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Nighthawks (film)
Encyclopedia
Nighthawks is a 1981
thriller film starring Sylvester Stallone
, Billy Dee Williams
, Rutger Hauer, Lindsay Wagner
, Persis Khambatta
, and Nigel Davenport
. It was directed
by Bruce Malmuth
. The original music score was composed by Keith Emerson
.
police detectives, Det. Sgt. Deke DaSilva (Sylvester Stallone
, sporting a beard
) and Det. Sgt. Matthew Fox (Billy Dee Williams
) who work undercover, and a terrorist
Heymar Reinhardt, alias Wulfgar (Rutger Hauer). In the prologue, set in the late night to early morning hours on New Year's Eve
1979, three armed assailants attempt a mugging on a supposedly unsuspecting woman, who turns out to be DaSilva in drag for a carefully planned sting operation. Fox immobilizes two of the suspects as Deke chases the third upstairs to the 174th Street (IRT White Plains Road Line)
Subway Station platform and dares the man to cut him. Deke then incapacitates him and places him under arrest.
The next scene takes place in London
on the same day, where Wulfgar bombs a department store
, instilling the will of fear in the surrounding society. Meanwhile, back in New York City
on January 4, 1980, DaSilva and Fox serve a high risk warrant in the Bronx. They raid a known drug distribution spot. The obvious corruption in the police department is exposed in the suspect's dialogue as a minor subplot. Two days later in London
, Wulfgar converses with his contact at a party, Kenneth, who tells Wulfgar that Mercer, who we never see but come to know as the financier of Wulfgar's operations, is withholding money owed to Wulfgar because several children were killed in Wulfgar's latest bombing. Wulfgar quickly discovers that Kenneth had been held at Heathrow Airport in police custody, and has inadvertently led police to Wulfgar's location. Wulfgar then proceeds to murder Kenneth and the policemen
who had converged on the location. The next day, he then flees to Paris
where he meets his associate, Shakka Holland (Persis Khambatta
) at La Sainte-Chapelle
. Shakka remarks that La Sainte-Chapelle
is a bad meeting place because it's next to (in real life too), the Palais de Justice, a courthouse in Paris
. She informs Wulfgar that Kenneth's death was a rash decision, for the police found a passport that he'd brought to Wulfgar on his person. Wulfgar also realizes he has killed one of his own, and is now facing alienation from his allies. With his identity revealed to all European authorities, Wulfgar and Shakka visit a plastic surgeon, who changes Wulfgar's appearance. After the process, the surgeon becomes a liability, and is murdered by Wulfgar, who then flees to New York City
.
After having their undercover detail compromised by two uniformed officers, DaSilva and Fox are informed that they have been transferred from the Street Crime Unit and into a special Federal-State Unit.
After a touchy moment with their superior, Lieutenant Munafo (Joe Spinell
), they discover that their transfer orders came from the commissioner, who had received the orders from Washington D.C.. The fact that the two detectives served in Vietnam
also play into this, making them two of the highest recommended candidates for the special unit. The
Anti-Terrorist Action Command (A.T.A.C.) squad is assembled by INTERPOL
British
Counter-terrorist
specialist Peter Hartman (Nigel Davenport
). Hartman believes Wulfgar will come to the U.S. next primarily for the press coverage. Hartman schools DaSilva, Fox and a specially selected team of New York police on Wulfgar, Shakka, and terrorism
in general on his proactive approach to finding and taking out terrorists. But the 'shoot-to-kill' policy that Hartman encourages doesn't go down well with DeSilva, who says it sounds like an order to be an assassin insead of a policeman. Hartman also makes a personal comment regarding DaSilva's ex-wife, which causes him to leave, but opening him up to the connections of the underground New York City
.
According to Hartman, Wulfgar wastes no time in becoming familiar with new surroundings. After completing the latter, Hartman states that Wulfgar, an aficionado for the vivid nightclub scene, will try to find safe housing for his arsenal. Sure enough, Wulfgar meets Pam, a flight attendant, in a nightclub and moves in with her. Surprisingly enough, when she asks him what he does for a living, he tells her the complete and total truth: "I'm an international terrorist wanted on three continents." She takes it as humor. Wulfgar then announces his presence in New York by bombing several locations in the Wall Street area. Alone in her apartment while Wulfgar (known as Eric to Pam), is away, Pam discovers his arsenal. Wulfgar kills Pam, and her death is the first break Hartman, DaSilva and Fox get. Wulfgar has left behind a map of the Wall Street area. According to investigators, the location that had been bombed was marked. DaSilva and Fox investigate Pam's favorite nightspots and hope to find Wulfgar at one of them. They do find him. But, unsure of what he looks like since the plastic surgery, they hesitate and after a long chase and nearly fatal hostage situation on the New York City Subway
's IND 6th Avenue Line, Wulfgar gets away, slashing Fox's face in the process. Wulfgar takes refuge in the basement of a little grocery store, where it is revealed that Shakka is now in the United States
to inform him that the NYPD and the United Nations
delegation members have a description of him.
