Sylvester Stallone is already one of the most famous past residents of Montgomery County, having attended Montgomery Blair High School and Montgomery Hills Junior High while living in Silver Spring. But one of his iconic characters on the big screen once made a splash at another Montgomery County landmark, Lake Whetstone in Montgomery Village. In the 1980 classic First Blood, John J. Rambo demonstrated the stealth and survival skills in the wild that he learned in the U.S. Army Special Forces during the Vietnam War. Rambo didn't fare as well at Lake Whetstone in 1985.
The story began with a bizarre burglary in the early morning hours of July 18, 1985 at the Roth's Quince Orchard Theater, in the Quince Orchard Shopping Center in Gaithersburg. According to a Washington Post account at the time, two men - including the theater's former assistant manager - broke into the two-screen cinema sometime after 1:00 AM. They stole a film reel of Rambo: First Blood Part II, marquee letters, $20 in candy from the snack bar, and a Back to the Future poster. Before fleeing with their very-80s haul, they cut a 4-foot section out of one of the screens at the theater for good measure.
If that wasn't weird enough, the burglars then threw the Rambo movie into Lake Whetstone. When the thieves were caught not long afterwards, they led police to the lake. Montgomery County firefighters were called in to locate and retrieve the movie reel from the water. Rambo always wins at the movies, but not outside the theater. This particular reel of the 80s blockbuster was too damaged by the waters of Lake Whetstone to ever be screenable again.
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