Line #15 Film/Cobra


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/image_8741.jpeg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:300:[[Franchise/GIJoe COOOOOOBRRRRRRA]]]]
3
4	->"''Crime is a disease. Meet the cure.''"
5	-->-- '''Original movie tagline'''
6
7	''Cobra'' is a 1986 action film starring Creator/SylvesterStallone, produced by Creator/WarnerBros in association with Creator/TheCannonGroup.
8
9	Stallone stars as police Lieutenant Marion "Cobra" Cobretti, an intense, no-nonsense LA cop from the "Zombie Squad", who has to deal with a string of murders by a man known to police only as the Night Slasher (Creator/BrianThompson), while also dealing with various murderous nuts spouting nonsense about a "New Order". As it turns out, the Night Slasher is actually the leader of this "New Order" cult. Model Ingrid Knudsen (Creator/BrigitteNielsen) drives past one of their murders and sees the Night Slasher's face, making her the gang's prime target. She enters police custody for her own protection, under the watchful eye of Lt. Cobretti and his partner, the junk food-loving Sgt. Gonzales (Creator/ReniSantoni). Eventually, Cobra will have to use Ingrid as bait to draw out the Night Slasher and put an end to his menace once and for all.
10
11	Based (very very loosely) on Paula Gosling's novel ''Fair Game''. Oddly enough, most of this movie came from ideas Stallone bandied about during the development of ''Film/BeverlyHillsCop.'' Stallone was originally cast as protagonist Axel Foley, but back then Sly's strength was in action acting, not comedy. Stallone kept putting in more and more suggestions to put more action in ''Cop,'' but the suggestions got more and more expensive and outlandish, and kept pulling it away from the original tone as a cop comedy. Eventually the producers got the hint that Stallone wasn't a good fit, and recast [[Creator/EddieMurphy an actual comedian]], but by then Stallone had enough material (along with the novel's basic idea) to weave together the script to ''Cobra.'' Sly also got the bright idea to re-release the novel Fair Game, but with Stallone's ideas woven in, and all Gosling had to do was agree to give Sly co-author credit. Oddly enough, she declined. It would be nine years later when [[Film/FairGame1995 another adaptation under that title]] starring William Baldwin and Creator/CindyCrawford (in, roughly, the roles Stallone and Nielsen are in this movie) would make it to theaters. All three versions bear very little resemblance to each other.
12
13	----
14	!!''Cobra'' provides examples of:
15
16	* ActorAllusion: Detective Monte, who spends the entire movie belittling Cobra's approach to psycho killers, is played by Andrew Robinson, who played Scorpio in Film/DirtyHarry. Dirty Harry is the modern UrExample of CowboyCop films like Cobra. And Scorpio was the Ur-Example of psycho killer villains in them.
17	* AnAssKickingChristmas: [[DidIMentionItsChristmas It isn't really brought up]], but the film takes place around Christmas and copious amounts of ass is indeed kicked, mostly by Cobra.
18	* AntiHero: Cobretti. He hates discipline, leaving him constantly at odds with his boss.
19	* AssholeVictim: Ingrid's boss sexually harasses her, only to get killed by members of the New Order cult.
20	* AwardBaitSong: The movie has two, though neither is played in the credits: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqKlkVk7d4U Loving On Borrowed Time]] by Gladys Knight & Bill Medley; and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4yPuqKRWGA Two Into One]] also sung by Bill Medley, but this time featuring Carmen Twillie.
21	* AxCrazy: The New Order, particularly the Night Slasher. Literally as they like clanging axes too. The New Order members who go to Cobra's home to try and kill him also storm in with fire axes and hatchets instead of firearms, which quickly turns into NeverBringAKnifeToAGunfight.
22	* BadassBoast:
23	** "I don't deal with psychos. I put 'em away." The supermarket thug discovers the hard way [[DeadlyEuphemism the kind of "putting away" Cobra specializes in]], and this is just his first boast.
24	** "This is where the laws stops...and I start" also shows up in the finale.
25	* BadassLongcoat: Cobretti wears one.
26	* BigBad: The Night Slasher, an AxCrazy serial killer leading a cult of fellow murderers.
27	* BulletproofHumanShield: Happens by accident when the Night Slasher fires his shotgun at Cobretti [[spoiler:and hits Nancy Stalk, his police accomplice, who's just jumped on Cobretti]].
28	* CassandraTruth: Cobretti is the first to (correctly) deduce they're up against not a single killer, but an army of them. Of course, none of his superiors believe him.
