Кобра (1986)

1986 film by George P. Cosmatos

Cobra is a 1986 American action film directed by George P. Cosmatos and written by Sylvester Stallone, who also stars in the titular role. The film co stars Reni Santoni, Brigitte Nielsen and Andrew Robinson. Loosely based on the novel A Running Duck by Paula Gosling (later published as Fair Game and filmed under that title in 1995), Cobra follows police detective Marion "Cobra" Cobretti as he investigates a string of violent crimes while also protecting a witness targeted by the perpetrators. Cobra is the second and final film which featured the collaboration between Stallone and Nielsen after Rocky IV (1985) and until Creed II (2018), and the only film the pair are both featured in while married to one another in real life. The film's screenplay was largely inspired by Stallone's original screenplay for Beverly Hills Cop (1984). Cobra was released to generally negative reviews with criticism focused on its excessive violence and overuse of genre tropes, but it was a box office success, earning $49 million in the U. S. and $160 million worldwide. It has since been considered a cult classic. The proposed action scenes would have increased the budget far beyond what they planned. Stallone later channeled his ideas for it into an original script. When Stallone left Beverly Hills Cop, Eddie Murphy was brought in to play the lead role. The novel A Running Duck by Paula Gosling was cited as source material, enough so that she received a screen credit. Sylvester Stallone's earlier draft of the script contained many differences from later drafts and the final film. These include the opening shootout taking place in a movie theater (instead of a supermarket), during which many more people are killed; Cobra mentioning how he had a girlfriend who was killed by a psychopath he was trying to catch; an additional nighttime action sequence on a boat where Cobra and Ingrid are hiding and are attacked by the Night Slasher's cultists, with Cobra and Gonzalez managing to kill them all; and a different ending, in which Monte, revealed to be the actual leader of the New World, attempts to kill Ingrid at the last second before being killed by Cobretti. The line, "This is where the law stops and I start, sucker! ", was inspired by a line spoken by Steve McQueen in The Reivers. Cobra needed much additional editing because the film was so graphically violent that it originally received an X rating. It was edited to receive an R rating.

An audio cassette and vinyl version were released on September 21, 1986, followed by a CD which was released in 1992 as the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack. Stan Bush's song "The Touch", heard in The Transformers: The Movie (1986), was originally written for Cobra. It is said "Feel The Heat" was overheard during the filming of its music video by Jean Beauvoir when they were editing in the same building complex, and was added because Stallone loved the song.

The first rough cut was over two hours long (the closest estimated original running time is 130 minutes). It was then shortened to a roughly two hour director's cut which was intended to be released in theaters. However, after Top Gun became a smash hit, Stallone and Warner Bros. were worried that Cobra—which would premiere the following week—would be overshadowed, so in order to ensure at least one extra screening each day the movie was heavily re edited. Stallone removed much of the plot and scenes involving characters other than his own. Warner Bros. also demanded that the more graphic scenes be cut down or removed entirely because they were "too intense," and that some action scenes be cut for pacing. The extended television version of the film is approximately 6 minutes longer than the theatrical release. When first submitted to the MPAA the film received an X rating, necessitating even more cuts.

Cobra opened the widest for a Warner Bros. release at the time opening on 2,131 screens and debuted at number one at the U. S. box office with a Memorial Day weekend debut of $15.7 million. It eventually went on to gross $160 million,

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 18% based on 22 reviews, with an average rating of 3.40/10. The website's consensus reads, "A disengaged Sylvester Stallone plays the titular Cobra with no bite in this leaden action thriller, queasily fixated on wanton carnage and nothing else." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 25 out of 100 based on 9 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "B" on scale of A to F.

TV Guide stated that "Stallone's character is an empty hulk the few attempts to provide us with little insights into his character are downright laughable." Nina Darnton of The New York Times opined that the film "pretends to be against the wanton violence of a disintegrating society, but it's really the apotheosis of that violence [it] shows such contempt for the most basic American values", and Vincent Canby called it "disturbing for the violence it portrays, the ideas it represents and the large number of people who will undoubtedly go to see it and cheer on its dangerous hero." Sheila Benson of the Los Angeles Times panned the film, saying "Cobra's pretentious emptiness, its dumbness, its two faced morality make it a movie that begs to be laughed off." Variety called it "a sleek, extremely violent and exciting police thriller" and compared Cobra favorably to Rocky and Rambo. Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune compared Cobra to Dirty Harry when giving the film 2 and 1/2 stars and summarizing it as "Filthy Harry". He wrote: "Whereas Clint Eastwood simply would have squinted at Robinson, Stallone takes a more violent approach. Maybe that's the difference between actors Eastwood can be droll; Stallone more often crosses the border to primeval." Siskel and Roger Ebert did not give the film a feature review on their TV show, but both gave it negative attention during a late 1986 segment on new video releases, in which Siskel noted that the film had a great opening sequence (the supermarket hostage scene) and couldn't maintain the momentum. Ebert lamented that Stallone was squandering his talent and vast potential. In the 1996 movie guide "Seen That, Now What? ", the film was given the rating of "C−", stating that the film is "a graceless vigilante thriller that's strictly for hardcore action junkies." Then U. S. President Ronald Reagan viewed this film at Camp David on June 6, 1986.

Cobra was nominated for six Razzie Awards, including Worst Picture, Worst Actor (Sylvester Stallone), Worst Actress (Brigitte Nielsen), Worst Supporting Actor and Worst New Star (both for Brian Thompson) and Worst Screenplay. Director Nicolas Winding Refn is a huge fan of Cobra. In Refn's cult film Drive the main character has a toothpick in his mouth in some scenes; this is Refn's homage to the opening scene where Stallone has a matchstick in his mouth. The main star of the film, Ryan Gosling, also said in interview that he is a fan of Stallone and Cobra which is why he "borrowed" his character's toothpick habit from Cobra.

In 1986, the film was made into a video game by Ocean Software for the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, and Amstrad CPC.

In 1987, Cannon Films, along with Warner Bros. attempted to make a sequel, Cobra Part II, but the film never materialized. In 2019, a television series was in development with Robert Rodriguez serving as director/creator. as of 2023, it is not known if this project is still in development.