Stallone exposed himself to emotional punches that were far more painful. He first met with Coogler in mid-2012. The young director had wanted to make a new “Rocky” because it was a franchise he loved watching as a kid. When Coogler’s dad got sick from a rare vitamin deficiency that caused his muscles to atrophy, he got the idea for a “Rocky” reboot in which the character fell ill. “I wanted to see my dad’s hero go through something similar to what we were going through,” Coogler says.
Yet “Creed” isn’t just a son’s homage to his father. It’s also a dad’s valentine to his boy. In July 2012, Stallone’s son Sage died of a heart attack at 36, shortly after that first meeting with Coogler. Stallone was devastated. Sage had played Rocky’s son in 1990’s “Rocky V,” and Stallone would often think about his son while on the “Creed” set. “I wanted to pay respect to him,” he says, “and share those feelings with people who have undergone a tremendous loss.”
“Creed” honors Sage in a gut-wrenching moment that brings Stallone’s pain to the screen. In a scene midway through the film, Adonis holds up a picture of Rocky’s son, who has moved to Vancouver to escape the shadow of his famous father. The image — a young Sage, wearing boxing gloves, posing with Stallone in front of a punching bag — is from a family album. “I remember the first time I saw the
photo, I was heartbroken,” says Coogler, who urged Stallone to give him the picture. “I thought it wouldn’t be right not to have a representation of Sage in the movie.”
