On November 3, Netflix dropped a documentary titled “Sly” about Sylvester Stallone’s career in Hollywood. Partway through the film, he discusses his first son, Sage Stallone, who died unexpectedly at 36 years old in 2012.
According to a CNN report about the incident published after news of his death became public, a coroner determined its cause to be a heart attack resulting from a case of atherosclerosis, which describes hardening of the arteries. Before this official determination, the suddenness of the tragedy had some outsiders speculating that drug use was at fault.
“I am imploring people to respect my wonderfully talented son’s memory and feel compassion for his loving mother, Sasha [Czack], because this agonizing loss will be felt for the rest of our lives. Sage was our first child and the center of our universe and I am humbly begging for all to have my son’s memory and soul left in peace,” Sylvester Stallone in response to such speculation.
Coroners, in fact, found no illicit drugs in his system. Perhaps in part because of the negative and undeserved attention, Stallone has seldom discussed his son with the media after the incident. In “Sly,” however, he broaches the subject in a rare act of transparency, and ultimately colors their relationship in an even more tragic light.
Rocky’s relationship with Rocky Jr. in Rocky V is inspired by Stallone’s real-life dynamic with his son
“Rocky V” might not score highly on a list of every Rocky movie ranked worst to best, but in Netflix’s documentary “Sly,” Sylvester Stallone reveals that it nevertheless reflects some personal truths about his relationship with his late son Sage Stallone.
In “Rocky V,” Rocky’s (Sylvester Stallone) son Rocky Jr. (played, appropriately, by Sage Stallone) feels neglected by his father and turns to some bad kids for guidance. Rocky Jr. thinks that his dad spends too much time with trainee Tommy Gunn (Tommy Morrison), so in response to bullying at his school, he starts hanging out with this crowd to toughen up. After Rocky realizes what’s going on, however, the two of them reconcile.
“A lot of that is true,” Sylvester Stallone says of this storyline in the Netflix documentary. “Unfortunately, you put things before your family. And the repercussions are quite radical and devastating.”
Previously, Sage Stallone hinted at this storyline’s truthfulness in an interview People conducted in 1996. “When I was screaming: ‘You never spent time with me! You never spent time with my mother!’ that was true,” he said. “We broke into tears a few times. After the film, everything changed. We’d do anything for each other.” Fortunately, then, based on this latter comments, Sage Stallone and his father seem to have righted some wrongs during the making of “Rocky V,” well before his tragic death.