Released: May 23, 1986

Directed By: George P. Cosmatos

Screenplay By: Sylvester Stallone

Based On The Book: A Running Duck, also published as “Fair Game” by Paula Gosling
Stars: Michael Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone, Brigitte Nielsen, Brian Thompson, Reni Santoni, Andrew Robinson and a bunch of other actors.

Plot:  A tough-on-crime street cop must protect the only surviving witness to a strange murderous cult with far-reaching plans.

How did this movie do?
Budget: $25 Million
Box Office: $160 Million

• Body count: 52, 41 are killed by Cobra.
  
  
• The movie is filled with over-the-top 1980s product placement. 1. Pepsi machine and Coors display and can in first shoot-out. 2. Giant Pepsi sign beside Stallone’s apartment. 3. Toys R Us commercial which Cobra watches on television. 4. Pepsi sign lit up at night outside Cobra’s apartment – background for fight scene. 5. Coors California sign in store window. 6. Coca-Cola machine outside store with character drinking can of Coke. 7. Bar scene with Miller High-Life sign in background.
  
  
• Top One-Liners
  • Marion Cobretti: You’re a disease, and I’m the cure.
  • Marion Cobretti: Go ahead. I don’t shop here.
  • Marion Cobretti: I don’t deal with psychos. I put ’em away.
  • Marion Cobretti: This is where the law stops and I start, sucker!

• The first murder victim having her throat cut and hands severed;
• An Asian American child delivers a wrapped present to the LAPD office as instructed by one of the members of the New World. As the officer tells the child to stay, he proceeds to unwrap the present only to discovers traces of blood coming from the box. The officer answers a phone call from one of the members of the New World, who speaks a cryptic message of the murder victim’s hands inside the box;
• More dead bodies in the autopsy scene, including lingering shots of naked and mutilated bodies of murdered women;
• The New World’s day jobs as welders, carpenters and fish market employees and cleaners, which were originally part of the “Angel of the City” sequences. These were cut and replaced with the scenes of the New World doing a routine workout ritual as seen in the film’s opening;
• An extended death scene for Ingrid’s photographer Dan, in which he is hit several more times with axes and attempts to escape, only to slip on his own blood and fall down in puddle of it before being finished off with even more hits;
• The scene in which the Night Slasher tries to kill Ingrid in the hospital was cut down for pacing and content. The deaths of the janitor and nurse were originally shown onscreen and a scene where a police guard outside Ingrid’s room is killed by the Night Slasher was also cut. A later scene where Cobretti mentions the officer’s death to Monte was cut to maintain continuity, which as a result made the editing of that scene choppy;
• More scenes of the townspeople (including the motel owner and diner waitress) being killed during the climax, including a scene in which one is hit in the face with ax; two of these death scenes appeared in 1990’s TV versions of the film, but with most of the more graphic shots removed;
• Graphic close-ups of the Night Slasher’s wound after he is impaled on the hook; Cobretti repeatedly forces the hook deeper into the Night Slasher as he screams in pain;
• After the demise of the Night Slasher, Cobretti and Ingrid leave the factory but before they can exit, countryside police intervene wherein the sheriff demands from them of what took place in the factory.

• The book Fair Game was adapted a second time as a film with Cindy Crawford entitled Fair Game.
  Brian Earl Thompson was born on August 28, 1959 in Ellensburg, Washington.
  
  
• A very rare workprint of the movie has circulated among fans. Although most copies are poor quality, it has 30 to 40 minutes of footage not available in any other version. It also has all of the X-rated material removed from the final release.
  
  
• Brian Thompson had to buy his own ticket to see the film himself personally because he was not invited to the films’ premiere by the films’ producers and Warner Bros. which still mystifies him to this day.
  
  
• The custom 1950 Mercury driven by Cobretti in the film was actually owned by star Sylvester Stallone. The studio produced stunt doubles of the car for use in some of the action sequences, such as the jump from the second floor of the parking garage.
  
  
• When Sylvester Stallone was signed to play the lead in Beverly Hills Cop (1984), he did a lot of work on the screenplay, turning it into an action extravaganza that the studio couldn’t afford. He eventually left Beverly Hills Cop and channeled his ideas for that project into this movie.
  
  
• At one point during filming, Sylvester Stallone complained to cinematographer Ric Waite that they were falling behind, and said he and his crew needed to work harder. Waite responded by saying that if Stallone “gets his hands off Brigitte Nielsen’s ass and stops showing off to his bodyguards, maybe they wouldn’t have problems with time”. Stallone was shocked that somebody would talk to him that way, but he toned down his ego for a few weeks. In an interview, Waite also said that Stallone had a great sense of humor, despite his huge ego. He also confirmed a rumor that Stallone was the true director of the film, calling credited director George P. Cosmatos a good producer, but a bad director.
  
