Rocky (film)/Awesome

• Specifically, Rocky III. After being on the receiving end of Clubber Lang's Trash Talk and getting the stuffing beaten out of him throughout most of the film, Rocky finally returns the Trash Talk toward the end of their fight, goading him into attacking while suddenly dodging and blocking everything Lang throws at him, before knocking him the fuck out.
• The fight in Rocky Balboa. Especially as round 2 gets going. I'm not supposed to get teary-eyed while watching a boxing match, am I? (At least the in-film crowd agrees with how I saw it..)
• "He's chopping the Russian down!"
• Practically all the kids in Philadelphia following Rocky on his run to the steps of the art museum in Rocky II.
• And of course the fight at the end of the first film, where Rocky achieves his real goal of going a full fifteen rounds against Apollo, even if the judges think Apollo won the fight.
  • Just to be clear, Apollo did win. A title holder pretty much successfully defends if they avoid being KOed. Rocky would have had to utterly dominate the fight to win without being KOed and that would have detracted from the awesome.
• The closing credits of Rocky Balboa, featuring real footage of people recreating the iconic run up the "Rocky steps," as has happened every day since the film was released.
• Rocky's speech to his son might be better than any of his moments inside the ring.
• Mason Dixon: "You're one crazy old man." Rocky Balboa: "You'll get there."
• Of course We can't forget the real life Rocky Chuck Wepner. He was just an ex-Marine and liquor salesman from New Jersey. No one thought he had a hope in hell of fighting Muhammad Ali. He not only made it all the way but he held his own. Everyone thought he'd go down in the second round but he stayed up and made it all the way to the end. He even knocked Ali down. That is a true badass.