* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: Which Carpenter [[DoItYourselfThemeTune composed himself]], as per usual with his movies. It got SampledUp by Afrika Bambaataa and Bomb the Bass.
* CompleteMonster: The [[WhiteGangbangers White Street Thunder warlord]] is the most savage of the [[EqualOpportunityEvil gang]]'s quartet of leaders terrorizing Los Angeles. Emotionlessly swearing the [[BloodOath Cholo]] for all-out war in retaliation to a police attack; he spends the chaos driving around looking for civilians to shoot, settling on an ice cream man and [[WouldHurtAChild a little girl]].
* CultClassic: Was originally panned in America and saw little release, but was praised in Europe and was re-released there to great acclaim and a cult following.
* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: The film was a bigger hit in Britain than it was in America.
* MagnificentBastard: Napoleon Wilson is a snarky, yet honorable, convict on death row for murder. Forced to work with some officers to defend their station from a siege of gangsters, Wilson happily obliges, putting his skills to good work as he helps take down every gangster he sees. Abiding by a code that sees him refusing to abandon the cops to their fate, Wilson's able to warn everybody about the gangsters' deceptive tactics, while charming the officers into forming a genuine friendship with him as they all survive the night.
* MemeticMutation:
** "I wanted vanilla twist!" *'''SHOT'''*
*** [[WebVideo/JonTron "Well, you're gettin' strawberry."]]
** Given Kim Richards [[Main/TheOtherMarty replaced]] [[Series/MyThreeSons Dawn]] [[Main/CousinOliver Lyn]] after the Main/{{Pilot}} in the role of the young daughter on ''Series/NannyAndTheProfessor'', there have been jokes online about Dawn, rather than Kim, playing the little lady who is shot dead in the "vanilla twist" scene.
** The shoot-out in the middle of the film, particularly a loop of Wilson firing a shotgun, became a reaction macro.
* MoralEventHorizon: The Street Thunder members cross it when one of them ''[[WouldHurtAChild shoots and kills a little girl point blank]] just because she was there''.
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