  
• The film was considered a box-office disappointment at the time, especially compared to Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985) and Rocky IV (1985). However, it grossed $12,653,032 on its opening weekend, the largest opening weekend in the history of Warner Brothers and The Cannon Group at the time. It also earned over $160 million worldwide, against a budget of $25 million (along with marketing costs). That opening weekend was the second biggest for any film in 1986, trailing only Stark Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) It also got lumped together with Poltergeist II: The Other Side (1986), which opened wide on May 23, 1986.
  
  
• The knife used by the Night Slasher character was made for the film by knife designer Herman Schneider. Sylvester Stallone had asked Schneider to create a knife that audiences would never forget.
  
  
• Sylvester Stallone said he got the idea for the LAPD’s “Zombie Squad” from a real-life Zombie Squad in Belgium, comprised of cops who go out at night and handle crazed criminals on their own terms.
  
  
• In 2017, Sylvester Stallone used his Instagram page to post a picture of Cobretti standing next to the 1950 Mercury car with the caption, “Comeback or throwback?” Thousands of fans used this as the opportunity to lobby Stallone for a sequel or director’s cut Blu-ray of the film.
  
  
• The original rough cut was over two hours long. Due to concerns it might not be a hit, the final cut was 87 minutes, thereby increasing the number of screenings per day. Some of the more violent scenes were also cut to avoid an X-rating. A great deal of plot detail was either removed or sped up while most of the violence and nearly every death was edited or depicted off-screen, resulting in numerous continuity errors.
  
  
• Most 1980s action heroes were called John (ex. John Rambo, John Matrix, John McClane). The hero of this film is named Marion after John Wayne (his birth name was Marion Robert Morrison), the epitome of the cinematic tough guy who also often played characters called John (i.e.; John Bernard Books, John Chisum, John T. Chance). Oddly enough, Stallone worked with Wayne’s grandson Tommy Morrison in Rocky V (1990), where he played Tommy Gunn.
  
  
• When Sylvester Stallone was on set, he was in fact literally directing the film with George P. Cosmatos acting as the on set Director. Stallone literally mapped out and planned alot of the shots including the speech where Brian Thompson calls Cobra “a pig”. Stallone said to him “For your close up, I want you to drink as much water as you can so we can see your spit on camera”. Cosmatos would just agree with Stallone with everything he wanted to do and stay out of his way.
  
  
• Brian Thompson and Sylvester Stallone had not spoken to each other in over 20 years after the film was made until they recently met at a Horse Riding academy where Thompson’s daughter was actually giving Stallone’s daughter riding lessons.
  
  
• When Sylvester Stallone was not on set, George P. Cosmatos acted like a tyrannical person to the cast and crew which rubbed many people the wrong way including Brian Thompson, who Cosmatos said to him “If you had listened to me, you would’ve had a better performance” which he didn’t take too kindly to. Thompson referred to him as a “pale chain smoker”.
  
  
• Originally, the motorcycle chase scene in the ending was to be filmed in Seattle during the night on a ferry between the islands. Even though everything was prepared to start filming the scene at night, Sylvester Stallone ordered for the ending to be changed and to happen during the day because of the mosquito problem at that time which would have made night-time filming very difficult to endure.
  
  
• Brian Thompson auditioned seven times for his role before he was hired. On his fourth audition he met Sylvester Stallone and both he and the director thought that Thompson was too nice to play the role of Nightslasher. But after a screen test he immediately got the job. Thompson repeatedly asked Stallone about his character Nightslasher, like how Stallone would want Thompson to play him, character’s background, his reasons for doing what he’s doing, but Stallone wasn’t interested in explaining Thompson’s character and he basically told him that he is evil because he is evil. In an unfortunate surprise for Thompson, when filming of the movie was finished, director George P. Cosmatos told Thompson, “You could have been good if you had listened to me.”
  
  
• The Stan Bush song “The Touch” from The Transformers: The Movie (1986) was originally written for this film.
  
  
• For Nightslasher’s monologue in the final confrontation with Cobra, Brian Thompson did the scene with the script girl because Sylvester Stallone was off watching a basketball game on television.
  
  
• None of the supporting cast or crew were allowed to talk to Sylvester Stallone during filming.
  
  
• Brigitte Nielsen wore a wig for her role as Ingrid. However, her trademark short blonde hair does make an appearance during Ingrid’s modeling shoot, ironically representing a ‘wig’ her character is wearing to look futuristic.
  
  
• The first draft of Sylvester Stallone’s script had lot of differences from later drafts and the film. These include opening shootout taking place in movie theater instead of a grocery store and lot more people getting killed, Cobra mentioning how some psychopath he was trying to catch killed his girlfriend, additional big action sequence taking place during night on a boat where Cobra and Ingrid are hiding when they get attacked by Nightslasher’s cult members but Cobra and Gonzalez manage to kill them all, and different ending in which it’s revealed that Monte was actual leader of the New Order cult and when he tries to kill Ingrid he gets shot and killed by Cobra.
  
  
• The Paula Gosling novel ‘Fair Game’ on which “Cobra” is based is also called ‘A Running Duck’. When the movie came out Sylvester Stallone allegedly wanted the novel reissued with himself credited as the author. Ms. Gosling declined the offer.
  
