Daylight (film)
Encyclopedia
Daylight is a 1996 disaster film
Disaster film
A disaster film is a film genre that has an impending or ongoing disaster as its subject...

, starring Sylvester Stallone
Sylvester Stallone
Michael Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone , commonly known as Sylvester Stallone, and nicknamed Sly Stallone, is an American actor, filmmaker, screenwriter, film director and occasional painter. Stallone is known for his machismo and Hollywood action roles. Two of the notable characters he has portrayed...

, Amy Brenneman
Amy Brenneman
Amy Frederica Brenneman is an American actress, perhaps best known for her roles in the television series NYPD Blue, Judging Amy and Private Practice...

, Viggo Mortensen
Viggo Mortensen
Viggo Peter Mortensen, Jr. is a Danish-American actor, poet, musician, photographer and painter. He made his film debut in Peter Weir's 1985 thriller Witness, and subsequently appeared in many notable films of the 1990s, including The Indian Runner , Carlito's Way , Crimson Tide , Daylight , The...

, Dan Hedaya
Dan Hedaya
Daniel G. “Dan” Hedaya is an American character actor. He often plays sleazy villains or uptight, wisecracking individuals; three of his best-known roles are as Italian Mafia boss Tony Costello in Wise Guys, a cuckolded husband in the Coen brothers' crime thriller Blood Simple, and the scheming...

, and Danielle Harris
Danielle Harris
Danielle Andrea Harris is an American film and television actress, best known as a scream queen for her roles in several horror films, four of them in the Halloween series: in Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers and Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers as Jamie Lloyd and in Halloween and...

. It was directed by Rob Cohen
Rob Cohen
Robert "Rob" Cohen is an American film director, producer and writer.-Early life:Cohen was born in Cornwall, New York. He was raised and spent his childhood in the Town of Newburgh and graduated from Newburgh Free Academy in 1967...

 and released in theaters on December 6, 1996.

Plot

The film opens with a waste management firm in upstate NY trying to illegally dispose of toxic waste. Chemicals are loaded on three trucks bound for New Jersey. Meanwhile, a crew of diamond thieves steal a shipment of stones and a black Cadillac Seville
Cadillac Seville
The Cadillac Seville is a luxury-type car that was manufactured by the Cadillac division of American automaker General Motors from 1975 to 2004, as a smaller-sized top-of-the-line Cadillac...

. The thieves are pursued by NYPD and elude capture by heading into a tunnel between Manhattan and New Jersey. As the loaded trucks enter the tunnel, the thieves do also, crashing through a barricade. They push their way past the traffic entering the tunnel, causing chaos as they make their way through the north tube. As they weave and shove their way past traffic, the diamonds spill all over the floor of the car. As one of the thieves reaches down to get the diamonds, she pushes the gas pedal to the floor. The Cadillac accelerates wildly, and the driver loses control. The car hits the tunnel wall, and goes airborne, smashing into a booth housing police officers, and smashes into one of the trucks. The truck explodes, setting off a chain reaction explosion that destroys the other two trucks. The destruction of the trucks and their cargo creates a devastating explosion that causes the roof of the tunnel to cave in. Cars on the New Jersey end are flattened. Another explosion takes place, and the fire, fueled by the remaining oxygen in the tube, explodes into a fireball, rushing through the tunnel at hellish speed. The fireball devours everything in its path.

On the Manhattan end of the tunnel, former New York City Emergency Medical Services Chief, Kit Latura (Sylvester Stallone
Sylvester Stallone
Michael Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone , commonly known as Sylvester Stallone, and nicknamed Sly Stallone, is an American actor, filmmaker, screenwriter, film director and occasional painter. Stallone is known for his machismo and Hollywood action roles. Two of the notable characters he has portrayed...

), working as a taxi driver, is preparing to drive into the tunnel when the entrance suddenly explodes. The entrance caves in, blocking the tunnel. He then races into action, trying to help whoever he can. He runs into an old EMS colleague who tells him that the tunnel is severely damaged.

Kit then checks with tunnel administrators, and finds that the hidden passages have all been sealed off. The only escape route, the Mid River Passage, a service tunnel running between the north and south tubes, has been so severely damaged in the blast that it is virtually impossible to use as an escape route. With the tube weakened, the structure could come down if any wrong moves are made. Roy Nord (Viggo Mortensen
Viggo Mortensen
Viggo Peter Mortensen, Jr. is a Danish-American actor, poet, musician, photographer and painter. He made his film debut in Peter Weir's 1985 thriller Witness, and subsequently appeared in many notable films of the 1990s, including The Indian Runner , Carlito's Way , Crimson Tide , Daylight , The...

), one of the survivors in the tunnel, believes he can find a way out through the mid-river passage. Kit makes his way into the tunnel through the tunnel's ventilation fans. He learns that Nord has entered the mid-river passage and goes after him; he finds Nord and warns him that the passage could come down at any moment, but Nord dismisses the possibility. Kit runs out as the mid-river collapses, killing Nord. Kit barely escapes and a small explosion kills one of the survivors.