29	* CarChase: Plenty to go around!
30	* CarFu: A security guard gets crushed by the cult's van.
31	* CommanderContrarian: Detective Monte spends the entire film belittling the usefulness of Cobra as a law enforcement officer and doesn't see what good there is in the Zombie Squad existing, let alone allowing one of its members to help in the Night Slasher investigation in any capacity. He doesn't appreciate Cobra's methods at any point of the film, with his final line being a backhanded compliment of Cobra almost single-handedly killing the Slasher and his ''army of fanatical psychos that took over a town'', sneering that he would have found a more "subtle" solution to that.
32	* CoolCar: Cobretti's customized 1950 Mercury, complete with nitro boosters. Bonus points for being Sly's real-life car, though stunt-doubles were used in the chases.
33	* CoolShades: Cobretti's Ray-Ban [=RB3030=] Outdoorsman I aviator sunglasses.
34	* CowboyCop: The film tries to sell Cobra as one. Apparently the Zombie Squad is an entire crew of Cowboy Cops, though we only ever see Cobretti and Gonzales. [[InformedAttribute A closer look will reveal]] Cobra is never shown actually using excessive force: Everyone he kills in the movie ranges from "active shooter" to "charging at him with melee weapons". Other characters see him as a Cowboy Cop nonetheless, because all action hero cops must be ones.
35	* CruelAndUnusualDeath: [[spoiler:The Night Slasher is beaten, impaled on a metal hook through his spine then slowly roasted alive inside the smelting plant.]] Can't say he didn't deserve it though.
36	* {{Cult}}: The "New Order". Their only unifying creed seems to be that they all think [[AxCrazy murder is awesome]] and would like to do it as often as possible.
37	* DaChief: Captain Sears. Unusual for this trope (at least on a CowboyCop production done during TheEighties), he's perfectly reasonable and even friendly to Cobretti, and explicitly orders him to find the Slasher and "[[PoliceBrutality do what he does best]]". It's his subordinate Detective Monte that does the majority of the shouting about collateral damage and belittling of Cobretti's usefulness.
38	* DetectiveMole: One of the police officers protecting Ingrid is a member of the New Order.
39	* DidIMentionItsChristmas: It rarely snows in Los Angeles, and even when Cobra takes Ingrid up north, there's still nary a cloud in the sky, let alone snow. But the movie takes place at Christmas, which is hinted at by some of the grocery store's window dressing, the Christmas lights arranged in a diner where one of the Night Slasher's victims works, and a full-length Toys R Us Christmas ad plays before the news in Cobretti's apartment.
40	* DisproportionateRetribution: In order to silence one witness who saw them, the Night Slasher's New Order goes on a week-long explosive rampage in two cities, in broad daylight and in full view of hundreds of new witnesses. Of course, it doesn't really matter in the end, since [[OneManArmy Cobra]] happens to be one of those witnesses.
41	* DramaticGunCock: The thug in the grocery store ''really'' likes racking the slide on his shotgun.
42	* DystopiaJustifiesTheMeans: The Night Slasher wants to create a nihilistic dog-eat-dog world with his homicidal cult where sadistic murderers [[TheSocialDarwinist kill off the weak]] and people are indiscriminately hacked up and gunned down on the streets on a daily basis.
43	* EmbarrassingFirstName: Lt. Cobretti's first name is Marion. [[LampshadeHanging He jokes about it]], too, and admits he would have preferred to grow up with something tougher-sounding... [[SelfDeprecation like "Alice".]]
44	* EqualOpportunityEvil: All kinds of people are in New Order, from common street thugs to balding businessmen. They seem to welcome all races and possibly nationalities, too.
45	* EveryCarIsAPinto: During the car chase, Cobretti fires a couple of bursts at a pursuing station wagon which explodes and flips over in pieces. A burst fired at the [[PlotArmor car holding the Night Slasher doesn't even slow it down]]. In turn the Night Slasher [[ShootTheFuelTank blows up a couple of fuel trailers]] with a single shotgun shell each.
46	* EvilIsBigger: The Night Slasher stands at a towering 6'4 compared to the 5'10 Cobra.
47	* EvilIsHammy: The Night Slasher. Brian Thompson is likely still finding scenery in his teeth decades later.
48	* EvilIsPetty: The supermarket thug [[StealingTheHandicappedSpot parks in a handicapped space]] on his way to continue his killing spree.