On January 17, the members of A.T.A.C. is protecting a United Nations
function at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
that has the earmarks of a potential terrorist target. Shakka infiltrates the party in disguise. She corners Hartman on an escalator and murders him.
Wulfgar and Shakka then hijack a Roosevelt Island Tram car carrying U.N.
representatives. He executes the wife of the French ambassador while DaSilva is watching from a hovering police
helicopter
as a penalty for the nightclub and subway chase. Wulfgar decides to release an infant onboard the car, and demands that DaSilva personally board the tramway to rescue it. DaSilva is winch
ed up to the aerial tram
and confronts Wulfgar face-to-face. DaSilva demands to know why Wulfgar killed the woman. “I wanted to,” the sadist replies. However, he decides to spare his nemesis for the moment. DaSilva and the baby are lowered back down to a waiting barge.
The police
agree to Wulfgar's demands for a MTA New York City Transit bus to escort him and the hostages to the airport, where a jet will be waiting for takeoff. Wulfgar and Shakka hide among the crowd of hostages from the tram. DaSilva waits until they try to board before making his move. He plays back a recording of Hartman's lecture in which the terrorist expert denounces Shakka. In a rage, Shakka breaks from the hostages and is gunned down by Fox. Wulfgar returns fire on the police. He escapes, driving the bus off a ramp into the East River
.
A search of the wreckage shows no sign of Wulfgar. The team finds the store where Wulfgar has been staying and DaSilva finds that Wulfgar has gathered information on all participating members of A.T.A.C., including Fox, Hartman, and DaSilva: an address of his ex-wife, Irene (Lindsay Wagner
) is found on one of the printouts. Wulfgar makes his way to Irene's house, hides outside, and sees Irene walk up to the house and go in. He breaks in, finds her washing dishes and sneaks up behind her brandishing a knife. But DaSilva has made it to Irene's first; he turns around, wearing his ex-wife's housecoat and a blonde wig, brandishing a gun. With nowhere to go, Wulfgar lunges at DaSilva who fires his revolver twice into the terrorist, sending his dead body crashing back into the street.
's Popeye Doyle team up with a wisecracking cop, to be possibly played by Richard Pryor
. The main plot was the same but when Hackman showed reluctance to do a third movie as Doyle the idea was scrapped and Universal acquired the rights to the storyline, which Shaber then reworked into Nighthawks.
The original director
was Gary Nelson
, who had directed the successful Disney movies
Freaky Friday
(1976) and The Black Hole
(1979), but he left the project early into production and was not credited. His replacement, Bruce Malmuth
, had only one previous film to his credit, a segment of the 1975 portmanteau comedy
Foreplay. Malmuth was unable to make his first day of shooting, so Stallone
stepped in to shoot the scene, the chase down the subway
. Stallone had to get the approval of the Directors Guild of America (DGA)
, which has strict rules on actor
s directing their own movies, for this one day of filming. Principal photography began on January 1980 and lasted until March 1980.
The film marked the American
debut of Dutch
actor
Rutger Hauer. According to a recent interview in Premiere
, Hauer was told before filming that Stallone ran up building stairwells for exercise. However, during the subway
chase, Hauer continually outran the American
star
, who is known for his competitive streak (see also Victory
). Stallone also gave the producers
headaches by insisting on doing his own stunts. According to actor Nigel Davenport
in an interview for the BBC
's Wogan
show, Stallone performed the scene where he was winched up to the tram
without a double. The film's stunt coordinator
was Dar Robinson
. Stallone confirms this in a Q&A session on Ain't It Cool News
' website:
In the same Q&A session, he said that Nighthawks "was even a better film before the studio lost faith in it and cut it to pieces. What was in the missing scenes was extraordinary acting by Rutger Hauer, Lindsey Wagner, and the finale was a blood fest that rivaled the finale of Taxi Driver
. But it was a blood fest with a purpose".
The subway train used in the chase sequence consisted of retired IND equipment that had been preserved as a museum train. Of the cars whose numbers are visible, 800 is now at the Seashore Trolley Museum
in Kennebunkport, Maine
. 1802, the last prewar NYC subway car built, is owned by Railway Preservation Corporation and remains in New York, where it operates several times a year on museum fantrips along with other preserved cars. 1208 has since been scrapped. The IND Hoyt-Schermerhorn station in Brooklyn served as both the 57th and 42nd St. stations (a Hoyt-Schermerhorn sign is briefly visible when Stallone tries to pry the doors open as the train is pulling out). The train operated on the unused outer track that leads from the Court St. station, now the New York Transit Museum
.
The London department store seen being blown up at the start of the film was actually Arding & Hobbs, located at Clapham Junction, SW11. The store still exists today, but is now owned by Debenhams
. During the 2011 England Riots
the shop again had its windows smashed.
