Rocky Balboa, a club fighter seemingly going nowhere, gets his once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to go the distance and come out a winner when fate puts him in the ring with the world heavyweight champion.

Rocky Balboa is a struggling boxer trying to make the big time. He works in a meat factory in Philadelphia for a meager wages so he also earns extra cash as a debt collector. When heavyweight champion Apollo Creed visits Philadelphia, his managers want to set up an exhibition match between Creed and a struggling boxer. The promoters are touting the fight as a chance for a "nobody" to become a "somebody". The match is supposed to be easily won by Creed,...