49	* EvilMakesYouUgly: There are two kinds of women in ''Cobra'': intended targets of the Night Slasher's Order, and its treacherous accomplices. Guess which ones are attractive.
50	* EvilSoundsDeep: The Night Slasher whose voice sounds borderline demonic at times. Comes with being played by Creator/BrianThompson.
51	* EyeScream: The Night Slasher wants to do this to Cobretti during their final showdown.
52	-->'''Night Slasher''': I want your eyes, pig! ''I want 'em!''
53	* {{Expy}}: The Night Slasher's New Order is a murderous comune of psycho killers of varied social and cultural backgrounds who kill to bring forth "a new world". [[http://www.biography.com/people/groups/manson-family It sounds familiar]].
54	* GenericDoomsdayVillain: While the Night Slasher reveals himself to be TheSocialDarwinist near the end, we never learn why his New Order is motivated to do so much for a serial killer. They might as well exist just to be an army of psychotic {{mook}}s for the hero to kill to get to the bad guy.
55	* HatesEveryoneEqually: The New Order are said to be indiscriminate in their killings, targeting people from all backgrounds, demographics and walks of life.
56	* HateSink: Detective Monte. Considering every single scene he's in he's mouthing off to Cobra and the other characters and being a "holier-than-thou-because-I-believe-in-following-the-book" jerkass, he ''deserves'' the punch Cobretti gives him at the finale.
57	-->'''Gonzales''': You know what I'm going to do once we're done with this (capturing the Night Slasher)? I'm gonna celebrate by kicking his (Monte's) teeth in.
58	* HeKnowsTooMuch: The AxCrazy cult is after Ingrid's blood because she's the only one who knows what the [[BigBad Night Slasher]] looks like.
59	* HerosClassicCar: Cobretti drives a custom 1950 Mercury.
60	* HypocriticalHumor:
61	** During the car chase, the guy driving the Night Slasher's car says of Cobretti: "He's crazy, he's crazy!" This coming from someone working for a ''serial killer.''
62	** Gonzalez had appeared to be the "good cop" to Cobretti's "bad cop" so far on the film, with Cobra even taking a moment in the middle of the BatmanColdOpen to sip down some Coors beer and later eating God-only-knows-how-old cold pizza that has stiffened so much that he needed to cut a slice off with scissors. When Gonzalez says he wants to celebrate taking down the Night Slasher by kicking Monte's teeth in after hearing him sneer at them once again, Cobretti tells him that he's got an attitude problem and he probably should try to eat more healthy to see if that fixes it.
63	* IdiotBall: The store thug. Big time. When a cop has just proved he's incredibly quick and doesn't fuck around by chucking a knife into you ''whilst'' you are armed with guns, you drop the guns when he tells you to, you don't slowly raise the shotgun to his level with one arm whilst ''he'' has a pistol on you. Though given he was a maniac and implied to have been part of the cult, it's none too surprising.
64	* IKEAWeaponry: As the cult members are shown moving towards the town where he's protecting a witness, Sylvester Stallone assembles his LaserSight-equipped Jati submachine gun, which he carries stripped down in a suitcase.
65	* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: [[spoiler:The SteelMill fight ends with The Night Slasher impaled on an industrial hook, and being [[ManOnFire set on fire]]]].
66	* ImpossiblyCoolWeapon: Director Cosmatos had [[http://www.i-mockery.com/minimocks/cobra/13.gif the Night Slasher's bizarre knife]] custom-made, his only reasoning being that he wanted "a knife the audience would never forget". He certainly got his wish, to such an extent that actual working replicas of the knife are now being made. Never mind the fact that the only realistic way of carrying and pulling out a knife with a giant, almost-double blade and a handle full of sharp spikes without tearing one's clothes to shreds every time would be to velcro it to the outside of the garments.
67	* INeedAFreakingDrink: Cobra takes a moment during the opening supermarket battle to take a sip from a nearby Coors can.
68	* InternalAffairs: Detective Monte, who's always on Cobretti's case for his CowboyCop behavior.
69	* JerkAss: Det. Monte spends literally every second of screentime he has antagonizing Cobretti. [[spoiler:Watching Cobretti sock him in the face at the end is very satisfying]].
70	--> '''Cobra''': [[IronicEcho No hard feelings.]]
71	* KickTheDog: [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] by Cobra.
72	--> '''Cobra''': You wasted a kid, ''for nothing''. [[PreAssKickingOneLiner Now I think it's time to waste you]].
