Why 'Rocky' Is an Underdog Story for the Ages

It's hard to believe that the Steadicam—a wearable, mechanical camera stabilization system that isolates a camera from the operator's body movements to produce smooth, floating tracking shots—was a new innovation when Rocky was made. The technology is now common, but in 1976, it had only been used in a few productions prior to Rocky, including the Woody Guthrie biopic Bound for Glory.

Determined to find a way to avoid a bulky traditional camera dolly, camera operator Garrett Brown embarked on a two-year project to develop the invention. As Sielski details, Brown locked himself in a Holiday Inn in West Chester, Pennsylvania, drawing diagrams and taking apart vacuum cleaners for parts.

On Rocky, the production team, including Brown, only had five days to shoot in Philadelphia, with little support from the mayor. "The Steadicam, and Garrett Brown's invention of it, and use of it is what makes Rocky such an innovative movie," Sielski says. "The running up the steps, the running along the river, the boxing scenes between Rocky and Apollo [Creed, played by Carl Weathers], are just made fresher and more tactile for the fact that Garrett Brown had the genius to figure out how to make a camera that didn't bob up and down when the camera person was bobbing up and down."

Rocky tells the story of an underdog who rises up against the odds. "Is it schmaltzy at some level? Sure," Sielski says. But it took the traditional idea of a sports hero and turned it on its head. In doing so, it crafted a formula that's been repeated for decades ever since.

There was widespread skepticism and cynicism in the U.S. coming out of the Civil Rights Movement, Vietnam and Watergate, explains Sielski, "And here comes this story which reminds everybody of the indomitability of the human spirit."

The film also helped popularize the training montage, with its now-iconic sequence of Rocky running through Philadelphia, punching slabs of meat and charging up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The sequence became a blueprint for countless sports movies, from The Karate Kid (1984) to Cool Runnings (1993), turning grueling preparation into a shorthand for an underdog's transformation.

Subverting a traditional happy ending, Rocky doesn't win the final fight against Apollo Creed.

Initially, the filmmakers hoped that composer David Shire, then married to Talia Shire, who played Adrian, would score the film. But when Shire declined due to other commitments, the production turned to Bill Conti. As director John G. Avildsen explained in a 2014 interview, Conti was initially chosen due to the film's limited budget.

Conti had been orchestrating Italian pop songs since the early '70s and ghostwriting scores for spaghetti Westerns. The theme he wrote for Rocky, "Gonna Fly Now," topped the Billboard singles chart in 1977 and earned Conti an Oscar nomination for best original song. "It's so inspirational. It's so over the top. It takes those scenes to a place they otherwise wouldn't go to," Sielski says.

After Queen refused to license "Another One Bites the Dust" for Rocky III (1982), the Chicago rock band Survivor was brought in to write an original song. The band crafted lyrics inspired by the film and conceived the iconic guitar riff to match the punches Rocky lays out in the movie. "Eye of the Tiger" reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, where it stayed for six weeks. It spent 15 consecutive weeks in the top 10 and became the second best-selling single of 1982.

Both songs have since become anthems of determination, providing the soundtrack to countless motivational moments, from sports arenas to workout playlists.

Stallone had been away from Philadelphia for several years when he began writing Rocky. So the vision in Stallone's head, according to Sielski, is that of an earlier era. "By the time 1975 and '76 roll around, the city itself was starting to turn over," he says. "The suburbs are starting to expand, and people are starting to move out there." The film’s depiction of Philadelphia more closely reflects the city of the early 1970s.

Using real-life Philadelphia locations like the Italian Market, Independence Hall and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Rocky's release opened up the world to the city. Now, a booming tourism trade even centers exclusively around the movie. Fans can take the "Essential Rocky and Creed Tour of Philadelphia," or try their shot at running up the famous Philadelphia Museum steps before snapping a picture with a bronze statue of Balboa.

"It becomes this symbol that you, too, can climb the steps. You, too, can reach the top, whatever your top might be," says Sielski.

It's said that about 4 million people travel to see the Rocky statue every year and, per Sielski's editor at The Philadelphia Enquirer, the statue attracts more visitors than the Liberty Bell.

Rocky has had five direct sequels. In 2015, director Ryan Coogler shifted the focus from Rocky Balboa to Apollo Creed’s son, Adonis (played by Michael B. Jordan), in the spinoff film Creed. That spinoff—for which Stallone was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the Oscars—had two sequels. Across all nine films, the Rocky franchise has grossed almost $2 billion.

In November 2026, a making-of biopic, I Play Rocky, tells the story of young Stallone trying to make the film that turned him into a star.

"It's a testament to the character itself that he's allowed it to evolve over time," says Sielski. "He created a character that could last, and that there's something in there for everyone."