, Nighthawks did not become a big commercial
success, even though it did recover its $5 million budget in both US and foreign markets. It grossed USD $14.9 million in North America and $5 million in the rest of the world for a worldwide total of $19.9 million. In her review for the New York Times, Janet Maslin
praised Hauer's performance: "Mr. Hauer's terrorist, in particular, is a sharply drawn character who acts as a driving force within the movie's scheme. Sadism and bloodlessness are his only identifiable characteristics, and yet he behaves memorably wherever he goes". Time
magazine's Richard Schickel
wrote, "Nighthawks is so moronically written and directed, so entirely without wit or novelty, that there is plenty of time to wonder about its many missing explanations". In his review for the Globe and Mail, Jay Scott
felt that the film, "has a dirty job to do and does it. That is not an endorsement. Thumbscrews and cattle prods are real good at what they do, too". Newsweek
magazine's Jack Kroll wrote, "This is one of those films that isn't a film but some repulsively complicated business deal". In his review for the Washington Post, Gary Arnold described the film as "an aggressively shallow police thriller pitting New York undercover cops against international terrorists, suggests what The Day of the Jackal
might have looked like if filmed by the producers of Baretta
. In order to facilitate a grandstanding, harebrained heroic role assigned to Sylvester Stallone, the filmmakers brush off every opportunity for intelligent dramatization and authentic suspense that the plot would seem to possess".
Stallone says of the film now, "At the time, people couldn't relate to it, and the studio (Universal) didn't believe in it".
edition from Universal Pictures
replaces two songs played during the disco shoot-out. The first song is "Brown Sugar" by the Rolling Stones
and the second one is "I'm A Man" by Keith Emerson
. Earlier VHS releases from Universal Home Video and some TV versions also featured the altered songs. The fullscreen DVD release by GoodTimes Entertainment contains the restored songs. Both versions contain the UK edit of the finale, which causes a continuity error (Stallone fires only two shots, but six bullet holes end up on Hauer by the time his body falls down the steps).
1981 in film
-Events:*January 19 - Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer acquires beleaguered concurrent United Artists. UA was humiliated by the astronomical losses on the $40,000,000 movie Heaven's Gate, a major factor in the decision of owner Transamerica to sell it....
thriller film 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...
, Billy Dee Williams
Billy Dee Williams
William December "Billy Dee" Williams, Jr. is an American actor, artist, singer, and writer.-Early life:Williams was born in New York City, New York, the son of Loretta...
, Rutger Hauer, Lindsay Wagner
Lindsay Wagner
Lindsay Jean Wagner is an American actress. She is probably best known for her portrayal of Jaime Sommers in the 1970s television series The Bionic Woman , though she has maintained a lengthy career in a variety of other film and television productions since.-Early life:Wagner was born in Los...
, Persis Khambatta
Persis Khambatta
Persis Khambatta was an Indian model, actress and author. She was best known for her role as Lieutenant Ilia in the 1979 feature film Star Trek: The Motion Picture.-Early Life:...
, and Nigel Davenport
Nigel Davenport
Nigel Davenport is an English stage, television and film actor.- Early life :Davenport was born Arthur Nigel Davenport, however he goes by the first name of Nigel. Davenport was born in Shelford, Cambridgeshire, the son of Katherine Lucy and Arthur Henry Davenport. Davenport's father was a bursar...
. It was directed
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
by Bruce Malmuth
Bruce Malmuth
Bruce Malmuth was an American actor and film director.-Early life:Malmuth began making documentaries while serving in the Army, where he met baseball announcer Walter Red Barber...
. The original music score was composed by Keith Emerson
Keith Emerson
Keith Noel Emerson is an English keyboard player and composer. Formerly a member of the Keith Emerson Trio, John Brown's Bodies, The T-Bones, V.I.P.s, P.P. Arnold's backing band, and The Nice , he was a founder of Emerson, Lake & Palmer , one of the early supergroups, in 1970...
.
Storyline
The story revolves around the lives of two NYPDNew York City Police Department
The New York City Police Department , established in 1845, is currently the largest municipal police force in the United States, with primary responsibilities in law enforcement and investigation within the five boroughs of New York City...
police detectives, Det. Sgt. Deke DaSilva (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...
, sporting a beard
Beard
A beard is the collection of hair that grows on the chin, cheeks and neck of human beings. Usually, only pubescent or adult males are able to grow beards. However, women with hirsutism may develop a beard...
) and Det. Sgt. Matthew Fox (Billy Dee Williams
Billy Dee Williams
William December "Billy Dee" Williams, Jr. is an American actor, artist, singer, and writer.-Early life:Williams was born in New York City, New York, the son of Loretta...
