A History Of Pulsar, The (Maybe) ‘Rocky IV’ Robot That Lit Up Philly Night Life

A 4K re-release of Sylvester Stallone’s uplifting 1976 boxing classic, Rocky, will roll out across American cinemas this November to mark the film’s 50th anniversary. As will Peter Farrelly’s likewise uplifting making-of biopic, I Play Rocky, starring Anthony Ippolito (fresh off playing Al Pacino in the Godfather making-of biopic The Offer) as a young, hungry Stallone, warring with naysaying studio heads who don’t want him to play Rocky. Stallone himself is releasing The Steps, a memoir of his youth, his rise to Hollywood stardom, his lifelong love affair with abstract impressionist painting, the triumphant making of Rocky, and his more frustrated efforts to get a biopic of (of all people) Edgar Allan Poe greenlit. 

Philadelphia, the Italian Stallion’s ancestral home, will host the “Rocky Steps Challenge,” which sees competitors racing up the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s steps. (All entrants will receive a commemorative Rocky headband.) The Philadelphia 76ers hosted a “Rocky Night” on November 2. Gulp down a tall glass of eggs and take your best gal to the zoo, folks. America has Rocky Fever.

Yet all the hubbub around Rocky risks distracting from another, only-slightly-less significant anniversary. Although 2026 may be the big 5-0 for the Oscar-winning Rocky, which is arguably one of the greatest sports movies of all time, it also marks the 41st anniversary of 1985’s Rocky IV, which is itself arguably, well … one of the sports movies of all time.