  
• During the final confrontation fight with Sylvester Stallone and Brian Thompson, Stallone accidentally hit Thompson in the jaw with butt of the gun he was holding and left him dazed and groggy. The stunt crew led by Terry Leonard and Thompson’s stunt double huddled around Thompson to hide the fact that he had been really hurt. Thompson ended up with a bruise on his right cheek that hurt for several days.
  
  
• In the original script, Nightslasher was called Abaddon.
  
  
• The movie was based on a novel “Fair Game” by Paula Gosling. In 1995, William Baldwin and Cindy Crawford made Fair Game, which was based on the same novel by Gosling. Just like Cobra, Fair Game was re-edited by Warner Bros. in post production, but in Fair Game’s case it was due to the test audience disliking the original cut.
  
  
• To get the glint reflection of the Night Stalkers’ specialized killing knife, the production had to build a 3 foot knife so they could actually get the reflection effect that they wanted. Brian Thompson was quite surprised by it and said the knife was actually made of plastic and some reflective material to get the shot.
  
  
• The movie is filled with over-the-top 1980s product placement. 1. Pepsi machine and Coors display and can in first shoot-out. 2. Giant Pepsi sign beside Stallone’s apartment. 3. Toys R Us commercial which Cobra watches on television. 4. Pepsi sign lit up at night outside Cobra’s apartment – background for fight scene. 5. Coors California sign in store window. 6. Coca-Cola machine outside store with character drinking can of Coke. 7. Bar scene with Miller High-Life sign in background.
  
  
• During the car chase scene the car the Nightslasher is in and the truck following Cobra are both driving erratically. Cobra’s driving is smooth and measured for most of the chase. This was filmed to reflect the chaotic nature of the Night Slasher and his followers and emphasized that Cobra was always cool and in control.
  
  
• The submachine gun used by Marion Cobretti in the final showdown with biker gang is a Jati-Matic. The Jati-Matic first appeared in the early 1980s, but was never adopted by any country for use. It re-appeared in Finland in the mid-1990s as the GG-95 Personal Defense Weapon made by the Golden Gun Company. The gun is chambered in 9×19 parabellum, has a cyclic rate of 600 rounds per minute, and has various accessories that were offered, such as a silencer, various capacity magazines, and a laser pointing device.
  
  
• Marco Rodriguez who would be cast as “The Supermarket Killer” actually read for the “Night Stalker” part that Brian Thompson would actually play in the film.
  
  
• Director George P. Costmatos would get upset to the point of explosion on set when he was not getting a particular performance. Marco Rodriguez was one such victim when he was only doing what Cosmatos asked of him through his broken English. Rodriguez would counter that he was “only doing what he asked of him.”
  
  
• The opening credits font is identical to the the one that had been used for the ‘Rambo’ logo the previous year, and would forevermore be associated with that series.
  
  
• In an interview Sylvester Stallone described the character of Marion Cobretti as “Bruce Springsteen with a badge.”
  
  
• The ‘Chase’ music from the score by Sylvester Levay would go on to become a popular choice of stock music for action movie trailers, notably featuring in the trailers for Bloodsport (1988) and Marked for Death (1990).
  
  
• The final shooting script for the film was 103 pages sans rewrites and additional dialog and material added.
  
  
• Stallone’s opening monologue was so gravelly because it was recorded immediately after he’d choked on his character’s signature toothpick when filming a scene. Brigitte Nielsen performed abdominal thrusts, which Sly insisted wasn’t necessary because his lungs would have the natural strength to dislodge absolutely anything.
  
  
• The original edit had a working title of “Corn on the Cobra” as the cult first targeted the north American agricultural industry before moving on to vulnerable women. As this part of the story didnt make the final cut the film was hastily renamed.
  
  
• The original ending was supposed to take place in Lake Pyru in Ojai, California where Cobra has a confrontation with Monte in which he rips off his shirt and reveals a Satanic tattoo on his chest revealing that he was the leader of the New Order which explains why the Night Stalker and Nancy, who was also an LAPD officer had information on all of the victims and were one step ahead of Cobretti and his partner as to the whereabouts of Ingrid.
  
  
• Andrew Robinson talked to Sylvester Stallone about the films’ original ending before it was filmed and told him that “they had killed so many people in the film and it takes away from the moments.” Stallone agreed with Robinson’s take on it and suggested that he would “just punch him out” and Robinson agreed with it and saved him three hours of putting a tattoo on his chest as the original ending stated he had.
  
  
• When Brian Thompson is sneaking up on Brigitte Nielsen in the hospital scene, under Bridgitte’s hospital bed is a pair of boxing shoes that say “rocky” on the back of them.
  
  
• The Night Slasher does not reveal the motivation for the murders until his final scenes. The motivation amounts to “Social Darwinism”, a belief that “survival of the fittest” translates to the strong having to dominate or eliminate the weak.