) who work undercover, and a terrorist
Terrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
Heymar Reinhardt, alias Wulfgar (Rutger Hauer). In the prologue, set in the late night to early morning hours on New Year's Eve
New Year's Eve
New Year's Eve is observed annually on December 31, the final day of any given year in the Gregorian calendar. In modern societies, New Year's Eve is often celebrated at social gatherings, during which participants dance, eat, consume alcoholic beverages, and watch or light fireworks to mark the...
1979, three armed assailants attempt a mugging on a supposedly unsuspecting woman, who turns out to be DaSilva in drag for a carefully planned sting operation. Fox immobilizes two of the suspects as Deke chases the third upstairs to the 174th Street (IRT White Plains Road Line)
174th Street (IRT White Plains Road Line)
174th Street is a local station on the IRT White Plains Road Line of the New York City Subway. Located at the intersection of 174th Street and Southern Boulevard in the Crotona Park East section of the Bronx, it is served by the 2 train at all times, and by the 5 train at all times except late...
Subway Station platform and dares the man to cut him. Deke then incapacitates him and places him under arrest.
The next scene takes place in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
on the same day, where Wulfgar bombs a department store
Department store
A department store is a retail establishment which satisfies a wide range of the consumer's personal and residential durable goods product needs; and at the same time offering the consumer a choice of multiple merchandise lines, at variable price points, in all product categories...
, instilling the will of fear in the surrounding society. Meanwhile, back in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
on January 4, 1980, DaSilva and Fox serve a high risk warrant in the Bronx. They raid a known drug distribution spot. The obvious corruption in the police department is exposed in the suspect's dialogue as a minor subplot. Two days later in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, Wulfgar converses with his contact at a party, Kenneth, who tells Wulfgar that Mercer, who we never see but come to know as the financier of Wulfgar's operations, is withholding money owed to Wulfgar because several children were killed in Wulfgar's latest bombing. Wulfgar quickly discovers that Kenneth had been held at Heathrow Airport in police custody, and has inadvertently led police to Wulfgar's location. Wulfgar then proceeds to murder Kenneth and the policemen
Metropolitan police
Metropolitan Police is a generic title for the municipal police force for a major metropolitan area, and it may be part of the official title of the force...
who had converged on the location. The next day, he then flees to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
where he meets his associate, Shakka Holland (Persis Khambatta
Persis Khambatta
Persis Khambatta was an Indian model, actress and author. She was best known for her role as Lieutenant Ilia in the 1979 feature film Star Trek: The Motion Picture.-Early Life:...
) at La Sainte-Chapelle
Sainte-Chapelle
La Sainte-Chapelle is the only surviving building of the Capetian royal palace on the Île de la Cité in the heart of Paris, France. It was commissioned by King Louis IX of France to house his collection of Passion Relics, including the Crown of Thorns - one of the most important relics in medieval...
. Shakka remarks that La Sainte-Chapelle
Sainte-Chapelle
La Sainte-Chapelle is the only surviving building of the Capetian royal palace on the Île de la Cité in the heart of Paris, France. It was commissioned by King Louis IX of France to house his collection of Passion Relics, including the Crown of Thorns - one of the most important relics in medieval...
is a bad meeting place because it's next to (in real life too), the Palais de Justice, a courthouse in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. She informs Wulfgar that Kenneth's death was a rash decision, for the police found a passport that he'd brought to Wulfgar on his person. Wulfgar also realizes he has killed one of his own, and is now facing alienation from his allies. With his identity revealed to all European authorities, Wulfgar and Shakka visit a plastic surgeon, who changes Wulfgar's appearance. After the process, the surgeon becomes a liability, and is murdered by Wulfgar, who then flees to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
.
After having their undercover detail compromised by two uniformed officers, DaSilva and Fox are informed that they have been transferred from the Street Crime Unit and into a special Federal-State Unit.
After a touchy moment with their superior, Lieutenant Munafo (Joe Spinell
Joe Spinell
Joe Spinell was an American character actor, who appeared in numerous films in the 1970s and 1980s.-Biography:...
), they discover that their transfer orders came from the commissioner, who had received the orders from Washington D.C.. The fact that the two detectives served in Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
also play into this, making them two of the highest recommended candidates for the special unit. The
Anti-Terrorist Action Command (A.T.A.C.) squad is assembled by INTERPOL
Interpol
Interpol, whose full name is the International Criminal Police Organization – INTERPOL, is an organization facilitating international police cooperation...
British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
Counter-terrorist
Counter-terrorism
Counter-terrorism is the practices, tactics, techniques, and strategies that governments, militaries, police departments and corporations adopt to prevent or in response to terrorist threats and/or acts, both real and imputed.The tactic of terrorism is available to insurgents and governments...
specialist Peter Hartman (Nigel Davenport
Nigel Davenport
Nigel Davenport is an English stage, television and film actor.- Early life :Davenport was born Arthur Nigel Davenport, however he goes by the first name of Nigel. Davenport was born in Shelford, Cambridgeshire, the son of Katherine Lucy and Arthur Henry Davenport. Davenport's father was a bursar...
