On January 25, Sylvester Stallone returns to the director's chair and brings us, after twenty years, another tale of his iconic character John Rambo. The film is simply titled after the Viet Nam vet's surname.

After last having been seen battling Soviets in Afghanistan alongside his mentor, Colonel Trautman, Rambo returns to his haunts in remote Thailand where he ekes out a living by hunting exotic snakes, among other things. After twenty years of relative peace, Rambo is recruited by missionaries to help guide a relief mission up the Salween River into the repressive neighboring state of Myanmar (Burma). Rambo reluctantly agrees.

When the missionaries are later captured, Rambo sees that his isolationist thinking has its shortcomings, and he sets about doing what his hand finds to do: venture once more up the Salween to execute the kind of mission he was trained for.

This fourth film about Stallone's other alter ego is hardly the first to couple intense violence with a tale that integrally involves missionaries. And it's certainly true that missionaries do indeed put themselves in harm's way in the service of faith and evangelism, as was the case with New Tribes Mission's Burnham family in the Philippines in 2001.

But is the element of danger being overplayed in Hollywood films? Is faith being exploited when the real product is action and mayhem? This month at HJ we take a look at a number of films and their depiction of missionaries in danger.

Read more of HJ’s coverage of Rambo, with links to external resources...