Cobra (film)
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| Cobra | |
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 Cobra poster |
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| Directed by | George Pan Cosmatos |
| Produced by | Yoram Globus Menahem Golan Dolly Hall |
| Written by | Novel: Paula Gosling Screenplay: Sylvester Stallone |
| Starring | Sylvester Stallone Brigitte Nielsen Reni Santoni Brian Thompson Andrew Robinson Art LaFleur Lee Garlington |
| Music by | Sylvester Levay |
| Cinematography | Ric Waite |
| Editing by | James R. Symons Don Zimmerman |
| Distributed by | Cannon Films |
| Release date(s) | 23 May 1986 |
| Running time | 87 min. |
| Country | USA |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
Cobra is a 1986 action movie directed by George Pan Cosmatos, starring Sylvester Stallone, Reni Santoni and Brigitte Nielsen.
The movie was loosely based on a novel Fair Game by Paula Gosling, which was also filmed under that title in 1995; it also arose out of Stallone's original ideas for the film Beverly Hills Cop. He had wanted to make a less comedic, more action-oriented film. When he left that project, Eddie Murphy was brought in to play the lead role.
The film was a modest hit at the box office, but was widely panned by critics for its cartoonish violence and cliched plot. The tagline on the movie poster was "Crime is a disease... meet the cure". Some critics mocked this as "Stallone is a disease... acting lessons are the cure" or "Cobra is a disease... there is no cure".
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[edit] Plot
Marion Cobretti, a policeman played by Stallone, shoots a kidnapper at a supermarket to death. Before dying, the kidnapper declares something about the way of the new world. Unknown to Cobretti, he was referring to a group of criminals whose intent was to kill every outsider and rule the world by themselves.
One night, the group decides to go on a string of killings around Los Angeles. They murder, among others, a woman in her car and a security guard. The only one to escape their carnage that night is the character played by Nielsen, who witnessed the murder of the guard. As a witness in extreme danger, she is put in protective custody and handled over to Cobretti and his partner.
As the movie goes on, Cobretti and his protected witness fall in love, and they change locations various times, with the resulting confrontations between them and members of the gang each time they are found - a recurrence due to an amazing coincidence of another police officer assigned to the witness actually being in the murderous group. All that leads to a final scene where Cobretti and the gang's leader, a blond, big and muscular type (Brian Thompson), face each other in a no holds barred confrontation inside a factory, and Stallone picking up the muscular man and placing him in a large, iron hook that then took him to a burning machine.
Cobretti and Nielsen's character then fall in love and get on the road on Cobretti's bike for the movie's final scene.
[edit] Trivia
Cobretti has often been compared to other fictional rogue or maverick cops who indulge in extreme acts of violence, including Dirty Harry and Mad Max. Two of the actors who were in the original Dirty Harry, Andy Robinson and Reni Santoni, also had roles in this film.
The 1950 Mercury seen in the film is one of Sylvester Stallone's personal vehicles. Several replicas were built for the scene where it was totalled.
Two Plymouth Volares are seen in the film - one driven by Gonzales (his Volare is seen having a Dodge emblem on the hood when he is T-boned by villains in a Ford F-series), and the other was the villain's getaway vehicle.
The submachine gun Cobretti uses is a 9 mm JaTiMatic with a laser sight and his sidearm is a M1911 pistol with custom ivory grips.
Sylvester Stallone famously turned down the lead in Beverly Hills Cop in order to adapt and star in Cobra. Beverly Hills Cop was subsequently rewritten as a comedy in order to accommodate its new star, Eddie Murphy.
To celebrate the success of the film, Sylvester Stallone was given a pair of AC Cobra as a gift by the production company, one of them was a rare 427. Stallone shortly sold the cars off.
In the 2004 Spongebob Squarepants movie, the opening scene parodies the opening scene in Cobra as Spongebob arrives at the Krusty Krab in a 1950 Mercury. When he gets out of the car the camera shows only his feet getting out of the car just as Stallone does in Cobra, and Spongebob is wearing a pair of boots with Cobras on them.
The power ballad "The Touch", performed by Stan Bush, was originally written for this movie, however, the record company instead used the song in Transformers: The Movie.
[edit] Video Game
Ocean Software released a video game in 1986 to coincide with the film's release. The game a side-scrolling action game where the player controls Cobretti as he tries to defeat the cult of the Night Slasher and protect model Ingrid from their wrath. Released for the Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, and Amstrad CPC, the game is well-known for its music score and its high level of difficulty. Due to a rush to get the game out in time for the film's release, there was no final boss programmed in to end the game; Once the first three levels are completed, the game repeats.