). Hartman believes Wulfgar will come to the U.S. next primarily for the press coverage. Hartman schools DaSilva, Fox and a specially selected team of New York police on Wulfgar, Shakka, and terrorism
Terrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
in general on his proactive approach to finding and taking out terrorists. But the 'shoot-to-kill' policy that Hartman encourages doesn't go down well with DeSilva, who says it sounds like an order to be an assassin insead of a policeman. Hartman also makes a personal comment regarding DaSilva's ex-wife, which causes him to leave, but opening him up to the connections of the underground New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
.
According to Hartman, Wulfgar wastes no time in becoming familiar with new surroundings. After completing the latter, Hartman states that Wulfgar, an aficionado for the vivid nightclub scene, will try to find safe housing for his arsenal. Sure enough, Wulfgar meets Pam, a flight attendant, in a nightclub and moves in with her. Surprisingly enough, when she asks him what he does for a living, he tells her the complete and total truth: "I'm an international terrorist wanted on three continents." She takes it as humor. Wulfgar then announces his presence in New York by bombing several locations in the Wall Street area. Alone in her apartment while Wulfgar (known as Eric to Pam), is away, Pam discovers his arsenal. Wulfgar kills Pam, and her death is the first break Hartman, DaSilva and Fox get. Wulfgar has left behind a map of the Wall Street area. According to investigators, the location that had been bombed was marked. DaSilva and Fox investigate Pam's favorite nightspots and hope to find Wulfgar at one of them. They do find him. But, unsure of what he looks like since the plastic surgery, they hesitate and after a long chase and nearly fatal hostage situation on the New York City Subway
New York City Subway
The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the City of New York and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, a subsidiary agency of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and also known as MTA New York City Transit...
's IND 6th Avenue Line, Wulfgar gets away, slashing Fox's face in the process. Wulfgar takes refuge in the basement of a little grocery store, where it is revealed that Shakka is now in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
to inform him that the NYPD and the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
delegation members have a description of him.
On January 17, the members of A.T.A.C. is protecting a United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
function at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...
that has the earmarks of a potential terrorist target. Shakka infiltrates the party in disguise. She corners Hartman on an escalator and murders him.
Wulfgar and Shakka then hijack a Roosevelt Island Tram car carrying U.N.
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
representatives. He executes the wife of the French ambassador while DaSilva is watching from a hovering police
Police
The police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...
helicopter
Helicopter
A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by one or more engine-driven rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forwards, backwards, and laterally...
as a penalty for the nightclub and subway chase. Wulfgar decides to release an infant onboard the car, and demands that DaSilva personally board the tramway to rescue it. DaSilva is winch
Winch
A winch is a mechanical device that is used to pull in or let out or otherwise adjust the "tension" of a rope or wire rope . In its simplest form it consists of a spool and attached hand crank. In larger forms, winches stand at the heart of machines as diverse as tow trucks, steam shovels and...
ed up to the aerial tram
Aerial tramway
An aerial tramway , cable car , ropeway or aerial tram is a type of aerial lift which uses one or two stationary ropes for support while a third moving rope provides propulsion...
and confronts Wulfgar face-to-face. DaSilva demands to know why Wulfgar killed the woman. “I wanted to,” the sadist replies. However, he decides to spare his nemesis for the moment. DaSilva and the baby are lowered back down to a waiting barge.
The police
Police
The police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...
agree to Wulfgar's demands for a MTA New York City Transit bus to escort him and the hostages to the airport, where a jet will be waiting for takeoff. Wulfgar and Shakka hide among the crowd of hostages from the tram. DaSilva waits until they try to board before making his move. He plays back a recording of Hartman's lecture in which the terrorist expert denounces Shakka. In a rage, Shakka breaks from the hostages and is gunned down by Fox. Wulfgar returns fire on the police. He escapes, driving the bus off a ramp into the East River
East River
The East River is a tidal strait in New York City. It connects Upper New York Bay on its south end to Long Island Sound on its north end. It separates Long Island from the island of Manhattan and the Bronx on the North American mainland...
.
A search of the wreckage shows no sign of Wulfgar. The team finds the store where Wulfgar has been staying and DaSilva finds that Wulfgar has gathered information on all participating members of A.T.A.C., including Fox, Hartman, and DaSilva: an address of his ex-wife, Irene (Lindsay Wagner
Lindsay Wagner
Lindsay Jean Wagner is an American actress. She is probably best known for her portrayal of Jaime Sommers in the 1970s television series The Bionic Woman , though she has maintained a lengthy career in a variety of other film and television productions since.-Early life:Wagner was born in Los...