Water begins seeping in from the river and Kit uses an explosive to stop the leak. Soon afterward George Tyrell (Stan Shaw
Stan Shaw
Stan Shaw is an American actor.Born in Chicago, Illinois, he is the son of Bertha Shaw and saxophonist Eddie Shaw, and cousin of the late soul singers Sam Cooke and Tyrone Davis Brother of Vaan Shaw...

), a police officer in the tunnel, returns from investigating the Manhattan end and is crushed by a truck as it comes over the broken road. Kit and the survivors manage to free him from beneath the truck but he is left with a broken neck. Water begins seeping in again and angry survivors confront Kit about the situation. He claims he can slow it down but nothing can stop the pressure from the clean-up effort on the Manhattan side of the tunnel, which is causing the water to come enter their side. He asks George if there are any booths which may have a way to dry area; George mentions booth 3 and Kit swims under it and finds a dry storage area. He returns to tell the survivors of his discovery and they head to the booth. George can not go, however, because of his broken neck. He gives Kit a bracelet to give to Grace (Vanessa Bell Calloway
Vanessa Bell Calloway
Vanessa Bell Calloway is an American actress who has appeared in a number of films, including Biker Boyz, Love Don't Cost a Thing, What's Love Got to Do with It, Coming to America, and Cheaper by the Dozen....

), his girlfriend, and tells him to "take them to daylight", a reference to the survivors. After the survivors reach the dry ground, Eleanor (Claire Bloom
Claire Bloom
Claire Bloom is an English film and stage actress.-Early life:Bloom was born in the North London suburb of Finchley, the daughter of Elizabeth and Edward Max Blume, who worked in sales...

), one of the elder survivors, realizes her dog, Cooper, is missing and soon dies, presumably from shock and/or hypothermia. Water starts to come in and Kit discovers another room behind a wall. He manages to pull part of the wall out and this leads to another storage room, in which he uses a glow stick to light up the area. Water comes in here as well and Kit and the survivors run up a wooden staircase. A beam falls and destroys half of the staircase. Kit notices Cooper swimming to the bottom of the remaining staircase and goes to rescue him. He successfully saves the dog, but due to a falling ceiling beam, he accidentally falls into the water along with the rest of the staircase. This isolates him from the survivors. One of them, Maddy (Amy Brenneman
Amy Brenneman
Amy Frederica Brenneman is an American actress, perhaps best known for her roles in the television series NYPD Blue, Judging Amy and Private Practice...

), tries to help him up but she falls as well. Another survivor notices a way out through the stairways end (to an unfinished sewer) and Kit makes the other survivors leave just before most of the area above the stairway collapses.

Kit and Maddy then swim around looking for a possible way out. Kit realizes he will have to do a blow out, in which an explosion would blow the tunnel roof open in a geyser-like explosion, forcing water out through the river bed. At this point there appears to be a romantic connection between the two. Kit lights fuses and swims to a safety point to the tunnel road. The fuses go off and the tunnel appears to collapse; Kit emerges from the mud and he and Maddy are seen blowing in opposite directions as the water blows through the river bed. The water can be seen bubbling on the surface of the river and Maddy appears and finds Kit. He appears to be heavily exhausted but otherwise okay. They are discovered by boats on the river and taken to EMS workers. Kit hands Grace the bracelet. Maddy then insists on riding with him and she jokingly says she probably has no other choice. Kit replies, "On one condition, we gotta take the bridge."

Cast

  • Sylvester Stallone
    Sylvester Stallone
    Michael Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone , commonly known as Sylvester Stallone, and nicknamed Sly Stallone, is an American actor, filmmaker, screenwriter, film director and occasional painter. Stallone is known for his machismo and Hollywood action roles. Two of the notable characters he has portrayed...

     as Kit Latura
  • Amy Brenneman
    Amy Brenneman
    Amy Frederica Brenneman is an American actress, perhaps best known for her roles in the television series NYPD Blue, Judging Amy and Private Practice...

     as Madelyne "Maddy" Thompson
  • Viggo Mortensen
    Viggo Mortensen
    Viggo Peter Mortensen, Jr. is a Danish-American actor, poet, musician, photographer and painter. He made his film debut in Peter Weir's 1985 thriller Witness, and subsequently appeared in many notable films of the 1990s, including The Indian Runner , Carlito's Way , Crimson Tide , Daylight , The...

     as Roy Nord
  • Stan Shaw
    Stan Shaw
    Stan Shaw is an American actor.Born in Chicago, Illinois, he is the son of Bertha Shaw and saxophonist Eddie Shaw, and cousin of the late soul singers Sam Cooke and Tyrone Davis Brother of Vaan Shaw...

     as George Tyrell
  • Sage Stallone
    Sage Stallone
    Sage Moonblood Stallone is an American actor, director, producer and writer.-Early life:Stallone is the son of Sasha Czack and actor Sylvester Stallone. He is the brother of Seargeoh Stallone, and half-brother of Sistine, Sophia and Scarlet Stallone. His uncle is actor/singer Frank Stallone and...

