History YMMV / TheWarriors

** [[DarkMessiah Cyrus]], leader of the Gramercy Riffs, the "Magic Man" is [[VisionaryVillain a gang lord with a vision]]. Pulling together the gangs of New York after sowing his vision among them, Cyrus unites them with a singular dream: to bind together as [[TheSwarm one, 100,000 strong gang]] so that they outnumber the police and organized crime and might bring in tribute and protection. A captivating and charismatic leader who brings together all the gangs as one, Cyrus's death kicks off the hunt for the Warriors, with [[UniversallyBelovedLeader almost all mourning him]] and his lost dream.

** Cyrus's rallying cry of "Can you dig it?" and Luther's taunt "Warriors, come out to play!" pop up all over the place.

* ValuesDissonance: Cyrus's death and the circumstances surrounding it would never work in a post 9/11 world where security became much more tense to prevent a similar disaster. Had the film been released in the 21st century Cyrus would have tons of guards and the event would have strict gun control.

* RetroactiveRecognition: Edge, leader of the Saracens, is voiced by El-P, one half of Music/RunTheJewels.

* RetroactiveRecognition: Edge, leader of the Saracens, is voiced by El-P, one half of RunTheJewels.

* RetroactiveRecognition: Edge, leader of the Saracens, is voiced by El-P, one half of Run the Jewels.

* RetroactiveRecognition: Edge, leader of the Saracens, is voiced by El-P, one half of music/Run the Jewels.

* HamAndCheese: The entirety of Creator/DavidPatrickKelly's performance as Luther.

* {{Narm}}: [[spoiler: Cleon's]] death. Getting mauled to death by a gang? Horrific. Being surrounded and attacked with synchronized elbows? Pretty hilarious.

* ValuesDissonance: [[spoiler: Cyrus's death]] and the circumstances surrounding it would never work in a post 9/11 world where security became much more tense to prevent a similar disaster. Had the film been released in the 21st century [[spoiler: Cyrus]] would have tons of guards and the event would have strict gun control.

* VindicatedByHistory: The film was negatively received by most critics; Creator/PaulineKael, writing for -- ironically -- ''Magazine/TheNewYorker,''being a notable exception. Worse, after a promising start at the box office, it quickly fizzled. The latter was mostly caused by outbreaks of gang-related violence -- different gangs in the same theater at the same time came to blows -- which in turn led to reasonable fears from both theater owners and non-gangster audience members, and also to the studio essentially pulling support with advertisements being culled to a minimum. Now it's considered a cult classic.

** Near the end of the movie, on the subway ride back to Coney Island, two couples board the subway. One of the passengers is played by a young Debra Winger in one of her earliest roles.

** [[DarkMessiah Cyrus]], leader of the Gramercy Riffs, the "Magic Man" is [[VisionaryVillain a gang lord with a vision]]. Pulling together the gangs of New York after sowing his vision among them, Cyrus unites them with a singular dream: to bind together as [[TheSwarm one, 100,000 strong gang]] so that they outnumber the police and organized crime and might bring in tribute and protection. A captivating and charismatic leader who brings together all the gangs as one, Cyrus's death kicks off the hunt for the Warriors, with [[OneHundredPercentAdorationRating almost all mourning him]] and his lost dream.

** Our {{Villain Protagonist}}s, The Warriors aren't that bad, although some viewers interpret their vests in [[HoYay ways that probably weren't intended]]. In the original book, though, their dress code was straw hats, paisley blue polo shirts, black chinos, and monkey jackets. So... they dress like the tackiest tourists ever?

** The nearly complete lack of guns in the New York City underworld was anachronistic even for its time and comes across as even more quaint today.

* TooBleakStoppedCaring: Let's not mince words, it's easy to not care one bit about anyone in this film considering they're entirely composed of street gangs who've done all sorts of crimes for their own benefit. The film's ending is pretty bleak too when you think about it; although most of the Warriors make it back to Coney, they're still stuck in a life of violence and poverty, with little hope of things improving. Swan even lampshades this once they get back to Coney, looking around in disgust and stating "''This'' is what we fought all night to get back to?" It still manages to less grim than the novel though and trying to avoid this trope is probably a big reason why the film is only a loose adaptation, as the protagonists there are depicted committing ''far'' worse acts with less justification.

** Barry De Vorzon's score is pretty damn good as well. The film's [[https://youtu.be/ByT0FErPgfQ main theme]] does a pretty good job setting the scene with the opening montage.

** [[DarkMessiah Cyrus]], leader of the Gramercy Riffs, the "Magic Man" is [[VisionaryVillain a gang lord with a vision]]. Pulling together the gangs of New York after sowing his vision among them, Cyrus unites them with a singular dream: to bind together as [[TheSwarm one, 60,000 strong gang]] so that they outnumber the police and organized crime and might bring in tribute and protection. A captivating and charismatic leader who brings together all the gangs as one, Cyrus's death kicks off the hunt for the Warriors, with [[OneHundredPercentAdorationRating almost all mourning him]] and his lost dream.

** Mercedes Ruehl, the woman who [[spoiler: handcuffs Ajax]] would later play the mother in ''{{Film/Big}}'' and, still later, would win an Academy Award for her work in ''Film/TheFisherKing''.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic:

* EnsembleDarkhorse: The Baseball Furies are easily the most recognizable and popular gang from the movie.

* UnintentionallyUnwinnable:
** Taking too long on the final battle with Luther will result in your AI controlled team mates throwing all the available debris, meaning you can't use it yourself. Later ports fix this by having one of the bottles by the ruined boat respawn.
** The boss fight against Birdie as well, as he can knock out your allies by shooting at them. if he knocks them all out, there is nobody to chuck bricks at him to get him to move into your line of sight for attacking him, making it impossible to defeat him.

* UnwinnableByMistake:

* ThatOneLevel: In the middle of "Encore", your character is chased by a ghost train on tracks and doesn't think to just ''[[OneDimensionalThinking run off the tracks]]''. The resulting minigame is entirely a button masher; you must very rapidly press one button to not die instantly. The problem? Unless you've been training your fingers in some sort of VideoGame/NinjaGaiden dojo it is nigh impossible to actually mash the button at the speeds the game expects. Gamers soon realized that no matter what they did, the roller-coaster of doom would hit them ''just a few seconds in''.