73	* KillAndReplace: The Night Slasher murders a janitor at the hospital and [[MuggedForDisguise takes his place]].
74	* KillItWithFire: Cobra ruthlessly dispatches a villain by pouring gasoline on him and lighting it on fire with a match.
75	* LargeAndInCharge: The Night Slasher is the leader of a vicious cult and stands at 6'4 and is quite broad, towering over every other character in the film.
76	* LaserSight: While in a factory, Cobretti uses the sight to distract some mooks by detaching it and leaving it switched on in a dark room. While the mooks are sneaking up on where they think Cobretti is, he jumps them from behind.
77	** Cobra's laser sight is an ''actual'' laser sight; when he assembles his Jaki and tests it, it's a proper tiny red dot, instead of [[HollywoodScience a long visible beam]]. Still a rarity in action movies.
78	* ManOnFire: At least two mooks are dispatched by being set alight by Cobretti in the final battle, one who gets roasted alive when standing too near a furnace Cobretti turns on, and another having a lit match dropped beside his feet while standing in the middle of gasoline.
79	* TheMole: [[spoiler:Officer Nancy Stalk, a cop who is secretly the Night Slasher's [[TheDragon Dragon]]]]
80	* MoreDakka: Okay, cops have been known to use submachine guns, but ''hand grenades?''
81	* {{Montage}}: "Angel of the City", which is a "Shake-down-punks-for-information-while-a-Knife-Nut-killer-stalks-a-model-doing-a-photoshoot montage"
82	* MundaneMadeAwesome: Eating frozen pizza with scissors has never been so badass looking.
83	* NitroBoost: Cobretti's car has one.
84	* NoSeatbelts:
85	** Averted; the moment the car chase starts, Cobretti and Ingrid are shown buckling up in race car harness, which is just as well as the chase ends with Cobretti crashing the car.
86	** However during a short chase in the climatic battle, Cobretti is standing in the back of a pickup shooting at the bad guys, and goes flying off the back when the pickup crashes (though he's unharmed thanks to a [[UnnecessaryCombatRoll Necessary Combat Roll]]).
87	* NothingGoodEverHappensInAParkingGarage: The first attack on Knudsen by the cult.
88	* OhCrap: Cobra and Gonzales share a moment of this over the phone when they realize they've been tricked into leaving Ingrid alone unguarded at the hospital.
89	* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: The Night Slasher.
90	* OneManArmy: Cobra, enough to make Rambo proud.
91	* OpeningMonologue / [[SeanConneryIsAboutToShootYou Sylvester Stallone Is About To Shoot You]]
92	-->In America, there's a burglary every 11 seconds, an armed robbery every 65 seconds, a violent crime every 25 seconds, a murder every 24 minutes and [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil 250 rapes a day]].
93	* PantsPositiveSafety: Cobretti practices this with his handgun, most notably after blowing away the supermarket killer so we can see the cobra painted on its grip.
94	* PreAssKickingOneLiner:
95	-->'''Mook:''' I'm a hero of the new world!
96	-->'''Cobra:''' You're a disease... and I'm the cure.
97	* PreMortemOneLiner:
98	-->'''Cobra:''' You have the right to remain silent. ''[[spoiler: [lights a villain on fire] ]]''
99	* ProductPlacement: There is plenty of Pepsi to be seen.
100	** And everything else owned by Pepsi. There are cases full of Diet Pepsi, Pepsi Free... Five minutes in, Cobra relaxes next to a huge stack of fresh 7-Up. In fact, he likes Pepsi so much that he has a giant Pepsi neon on a wall outside of his (really spacious and expensive-looking) home.
101	** In one scene with Gonzales takes a long swig of a can with his hands placed in a way so you can clearly see he's enjoying the refreshing taste of Coca-Cola Classic.
102	** There are also more subtle ones, such as Cobra taking a drink of Coors beer.
103	** Ford also gets a lot of placement with the pick-up trucks all having FORD printed on the back and they also make tractors apparently.
104	** A CoincidentalBroadcast gets a full-length commercial prelude courtesy of Toys-R-Us.
105	* ProtagonistTitle: "Cobra" is the main character's nickname.
106	* PsychoKnifeNut: The Night Slasher. Even in his dying moments he still clutched on to his spike-knuckled trench knife. He also uses a double-barreled SawnOffShotgun.
107	* RailingKill: One of the {{mook}}s at Cobra's apartment gets shot and falls over a staircase railing.
108	* RevolversAreJustBetter: Various members of the Night Slasher's cult carry a revolver as a sidearm.
