Cobra



""Crime is a disease. Meet the cure.""

- Original movie tagline.

Cobra is a 1986 action film starring Sylvester Stallone. Stallone stars as police Lieutenant Marion "Cobra" Cobretti, an intense, no-nonsense LA cop from the "Zombie Squad", who has to deal with a string of murders by a man known to police only as the Night Slasher (Brian Thompson), while also dealing with various murderous nuts spouting nonsense about a "New Order". As it turns out, the Night Slasher is actually the leader of this "New Order" cult. Model Ingrid Knudsen (Brigitte Nielsen) drives past one of their murders and sees the Night Slasher's face, making her the gang's prime target. She enters police custody for her own protection, under the watchful eye of Lt. Cobretti and his partner, the junk food-loving Sgt. Gonzales (Reni Santoni). Eventually, Cobra will have to use Ingrid as bait to draw out the Night Slasher and put an end to his menace once and for all.

Not to be confused with the main character of the anime/manga Space Adventure Cobra. Or that other Cobra.

Cobra provides examples of:

 * Anti-Hero: Cobretti. He hates discipline and he doesn't give a damn about any citizen's rights (well, obviously not seeing the "citizien" are a gang of psycho killers).
 * An Axe to Grind: Members of the New Order are shown clanging axes together in unison early in the film.
 * Asshole Victim: Ingrid's boss sexually harasses her, only to get killed by members of the New Order cult
 * Badass Longcoat: Cobretti wears one.
 * Car Chase: Plenty to go around!
 * Car Fu: A security guard gets crushed by the cult's van.
 * Cool Car: Cobretti's car, complete with nitro boosters.
 * Cool Gun: Cobretti's Jatimatic submachine gun. A Rare Gun now, as only a few hundred of them were made. Same for his 1911 9mm conversion.
 * Cool Shades: Again, Cobretti delivers this for the trifecta.
 * Cowboy Cop: Cobra
 * Cult
 * Detective Mole
 * Embarrassing First Name: Lt. Cobretti's first name is Marion.
 * Equal Opportunity Evil: All kinds of people are in New Order, from common street thugs to balding business men.
 * Evil Sounds Deep: The Night Slasher.
 * Gang-Bangers: The New Order gang.
 * He Knows Too Much
 * IKEA Weaponry: As the cult members are shown moving towards the town where he's protecting a witness, Sylvester Stallone assembles his Laser Sight-equipped Jati submachine gun, which he carries stripped down in a suitcase.
 * Impaled with Extreme Prejudice
 * Internal Affairs: Robinson's character
 * Knife Nut: The Night Slasher. Even in his dying moments he still clutched on to his spike-knuckled trench knife.
 * Laser Sight: While in a factory Cobretti uses the sight to distract some mooks by detaching it and leaving it switched on in a dark room. While the mooks are sneaking up on where they think Cobretti is, he jumps them from behind.
 * More Dakka: OK, cops have been known to use submachine guns, but hand grenades?
 * Montage: "Angel of the City", which is a "Shake-down-punks-for-information-while-a-Knife Nut-killer-stalks-a-model-doing-a-photoshoot montage"
 * Nietzsche Wannabe: Some of the Night Slasher's followers
 * Nitro Boost: Cobretti's car has one.
 * Nothing Good Ever Happens in A Parking Garage: The first attack on Knudsen by the cult.
 * Playing Against Type: Andrew Robinson may have been a dick, but he was a dick on the right side of the law.
 * Product Placement: There are plenty of Pepsi to be seen.
 * There are also more subtle ones, such as Cobra taking a drink of Coor's beer
 * It even goes farther by having Gonzales and Knudsen standing in front of a Coca Cola vending machine. Gonzales is seen drinking a can.
 * Shout-Out: Possibly one to The Shining. When the Night Slasher attacks Ingrid in the hospital, she hides in a bathroom and locks the door, and he stabs through it while she screams. The shot looks very much like the "Heeeeeere's Johnny!" scene from The Shining.
 * Cobra has a partner named Gonzales.
 * Sociopathic Hero: Cobra
 * Trademark Favorite Food: Sgt. Gonzales loves his junk food.
 * Vanity Licence Plate: Cobretti's Cool Car, which sports the license plate "AWSOM 50".