) is found on one of the printouts. Wulfgar makes his way to Irene's house, hides outside, and sees Irene walk up to the house and go in. He breaks in, finds her washing dishes and sneaks up behind her brandishing a knife. But DaSilva has made it to Irene's first; he turns around, wearing his ex-wife's housecoat and a blonde wig, brandishing a gun. With nowhere to go, Wulfgar lunges at DaSilva who fires his revolver twice into the terrorist, sending his dead body crashing back into the street.
Cast
- Sylvester StalloneSylvester StalloneMichael 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 Detective Sergeant Deke DaSilva - Billy Dee WilliamsBilly Dee WilliamsWilliam December "Billy Dee" Williams, Jr. is an American actor, artist, singer, and writer.-Early life:Williams was born in New York City, New York, the son of Loretta...
as Detective Sergeant Matthew Fox - Rutger Hauer as Wulfgar
- Lindsay WagnerLindsay WagnerLindsay Jean Wagner is an American actress. She is probably best known for her portrayal of Jaime Sommers in the 1970s television series The Bionic Woman , though she has maintained a lengthy career in a variety of other film and television productions since.-Early life:Wagner was born in Los...
as Irene - Persis KhambattaPersis KhambattaPersis Khambatta was an Indian model, actress and author. She was best known for her role as Lieutenant Ilia in the 1979 feature film Star Trek: The Motion Picture.-Early Life:...
as Shakka Holland - Nigel DavenportNigel DavenportNigel Davenport is an English stage, television and film actor.- Early life :Davenport was born Arthur Nigel Davenport, however he goes by the first name of Nigel. Davenport was born in Shelford, Cambridgeshire, the son of Katherine Lucy and Arthur Henry Davenport. Davenport's father was a bursar...
as Peter Hartman - Hilary ThompsonHilary ThompsonHilary Thompson, is an American actress, known primarily for her many character-type roles in popular television throughout the '60s, '70s, and '80s in programs such as I Dream of Jeannie, Bewitched, Gunsmoke, The Flying Nun, The Young Rebels Hilary Thompson, (aka "Hilarie" Thompson) (born March...
as Pam - Joe SpinellJoe SpinellJoe Spinell was an American character actor, who appeared in numerous films in the 1970s and 1980s.-Biography:...
as LieutenantLieutenantA lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...
Munafo - Charles Duval as DoctorPhysicianA physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
Ghiselin - Tony Munafo as Big Mike
- Jamie GillisJamie GillisJamie Gillis was an American pornographic actor, director and member of the AVN Hall of Fame....
as Designer
Production
The story was originally planned as The French Connection III by screenwriter David Shaber at Twentieth Century Fox, and would have seen Gene HackmanGene Hackman
Eugene Allen "Gene" Hackman is an American actor and novelist.Nominated for five Academy Awards, winning two, Hackman has also won three Golden Globes and two BAFTAs in a career that spanned five decades. He first came to fame in 1967 with his performance as Buck Barrow in Bonnie and Clyde...
's Popeye Doyle team up with a wisecracking cop, to be possibly played by Richard Pryor
Richard Pryor
Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor was an American stand-up comedian, actor, social critic, writer and MC. Pryor was known for uncompromising examinations of racism and topical contemporary issues, which employed colorful vulgarities, and profanity, as well as racial epithets...
. The main plot was the same but when Hackman showed reluctance to do a third movie as Doyle the idea was scrapped and Universal acquired the rights to the storyline, which Shaber then reworked into Nighthawks.
The original director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
was Gary Nelson
Gary Nelson (director)
Gary Nelson is an American television and film director. He has directed many well-know television series, including Gunsmoke, The Patty Duke Show, Gilligan's Island and Happy Days among dozens of others...
, who had directed the successful Disney movies
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
Freaky Friday
Freaky Friday
Freaky Friday is a classic comedic children’s novel written by Mary Rodgers first published in the USA in 1972, and adapted for film several times.-Plot:...
(1976) and The Black Hole
The Black Hole
The Black Hole is a 1979 American science fiction film directed by Gary Nelson for Walt Disney Productions. The film stars Maximilian Schell, Robert Forster, Joseph Bottoms, Yvette Mimieux, Anthony Perkins, and Ernest Borgnine, while the voices of the main robot characters are provided by Roddy...
(1979), but he left the project early into production and was not credited. His replacement, Bruce Malmuth
Bruce Malmuth
Bruce Malmuth was an American actor and film director.-Early life:Malmuth began making documentaries while serving in the Army, where he met baseball announcer Walter Red Barber...
, had only one previous film to his credit, a segment of the 1975 portmanteau comedy
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
Foreplay. Malmuth was unable to make his first day of shooting, so 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...
stepped in to shoot the scene, the chase down the subway
Rapid transit
A rapid transit, underground, subway, elevated railway, metro or metropolitan railway system is an electric passenger railway in an urban area with a high capacity and frequency, and grade separation from other traffic. Rapid transit systems are typically located either in underground tunnels or on...
