Cobra - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[christina]

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, the epitome of the cinematic tough guy who also often played characters called John (eg; John Bernard Books, John Chisum, John T. Chance).

[tamara]

The knife that Brian Thompson features in the film was actually a functioning knife which was very dangerous and would literally be able to cut a person with it. Thompson actually cut himself with it at one point but not too badly.

[veronica]

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."

[morris]

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.

[linda]

Lee Garglington felt a little ostracized from the rest of the cast since Sylvester Stallone barely talked to her. However, when reshoots occurred about two weeks later, Stallone sat with her during lunch and felt much better and understood why he had been ignoring her. She said it was the greatest conversation she's ever had.

[ava]

Was the subject of the podcast "Classic American Movies."

[marc]

The first cut of the movie featured a different, less dialogue-heavy version of Nightslasher and Cobretti's final confrontation. Cobretti originally appeared after Nightslasher screams "We are the future!" and reprised his "You're the disease, and I'm the cure" line from the opening supermarket scene. Cobra attempts to shoot Nightstalker but is jumped by Stalk, only to be accidentally shot by Nightslasher. This would have led into the hand-to-hand fight seen in the final version.

[claude]

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.

[dustin]

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.

[bessie]

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.

[caroline]

The Cannon logo does not appear anywhere during the film's opening or closing credits, or on any publicity materials. The film even ends like a traditional Cannon film with the film's title frozen in the middle of the screen after the credits have stopped rolling, but does not have the usual Cannon logo underneath it. Golan-Globus receive only an on-screen production credit for this movie, reportedly because it was primarily a Warner Bros, production that gave them a producer credit in return for voiding a prior agreement the Cannon Group had with Stallone.