Cobra

"Crime is a disease. Meet the cure."

1986 1h 27m EN

😐

6.2

MID

🥫

24%

ROTTEN

😬

METACRITIC

⭐

5.8

IMDB

★6.2TMDB · 2,058🥫24%Rotten Tomatoes●25Metacritic★5.8IMDB · 84,842

ActionCrimeThriller

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

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

“Crime is a disease. Meet the cure.”

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Cast

Sylvester Stallone
Marion 'Cobra' Cobretti
Brigitte Nielsen
Ingrid
Reni Santoni
Sergeant Gonzales
Brian Thompson
Night Slasher
Lee Garlington
Nancy Stalk
Art LaFleur
Captain Sears
Andrew Robinson
Detective Monte
Marco Rodríguez
Supermarket Killer

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: George P. Cosmatos
Writers: Sylvester Stallone
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

RUNTIME

Did you know

87 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

40 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by George P. Cosmatos, shot by Ric Waite. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Sylvester Levay. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor James R. Symons shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Sylvester Stallone and Brigitte Nielsen and Reni Santoni carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "Crime is a disease. Meet the cure.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt0090859 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

George P. Cosmatos directs. Ric Waite behind the camera. Sylvester Levay scores. James R. Symons cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Profitable at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

187 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.
240 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
3Directed by George P. Cosmatos, shot by Ric Waite. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
4Original score by Sylvester Levay. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
5Editor James R. Symons shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
6Sylvester Stallone and Brigitte Nielsen and Reni Santoni carry the top of the cast.
7Marketing tagline: "Crime is a disease. Meet the cure.".
8IMDB entry: tt0090859 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
9Classified under 13 themes, including "showdown", "street gang", "resistance", "psychopath".

The technical file

Cinematography: Ric Waite
Original score: Sylvester Levay
Editing: James R. Symons
Production design: Bill Kenney
Costume design: Tom Bronson
Makeup / hair: Barbara Lorenz
Sound: Rick Kline
Stunt coordinator: Terry Leonard
Runtime: 87 min · 1h 27m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $25,000,000
Box office: $49,042,224
Return: 196% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: Cobra (1986)
Rotten Tomatoes: 24% 🥫 Rotten
Metacritic: 25/100
IMDB rating: 5.8/10 · 84,842 votes
MPAA: R

Awards

6 nominations total

Also by

George P. Cosmatos

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

Gimly2018-05-10
★ 5/10
It's hard to find a single aspect of _Cobra _that hadn't been done before, or hasn't been done better since. It's hoakey and way too self-serious given the content. But if you're hankering for some of that Sly action of yore, you shouldn't go past Cobra... Unless its for any number of the nearly-identical-but-better movies he did in the same era. Final rating:★★½ - Had a lot that appealed to me, didn’t quite work as a whole.
John Chard2020-07-10
★ 7/10
This is where the law stops and I start, sucker! Cobra is directed by George P. Cosmatos and written by Paula Gosling (novel Fair game) and Sylvester Stallone. It stars Stallone, Brigitte Nielsen, Brian Thompson, Reni Santoni, Andrew Robinson, John Herzfeld and Lee Garlington. Music is by Sylvester Levay and cinematography by Ric Waite. A tough-on-crime street cop must protect the only surviving witness to a strange murderous cult with far-reaching plans. Cobra is a tantalising peek as to just what Stallone's "Beverley Hills Cop" would have looked like. He had turned in a gritty and ballsy action screenplay but the studio balked at the cost and thus went with the comedic Eddie Murphy route (which worked great as it happens). This truncated 1hour and 20 minute Cobra just hints at what a dark edgy action film we should have had before the scissor suits at the studio got panicky and cut out a third of the pic. What we have left though is still good fun, Stallone is on cocky and cool bad dude mode, the villain is OTT (Brian Thompson actually looks like Arnie in some facial shots), Nielsen is in her natural bodily state... while the action we do get is high octane. It's hardly a stinker, if a little frustrating with a "what might have been hanging" over it, and of course the editing is shoddy. 6.5/10
r96sk2020-07-11
★ 7/10
Short and sweet. <em>'Cobra'</em> is a straightforward, by the numbers action film with Sylvester Stallone. It doesn't really do much to drift you away from the obvious, but the action itself is entertaining and some of the deaths are quite cool to watch. The songs are passable, if not entirely well chosen. Stallone, as you'd likely expect, is the only performer worth noting. He does his usual stuff and it comes across strong enough, one thing I didn't like about his character is his speech - the dialogue is kinda poor, they attempt to make Cobra a smooth, cool badass but it doesn't really work in that way. I'd almost considering this a disappointing film, but the watchable action and Stallone himself carry this over the line for a good film in my opinion.