. Stallone had to get the approval of the Directors Guild of America (DGA)
Directors Guild of America
Directors Guild of America is an entertainment labor union which represents the interests of film and television directors in the United States motion picture industry...
, which has strict rules on actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
s directing their own movies, for this one day of filming. Principal photography began on January 1980 and lasted until March 1980.
The film marked the American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
debut of Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
Rutger Hauer. According to a recent interview in Premiere
Premiere (magazine)
Premiere was an American and New York City-based film magazine published by Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S., published between the years 1987 and 2007. The original version of the magazine, Première , was started in France in 1976 and is still being published there.-History:The magazine originally...
, Hauer was told before filming that Stallone ran up building stairwells for exercise. However, during the subway
Rapid transit
A rapid transit, underground, subway, elevated railway, metro or metropolitan railway system is an electric passenger railway in an urban area with a high capacity and frequency, and grade separation from other traffic. Rapid transit systems are typically located either in underground tunnels or on...
chase, Hauer continually outran the American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
star
Star
A star is a massive, luminous sphere of plasma held together by gravity. At the end of its lifetime, a star can also contain a proportion of degenerate matter. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun, which is the source of most of the energy on Earth...
, who is known for his competitive streak (see also Victory
Escape to Victory
Escape to Victory, known simply as Victory in North America, is a 1981 film about Allied prisoners of war who are interned in a German prison camp during World War II...
). Stallone also gave the producers
Film producer
A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...
headaches by insisting on doing his own stunts. According to actor Nigel Davenport
Nigel Davenport
Nigel Davenport is an English stage, television and film actor.- Early life :Davenport was born Arthur Nigel Davenport, however he goes by the first name of Nigel. Davenport was born in Shelford, Cambridgeshire, the son of Katherine Lucy and Arthur Henry Davenport. Davenport's father was a bursar...
in an interview for the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
's Wogan
Wogan
Wogan was a chat show on British television, hosted by Terry Wogan. It followed the format of a series broadcast in 1980 entitled What's On Wogan?, which failed to gather viewers. The Wogan show was initially broadcast on Tuesday evenings on BBC1 in 1981 and from 1982 to 1984, it moved into the...
show, Stallone performed the scene where he was winched up to the tram
Aerial tramway
An aerial tramway , cable car , ropeway or aerial tram is a type of aerial lift which uses one or two stationary ropes for support while a third moving rope provides propulsion...
without a double. The film's stunt coordinator
Stunt coordinator
A stunt coordinator, usually an experienced stunt performer, is hired by a TV, film or theatre director or production company to arrange the casting and performance of stunts for a film, television programme or a live audience...
was Dar Robinson
Dar Robinson
Dar Allen Robinson was an American stunt performer and actor. Robinson broke 19 world records and set 21 "world's firsts." He invented the decelerator which allowed a cameraman to film a top-down view of the stuntman as he fell without accidentally...
. Stallone confirms this in a Q&A session on Ain't It Cool News
Ain't It Cool News
Ain't It Cool News is a website founded and run by Harry Knowles, dedicated to news, rumors and reviews of upcoming and currently playing films and television projects, with an emphasis on science fiction, fantasy, horror, comic-book and action genres...
Hanging from the cable car was probably one of the more dangerous stunts I was asked to perform because it was untested and I was asked to hold a folding Gerber knife in my left hand so if the cable were to snap, and I survived the 230 foot fall into the East River with its ice cold 8 mile an hour current, I could cut myself free from the harness because the cable when stretched out weighed more than 300 lbs. I tell you this because it's so stupid to believe that I would survive hitting the water so to go beyond that is absurd.
In the same Q&A session, he said that Nighthawks "was even a better film before the studio lost faith in it and cut it to pieces. What was in the missing scenes was extraordinary acting by Rutger Hauer, Lindsey Wagner, and the finale was a blood fest that rivaled the finale of Taxi Driver
Taxi Driver
Taxi Driver is a 1976 American drama film directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Paul Schrader. The film is set in New York City, soon after the Vietnam War. The film stars Robert De Niro and features Jodie Foster, Harvey Keitel, and Cybill Shepherd. The film was nominated for four Academy...
. But it was a blood fest with a purpose".
The subway train used in the chase sequence consisted of retired IND equipment that had been preserved as a museum train. Of the cars whose numbers are visible, 800 is now at the Seashore Trolley Museum
Seashore Trolley Museum
The Seashore Trolley Museum, located in Kennebunkport, Maine, United States, is the world's oldest and largest museum of mass transit vehicles....
in Kennebunkport, Maine
Kennebunkport, Maine
Kennebunkport is a town in York County, Maine, United States. The population was 3,720 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Portland–South Portland–Biddeford metropolitan statistical area....