     as Vincent
  • Trina McGee as LaTonya
  • Danielle Harris
    Danielle Harris
    Danielle Andrea Harris is an American film and television actress, best known as a scream queen for her roles in several horror films, four of them in the Halloween series: in Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers and Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers as Jamie Lloyd and in Halloween and...

     as Ashley Crighton
  • Jay O. Sanders
    Jay O. Sanders
    Jay Olcutt Sanders is an American character actor.Sanders was born in Austin, Texas, to Phyllis Rae and James Olcutt Sanders. He is noted for playing Mob lawyer character Steven Kordo in the 1986–88 NBC detective series Crime Story...

     as Steven Crighton
  • Karen Young
    Karen Young (actress)
    Karen Young is an American actress.Born in Pequannock Township, New Jersey, Young studied at Rutgers University. After graduation she moved to New York City and became an actress, appearing in such films as 9½ Weeks, Jaws: The Revenge, Daylight, Mercy and Hoffa. Her ex-husband is Tom Noonan...

     as Sarah Crighton
  • Colin Fox
    Colin Fox (actor)
    Colin Fox is a Canadian actor. His acting credits include playing Jean Paul Desmond and Jacques Eloi Des Mondes in Strange Paradise , as well as voice work in various animated series, and in other roles in film, television and on the stage...

     as Roger Trilling
  • Claire Bloom
    Claire Bloom
    Claire Bloom is an English film and stage actress.-Early life:Bloom was born in the North London suburb of Finchley, the daughter of Elizabeth and Edward Max Blume, who worked in sales...

     as Eleanor Trilling
  • Dan Hedaya
    Dan Hedaya
    Daniel G. “Dan” Hedaya is an American character actor. He often plays sleazy villains or uptight, wisecracking individuals; three of his best-known roles are as Italian Mafia boss Tony Costello in Wise Guys, a cuckolded husband in the Coen brothers' crime thriller Blood Simple, and the scheming...

     as Frank Craft
  • Vanessa Bell Calloway
    Vanessa Bell Calloway
    Vanessa Bell Calloway is an American actress who has appeared in a number of films, including Biker Boyz, Love Don't Cost a Thing, What's Love Got to Do with It, Coming to America, and Cheaper by the Dozen....

     as Grace Calloway
  • Renoly Santiago
    Renoly Santiago
    Renoly Santiago is a Puerto Rican actor, singer and writer who has appeared in a number of high-profile Hollywood productions....

     as Mikey
  • Marcello Thedford
    Marcello Thedford
    Marcello Thedford is an American film and television actor. His most noteworthy roles have been as Kelvin "Buffalo" James on the ESPN dramatic series Playmakers, Semi in Employee of the Month, and in eight episodes of ER as Leon, Dr. Greg Pratt's mentally challenged brother.Thedford's acting career...

     as Kadeem
  • Barry Newman
    Barry Newman
    Barry Foster Newman is an American film, television, and stage actor, famous for his interpretation of Kowalski in the movie Vanishing Point. He has been nominated for a Golden Globe and Emmy awards.- Life and career :...

     as Norman Bassett
  • Mark Rolston
    Mark Rolston
    -Career:Rolston played PFC M. Drake in Aliens , Hans in Lethal Weapon 2 , Stef in RoboCop 2 , Bogs Diamond in The Shawshank Redemption , J. Scar in Eraser , Chief Dennis Wilson in Daylight , Wayne Bryce in Hard Rain and Special Agent in Charge Warren Russ in Rush Hour...

     as Chief Dennis Wilson
  • Jo Anderson
    Jo Anderson
    Jo Anderson is an American actress.-Life and career:Anderson has had guest-starring appearances in many television shows, has appeared in a few movies, as well as many TV-movies. She has also starred in some television series. Recently she has guest-starred in some TV series including ER, C.S.I...

     as Bloom

Reception

The film generally received negative reviews. Based on 25 reviews collected by the film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...

, 22% of critics gave Daylight a positive review. Roger Ebert gave the film two stars out four, commenting, "Daylight is the cinematic equivalent of a golden oldies station, where you never encounter anything you haven't grown to love over the years." Empire gave the film four stars out of five, stating, "Daylight is great because it never tries to be any more than it is — a disaster movie with all the special-effects hoopla the 90s can bring."

While Daylight only made $33 million in the US, overseas it took in over $126 million, resulting in gross earnings of $159,212,469 worldwide.

The film won a Golden Reel Award for best Sound Editing and was nominated for an Academy Award in the same category. It was also nominated for two Golden Raspberry Awards
Golden Raspberry Awards
A Golden Raspberry Award, or Razzie for short, is an award presented in recognition of the worst in movies. Founded by American copywriter and publicist John J.B. Wilson in 1981, the annual Razzie Awards ceremony in Los Angeles precedes the corresponding Academy Awards ceremony by one day...

, Worst Actor (Sylvester Stallone) and Worst Original Song ("Whenever There Is Love").
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