Daylight (1996)

User Rating:

5.4/10   

Director:

Rob Cohen

Writer (WGA):

Leslie Bohem (written by)

Release Date:

6 December 1996 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Thriller

Tagline:

Hold your breath

Plot:

Disaster in a New York tunnel as explosions collapse both ends of it. One hero tries to help the people inside find their way to safety.

Plot Keywords:

Tunnel | Explosion | Dog | Disaster | Rat

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 1 win & 2 nominations

Cast

Sylvester Stallone	...	Kit Latura
Amy Brenneman	...	Madelyne Thompson
Viggo Mortensen	...	Roy Nord
Dan Hedaya	...	Frank Kraft
Jay O. Sanders	...	Steven Crighton
Karen Young	...	Sarah Crighton
Claire Bloom	...	Eleanor Trilling
Vanessa Bell Calloway	...	Grace Calloway
Renoly Santiago	...	Mikey
Colin Fox	...	Roger Trilling
Danielle Harris	...	Ashley Crighton
Trina McGee	...	LaTonya (as Trina McGee-Davis)
Marcello Thedford	...	Kadeem
Sage Stallone	...	Vincent
Jo Anderson	...	Bloom

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for disaster-related peril, death and destruction.

Runtime:

115 min | Germany:110 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby SR

Certification:

USA:PG-13 (certificate #34883) | Iceland:14 (theatrical rating) | Iceland:16 (video rating) | Canada:PG (Ontario) | Philippines:PG-13 | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Chile:TE | Finland:K-12 | Germany:12 (w) | Norway:15 | Portugal:M/12 | South Korea:12 | Spain:13 | Sweden:15 | UK:12 | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Cinecittà Studios, Cinecittà, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Company:

Davis Entertainment

Trivia:

Sylvester Stallone wears a Panerai watch.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When Kit goes through the first fan, they have to slow it down because it is going much too fast. When he gets to the other 3 fans, they are almost stopped as well. The fans are not connected together. Otherwise, they would have all started at the same time too.

Quotes:

George Tyrell: Get them back to daylight.

Movie Connections:

Featured in The Making of 'Daylight' (1998) (V)

Soundtrack:

Don't Go Out With Your Friends Tonite

Very much a genre movie with all the clichés and problems you'd expect but it is enjoyable enough to be worth seeing

Trucks loaded with toxic waste. A stolen car being pursued by the police. Separate events that come together in a New York city tunnel when the latter crashes into the former starting a chain reaction explosion that sends a fireball sweeping through the tunnel and sealing it at both ends. A handful of survivors are left trapped with burning toxic waste and only enough air to last a few hours. Only a few meters short of entering the tunnel himself, cab driver and disgraced former fire chief Kit Latura recognises a disaster when he sees one and, thanks to a drill he ran years ago, knows that the standard rescue methods will not work. When his replacement dies ignoring his advice, his former colleagues turn to him and he agrees to enter the tunnel and try to rescue the survivors.

From the opening ten minutes we know just where we are. The brief pictures of characters does enough to set up their roles within the disaster genre and it is not long before one massive explosion and we are back in the disaster films that were so popular in the 1970's. To many this will be a bad thing because while meeting all the genre requirements this film also repeats all the old problems as well – I guess it is about what you like, if you like the genre then you'll enjoy this. The plot is the basic stuff, focusing on one small group and throwing up one obstacle after another for them to get over. At each stage we'll have losses, tragic deaths, heroic sacrifice, emotional panic, headstrong jerks etc etc – it does everything you would expect. Of course this also brings with it the problems of being rushed, the characters being cardboard cut outs, the drama being staged and never being able to stop without making things look bad and the fact that the film is a bit too close to being a cloying weepy for comfort.

None of this stops it being exciting enough to be worth seeing though. The modern effects are impressive and the sets etc are convincingly real. The actors hardly have a lot to work with but they do well enough to make it work well. Stallone holds back from being an invincible action man and he is better for it, producing a good lead. The support all fill their genre roles but most of them do it well enough so that they are actually emotionally engaging rather than just being fodder. Hedaya, Sanders, Brenneman, Mortensen and others are all solid enough to make it work – sure they are a bit corny at times but this is more to do with the genre writing than the acting.

Overall this is a disaster movie very much in the genre mould set in the 1970's and it has all the weaknesses you would expect from the genre. The writing is where the clichés come in but these are almost carried by the solid acting and enjoyable special effects. A genre movie then but one that is enjoyable if you like that sort of thing – just don't expect anything original or new and you'll be OK.