. 1802, the last prewar NYC subway car built, is owned by Railway Preservation Corporation and remains in New York, where it operates several times a year on museum fantrips along with other preserved cars. 1208 has since been scrapped. The IND Hoyt-Schermerhorn station in Brooklyn served as both the 57th and 42nd St. stations (a Hoyt-Schermerhorn sign is briefly visible when Stallone tries to pry the doors open as the train is pulling out). The train operated on the unused outer track that leads from the Court St. station, now the New York Transit Museum
New York Transit Museum
The New York Transit Museum is a museum which displays historical artifacts of the New York City Subway, bus, commuter rail, and bridge and tunnel systems; it is located in a decommissioned Court Street subway station in the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood of New York City...
.
The London department store seen being blown up at the start of the film was actually Arding & Hobbs, located at Clapham Junction, SW11. The store still exists today, but is now owned by Debenhams
Debenhams
Debenhams plc is a British retailer operating under a department store format in the UK, Ireland and Denmark, and franchise stores in other countries. The Company was founded in the eighteenth century as a single store in London and has now grown to around 160 shops...
. During the 2011 England Riots
2011 England riots
Between 6 and 10 August 2011, several London boroughs and districts of cities and towns across England suffered widespread rioting, looting and arson....
the shop again had its windows smashed.
Reception
Despite receiving good reviews, including one from VarietyVariety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
, Nighthawks did not become a big commercial
Commerce
While business refers to the value-creating activities of an organization for profit, commerce means the whole system of an economy that constitutes an environment for business. The system includes legal, economic, political, social, cultural, and technological systems that are in operation in any...
success, even though it did recover its $5 million budget in both US and foreign markets. It grossed USD $14.9 million in North America and $5 million in the rest of the world for a worldwide total of $19.9 million. In her review for the New York Times, Janet Maslin
Janet Maslin
Janet Maslin is an American journalist, best known as a film and literary critic for The New York Times. She served as the Times film critic from 1977–1999.- Biography :...
praised Hauer's performance: "Mr. Hauer's terrorist, in particular, is a sharply drawn character who acts as a driving force within the movie's scheme. Sadism and bloodlessness are his only identifiable characteristics, and yet he behaves memorably wherever he goes". Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine's Richard Schickel
Richard Schickel
Richard Warren Schickel is an American author, journalist, and documentary filmmaker. He is a film critic for Time magazine, having also written for Life magazine and the Los Angeles Times Book Review....
wrote, "Nighthawks is so moronically written and directed, so entirely without wit or novelty, that there is plenty of time to wonder about its many missing explanations". In his review for the Globe and Mail, Jay Scott
Jay Scott
Jay Scott was the pen name of Jeffrey Scott Beaven , a Canadian film critic.Born in Lincoln, Nebraska, Scott fled to Canada in 1969 as a draft dodger. He settled in Calgary, and began writing film reviews for the Calgary Albertan a few years later...
felt that the film, "has a dirty job to do and does it. That is not an endorsement. Thumbscrews and cattle prods are real good at what they do, too". Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
magazine's Jack Kroll wrote, "This is one of those films that isn't a film but some repulsively complicated business deal". In his review for the Washington Post, Gary Arnold described the film as "an aggressively shallow police thriller pitting New York undercover cops against international terrorists, suggests what The Day of the Jackal
The Day of the Jackal (film)
The Day of the Jackal is a 1973 Anglo-French film, set in August 1963 and based on the novel of the same name by Frederick Forsyth. Directed by Fred Zinnemann, it stars Edward Fox as the assassin known only as "the Jackal" who is hired to assassinate Charles de Gaulle.- Synopsis :The film opens...
might have looked like if filmed by the producers of Baretta
Baretta
Baretta is an American detective television series which ran on ABC from 1975 to 1978. The show was a milder version of a successful 1973–74 ABC series, Toma, starring Tony Musante as chameleon-like, real-life New Jersey police officer David Toma...
. In order to facilitate a grandstanding, harebrained heroic role assigned to Sylvester Stallone, the filmmakers brush off every opportunity for intelligent dramatization and authentic suspense that the plot would seem to possess".
Stallone says of the film now, "At the time, people couldn't relate to it, and the studio (Universal) didn't believe in it".
DVD
The widescreen DVDDVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
edition from Universal Pictures
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....
replaces two songs played during the disco shoot-out. The first song is "Brown Sugar" by the Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...
and the second one is "I'm A Man" by Keith Emerson
Keith Emerson
Keith Noel Emerson is an English keyboard player and composer. Formerly a member of the Keith Emerson Trio, John Brown's Bodies, The T-Bones, V.I.P.s, P.P. Arnold's backing band, and The Nice , he was a founder of Emerson, Lake & Palmer , one of the early supergroups, in 1970...
. Earlier VHS releases from Universal Home Video and some TV versions also featured the altered songs. The fullscreen DVD release by GoodTimes Entertainment contains the restored songs. Both versions contain the UK edit of the finale, which causes a continuity error (Stallone fires only two shots, but six bullet holes end up on Hauer by the time his body falls down the steps).