Cobra is a 1986 action film starring Sylvester Stallone.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 (Brian Thompson), 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 (Brigitte Nielsen) 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 (Reni Santoni). 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.Not to be confused with the main character of the anime/manga Space Adventure Cobra. Or that other Cobra.
Cobra provides examples of:
Anti-Hero: Cobretti. He hates discipline and he doesn't give a damn about any citizen's rights (well, obviously not seeing the "citizien" are a gang of psycho killers).
An Axe to Grind: Members of the New Order are shown clanging axes together in unison early in the film.
Ax Crazy: The New Order, particularly the Night Slasher.
Asshole Victim: Ingrid's boss sexually harasses her, only to get killed by members of the New Order cult
Detective Mole: One of the police officers protecting Ingrid is a member of the New Order.
Disproportionate Retribution: 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 Cobra happens to be one of those witnesses.
Equal-Opportunity Evil: All kinds of people are in New Order, from common street thugs to balding business men.
They seem to welcome all races and possibly nationalities, too.
Evil Makes You Ugly: 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.
Follow the Leader: Cobretti clearly went to Harry Callahan's Boy Scout Camp as a child, and apparently loved the mentor so much that, once he grew up, he took Callahan's partner Reni Santoni, and even once again named him Gonzalez. He took Dirty Harry's villain Andy Robinson as well, though the latter is now merely a well-meaning jerk and a compulsively By-the-Book Cop.
IKEA Weaponry: As the cult members are shown moving towards the town where he's protecting a witness, Sylvester Stallone assembles his Laser Sight-equipped Jati submachine gun, which he carries stripped down in a suitcase.
Impossibly Cool Weapon: Director Cosmatos had 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.
Knife Nut: The Night Slasher. Even in his dying moments he still clutched on to his spike-knuckled trench knife. He also uses a double-barreled Sawn Off Shotgun.
Laser Sight: 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.
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 a long visible beam. Still a rarity in action movies.
More Dakka: OK, cops have been known to use submachine guns, but hand grenades?
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"
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 250 rapes a day.
And everything else owned by Pepsi. 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 the wall of his (really spacious and expensive-looking) home.
There are also more subtle ones, such as Cobra taking a drink of Coor's beer
It even goes farther by having Gonzales and Knudsen standing in front of a Coca Cola vending machine. Gonzales is seen drinking a can.
Shout Out: Possibly one to The Shining. When the Night Slasher attacks Ingrid in the hospital, she hides in a bathroom and locks the door, and he stabs through it while she screams. The shot looks very much like the "Heeeeeere's Johnny!" scene from The Shining.
Step Three: Profit: It's not quite clear how exactly the New Order plans to accomplish their goal by shooting at vegetables in supermarkets and murdering poor random waitresses; they appear to be into inciting violence for its own sake. The synchronized group axe clanking◊ is admittedly quite badass, though.
We Are Everywhere: 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.
You're Insane!: One of the crazed psycho killers exclaims, "He's crazy!" re Cobra during the car chase.
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