukraine to look after his son Viktor Drago.
Drago was married to another athlete, Ludmilla Vobet, who is mentioned to be a double gold medalist in swimming. She is much more articulate than Drago, who seldom talks, and always speaks on his behalf at press conferences and interviews. In Creed II, it is revealed that Drago and Ludmilla had divorced as a result of his loss to Balboa and is now raising their son alone named Viktor, who is also a professional boxer.
''Rocky IV''
Drago's trainers, Sergei Igor Rimsky and Manuel Vega, along with his wife Ludmilla, are convinced that he can defeat any boxer. Drago enters professional heavyweight boxing in the beginning of the movie.Former champion Apollo Creed, now 43 years old, comes out of retirement to challenge Drago to an exhibition match, promoted by Creed's former rival Rocky Balboa. Creed arrives to the ring wearing his signature Stars & Stripes boxing garb to "Living in America," sung by James Brown, dancing upon a huge stage that is lowered into the ring. Before the match begins, Drago mutters "You will lose."
At the beginning of the fight, a confident Apollo gives Drago a couple of punches while dancing around the Soviet boxer. But then Drago connects with violent punches and from then, Apollo is no match for the Russian fighter. Drago even continues to attack Creed after the bell is rung to end the round, despite this being an exhibition match instead of a professional one. In Apollo's corner, Rocky contemplates whether to throw in the towel and surrender the fight, but instead he decides to hold onto the towel. Defenseless, Apollo continues to absorb blows to the head until Drago finally kills him with a final blow to the head.
Drago exhibits no remorse about what happened to the former champion, simply stating in an interview after the fight that "if he dies, he dies." To avenge Apollo's death, Rocky travels to the Soviet Union to fight Drago on his home turf in Moscow. The fight eventually becomes a long, drawn-out war between Rocky and Drago, and to everyone's shock, Rocky manages to severely damage Drago, and the crowd begins to cheer for Rocky, whereas at the start of the fight, they were hostile to him. Drago's trainer—a Soviet/East German official—insults him, claiming that by allowing an American to fight so admirably on Russian soil, Drago is disgracing the Soviet Union. The enraged Drago grabs him by the throat, throws him out of the ring, and proclaims he only fights for himself. Immediately preceding the final round, Rocky and Drago meet in the center of the ring where the two men touch gloves as Drago says to Rocky, "To the end." Rocky defeats Drago by KO in the 15th and final round in a dramatic ending.
''Rocky V''
It is revealed that the pain Drago inflicted on Rocky left Rocky with brain damage, causing him to mistake people, see visions and various other things. During Rocky's fight with Tommy Gunn, Rocky sees visions of Drago killing Apollo while believing he is about to suffer the same fate at Tommy's hands, until a vision of Mickey inspired him to get up and defeat Tommy.According to Rocky: The Ultimate Guide, Drago was not permitted to resume his boxing career after his loss to Rocky Balboa because of the special circumstance that he could not officially turn pro in the USSR. Drago resumed his boxing career after the fall of the Soviet Union and won 31 straight bouts while also winning a portion of the Heavyweight title. He never unified the title or fought the very top contenders because of promotional politics.
''Creed II''
After his loss to Rocky, Drago was disgraced by the USSR and Ludmilla left him to raise their son, Viktor, on his own. Following the end of the Cold War, Drago was forced to move to Ukraine, where he lived a modest life while relentlessly training Viktor to be an even more formidable boxer than he was. After Viktor knocks out every opponent he faces in Ukraine, and Adonis "Donnie" Creed wins the World Heavyweight Championship, Drago, Viktor, and promoter Buddy Marcelle travel to Philadelphia to issue a challenge to Donnie for the title. Drago visits Rocky in his restaurant to tell him how Rocky cost him everything, and threatens to avenge his loss through Viktor, telling Rocky, "My son will break your boy."After Donnie accepts the fight and Rocky refuses to train him, Drago intensifies Viktor's training regimen adding weighted chin ups, and battle rope push ups. During the weigh in, Drago taunts Donnie, telling him he is much smaller than Apollo was. Donnie shoves Drago and a scrum breaks out between the two champs.
Viktor pummels Donnie, breaking his ribs and brutally injuring his kidneys, but is disqualified for landing a punch on Donnie while he was down. With Donnie injured and his confidence shattered, Viktor ascends to the top of the boxing world thanks to his unmatched power punches, and Drago's good standing with Russia is partially restored. Ludmilla appears during a dinner meeting, causing Viktor to storm out in disgust. He scolds Drago for seeking validation from the very people who turned their backs on him when he needed them.
Still lacking a true championship belt, the Dragos challenge Donnie to a rematch in Russia. Ivan pushes Viktor to his limit in training for the bout. However, Rocky trained Donnie to accustom his body to repeatedly absorb heavy impact, and uses Viktor's lack of technique and reliance on power punches to his advantage. Viktor enters the tenth round with a slight lead, but begins to tire, as he had never gone past the fourth round in prior matches without knocking his opponent out. Donnie knocks Viktor down twice in the round, causing a number of Viktor's supporters, including Ludmilla, to leave the fight. Seeing that his son is unable to defend himself, Drago throws in the towel, stopping the fight and allowing Donnie to emerge victorious. Drago hugs a humiliated Viktor after the fight, assuring him that it is okay and that he is proud.
Finally at peace with his past, Ivan focuses on developing a deeper bond with his son, jogging with him side-by-side.
Personality
Unlike the flamboyant Apollo Creed and the brash James "Clubber" Lang—Rocky's opponents in previous films—Ivan Drago is quiet and non-boastful. Driven by his desire to be the best at all costs, this single-minded manner in which he pursues this goal deprives him of his humanity. Many viewers and critics have suggested that Drago was meant to symbolize the U.S. perception of the Soviets: immense, powerful, and emotionless. This is made evident by his cold-blooded pulverization of Creed in an exhibition match as well as by his callous reaction towards news of his opponent's death. Drago generally allows his wife and trainers to talk on his behalf to the press. In the original film, the character only speaks short sentences, throughout the film, all terse, short statements. But in Creed II, Stallone decided to added more lines for the character than the original film.Reception
Commentaries on Drago often characterize him as a hyperbolic representation of Soviet power in the context of the latter part of the Cold War. This symbolism is particularly clear in some lines in the film, including the radio announcer who says, "Ivan Drago is a man with an entire country in his corner." Others have characterized Drago in contrast to Rocky, the prototypically U.S. hero, and that Drago's defeat represents a crumbling of the Soviet regime.Some, however, have noticed Drago's individualism. Toward the conclusion of the film, when Drago is confronted by a Communist Party functionary, this fighter from the collectivist USSR screams at the top of his lungs, "I fight to win FOR ME!! FOR ME!!!" Drago wants to win, but not for the crowd, not for the nation, not for the communist party, not for the Politburo. He wants to win for himself.
In 2004, The Washington Times referenced Ivan in a comparison of the Soviet–U.S. Olympic rivalry of the Cold War: "Nationalism makes the Olympics worth watching. Jingoism makes them worth caring about." The Times