109	* TheQuietOne [=/=] SilentAntagonist: The Night Slasher barely says a word during most of the movie. Practically the only time he talks is during his final fight with Cobra.
110	* ShoutOut: Cobra has a partner named [[Film/DirtyHarry Gonzales who is played by Reni Santoni]].
111	** Cobra's real first name is Marion, a reference to Creator/JohnWayne whose real name was Marion Morrison.
112	* ShotgunsAreJustBetter: The Night Slasher and majority of his cult members carry shotguns.
113	** The Night Slasher favors a sawed off double barrel shotgun that he uses in the car chase.
114	** The supermarket shooter wields a Remington 870 pump action in the opening scene.
115	** Stalk wields an Ithaca 37 in the climax.
116	* SnarkingThanks: Detective Monte's last line of the film, even after finding out the hard way that the SerialKiller "the Night Slasher" had an entire army of fanatical followers, one of which was TheMole within the LAPD, which Cobra killed almost single-handedly, is to sneer about how he would have found a more "subtle" way of dealing with the aforementioned fanatical cultist army after saying that Cobretti did some good work today.
117	* TheSocialDarwinist: The Night Slasher boasts that he murders people because he wants to kill off the weak, reasoning that this means everyone who can't fight off one of his attacks. This apparently includes children.
118	* SpreeKiller: The supermarket slayer of the prologue is one of these. The Night Slasher is classified InUniverse as a SerialKiller, but it's also noted that he has acquired an insanely high body count in a short period of time and that he's rather indiscriminate about his targets ([[WouldHurtAChild such as a sexually-abused child]] and the elderly). The Night Slasher reveals in his final speech that [[TheSocialDarwinist he kills people he considers "weak"]] and the fact that it's a whole group also leaves unknown how many Slasher kills were made ''by'' the Slasher.
119	* StarterVillain: The supermarket maniac that Cobra has to take down in the intro.
120	* StealingTheHandicappedSpot: The supermarket crook does this with his motorcycle.
121	* StrawNihilist: Some of the Night Slasher's followers.
122	* StrawmanNewsMedia: The whiny, liberal reporters who hassle Cobra after he guns down a criminal during a standoff. None of the journalists seem to care that said criminal had taken hostages, was threatening to kill them all with a bomb, and had already murdered several people both before ''and'' after taking over the store.
123	* SweetTooth: Gonzalez ''really'' likes his sweets and junk food in general. Upon being taken in after being shot, his only request is for Cobra to bring him some gummy bears.
124	* SwordAndGun: The Night Slasher spends part of the final confrontation running around with a SawedOffShotgun in one hand and his knife in the other. Unfortunately, he never gets to use either on the same target.
125	* TakingOverTheTown: The cult do this because the protagonists are staying the night in the town, even though this would only create hundreds of new witnesses, and a member of their own cult is [[BodyguardBetrayal one of her bodyguards]]. Still, given that their goal is to create mass fear and chaos, perhaps it was done as much for religious reasons.
126	* TerroristsWithoutACause: The New Order movement is based entirely around murder and torture for its own sake (with some social darwinistic rhetoric thrown in), yet seems to attract a surprisingly large member base.
127	* TinyGuyHugeGirl: Ingrid is noticeably taller than Cobretti.
128	* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Sgt. Gonzales loves his junk food.
129	* VanityLicensePlate: Cobretti's CoolCar, which sports the license plate "AWSOM 50".
130	* WatchThePaintJob: Cobretti's CoolCar gets wrecked in the ChaseScene.
131	* WeAreEverywhere: The Night Slasher's speech at the end follows this trope to the letter, but it's more of a crazed final rant than an accurate estimate of his actual following. Nevertheless his cult is shown to have members from all levels of society, including at least one police officer.
132	* WeaponBasedCharacterization:
133	** Cobra carries a custom 9mm conversion M1911 pistol as his duty sidearm, while he also has a [=SMG=] and a few grenades for his final showdown with the cult. Plenty of evidence that he is a CowboyCop.
134	** The cult members mainly carry bladed weapons like knives or axes for the majority of their murders, while occasionally carrying firearms such as shotguns or revolvers.
135	* WouldHurtAChild: The Night Slasher is mentioned as having murdered at least one child.
136	* YoureInsane: One of the crazed psycho killers exclaims, "[[HypocriticalHumor He's crazy!]]" regarding Cobra during the car chase.
137

Context Film / Cobra