Tuesday, March 1, 2016

Apollo Creed & Carl Leo: partners in crime

By Tracy Walters

What do these two hunks of men have in common?

The movie Creed comes out on Blu-ray today.  It is a spin-off and sequel to the Rocky film series, and tells the story of Apollo Creed's son.  But did you know that our very own movie Vision Man: Eye Contact has a special connection to the character of Apollo Creed?

The main villain in Vision Man: Eye Contact is the local crime boss of Vision Man's hometown of Boonville.  And spoiler alert: Boss Leo winds up beating the crap out of Vision Man at the end of the movie.

While trying to think of a name for the crime boss's character, I thought of Apollo Creed defeating Rocky Balboa at the end of the first Rocky movie.  Rocky, the protagonist of his eponymous movie, and Vision Man, the protagonist of HIS eponymous movie, were both beaten at the end of their respective movies by their respective antagonists.  (In Vision Man's case, horribly so!)  So, I used an anagram of Apollo Creed, and came up with the name Carl Leo.  Go ahead, rearrange the letters of Apollo Creed and see for yourself!  When you do, you'll notice there are some letters left over.  Those letters spell another word that might give you a clue about what Leo is the crime boss of.

So is that why I had Boss Leo to put on some boxing gloves and use them as part of one segment of Vision Man's beatdown?  I'd like to say it was, but actually I didn't even think of Apollo Creed being a boxer when I wrote that part.  I was simply thinking of yet another funny way for Leo to knock the snot out of Vision Man. Later on, Jon Boon McNutt, the actor who played Vision Man, suggested that Boss Leo may have been a boxer in the past.  Makes sense, considering that he also hit Vision Man's face like a punching bag at one point.  Of course, Leo also employed the elbow drop on Vision Man in one instance, so maybe he used to be a wrestler, too.

There is also a strange coincidence to this story.  Apollo Creed was played by actor Carl Weathers.  I've always known that was the name of the actor who played Creed, but it wasn't until I was writing this article that I realized that Carl is both the first name of the actor who played Creed, and the first name of the character of Boss Leo!  Freaky, huh?