Cobra, 1986.
Directed by George P. Cosmatos.
Starring Sylvester Stallone, Andrew Robinson, Brigitte Nielsen, Reni Santoni, Brian Thompson, Art LaFleur, and Lee Garlington.
SYNOPSIS:
A maverick cop uses unconventional methods to hunt down a killer known as the Night Slasher and his gang of followers.
Having given Sylvester Stallone’s 1993 sci-fi actioner Demolition Man the 4K UHD treatment last year, Arrow Video have trawled through the vaults of his back catalogue again and decided that 1986’s Cobra was worthy of the same care and attention, and if we’re being honest, if you are a Stallone fan then you are probably in agreement with them.
Stallone plays Marion ‘Cobra’ Cobretti – yes, you read that correctly – a maverick cop who is a part of The Zombie Squad (no, no idea either) and who doesn’t play by the rules. Cobretti is who you call in when the regular cops just can’t cut it, and he is called into service by Captain Sears (the fantastic Art LaFleur) to investigate a series of killings committed by the Night Slasher (Brian Thompson), the leader of a cult known as The New World, who believe that getting rid of the weakest members of society will result in only the strongest surviving and taking charge.
After witnessing a murder committed by the Night Slasher, model Ingrid (Brigitte Nielsen) is placed under police protection but as Cobretti and his partner Tony Gonzales (Reni Santoni) try to find the cult leader by the book, the Night Slasher finds and attacks Ingrid, forcing Cobretti to solve the case the only way he knows how, taking her out of town and using her as bait for the cult to follow, setting up a violent showdown with the Night Slasher.
About as mid-1980s as it is possible to get, Cobra is at once exciting and unintentionally hilarious. A lot has been written about how this project came out of Stallone originally being cast as Axel Foley in Beverly Hills Cop and wanting to make it into a Dirty Harry for the 1980s (despite Dirty Harry movies still being made), and then leaving the project when producers wanted to make it into a comedy, and there are also the stories about Sly letting his ego run riot, adapting the Paula Gosling’s novel A Running Duck (later retitled Fair Game) into the script and then demanding he be credited as the author on subsequent reprints of the book, but it all adds to the legend. When it comes down to it, Cobra was – and still is – a prime slice of ‘80s action cheese that never fails to entertain.
The Dirty Harry-isms are all over this movie, for as well as Cobretti himself being an updated extension of Clint Eastwood’s gruff character, Reni Santoni played Harry Callahan’s partner from the original 1971 movie and we also get Scorpio himself, Andrew Robinson, as Cobra’s nemesis Detective Monte, a by-the-book cop who vocally disapproves of Cobretti’s brutal methods. Interestingly, the original script for Cobra had Monte revealed as an undercover alumni of The New World at the end of the movie, but that idea was dropped in favour of something more satisfying for audiences, given how snivelling Robinson plays the part.
But despite Cobra being a cobbled-together mish-mash of other action movies – even one of Cobretti’s key lines of dialogue is lifted from Steve McQueen’s The Reivers – and every 1980s cliché you can think of, it has a personality all of its own; where else would you have a character sit down clean his gun whilst cutting up slices of pizza with a pair of scissors? What other action movie has the lead actor’s own car used as the main character’s vehicle (don’t worry – the ones that were smashed up were copies)? And why is there a montage of Cobretti and Gonzales looking in red-light areas for their killer as ‘80s pop-rock music plays and Brigitte Nielsen parades around half-naked in front of a robot? Because it was 1986, and that’s what happened.
So is Cobra worth picking up in 4K UHD? As with all of these 4K upgrades, it depends on if you own it on Blu-ray already and how much of a difference the new image quality makes. With Cobra, the HDR10 colour grading shows off the reds of the cop car lights and the orange glows of the final showdown in the molten metal factory nicely, whilst keeping levels of detail sharp and without too much crushing in the darker scenes. It isn’t a huge leap from what we have seen before, but it is noticeably improved and highlights more of the Pepsi product placement than you probably noticed before.
However, the extras are where this disc scores highly, and not just with the archive audio commentary by director George P. Cosmatos, which is one of the most unintentionally hilarious commentaries you will probably ever hear. There are two new commentaries – one by critics Kim Newman and Nick de Semlyen, the other by film scholars Josh Nelson and Martyn Pedler – which provide you with more details about those production rumours, the TV cut of the movie which contains alternate scenes, interviews with Brian Thompson, Andrew Robinson, Art LaFleur and several other cast and crew members (sadly, no Sylvester Stallone), plus new video essays, archive featurettes, trailers, poster, reversible sleeve and collector’s booklet with even more perspectives on this action classic.
It is a fully-loaded package and Arrow Video have done a sterling job in presenting Cobra in the best way possible. As a movie, Cobra was always a whole heap of fun – not always for the right reasons – and in 2025 it still works as a cop-based action film with a horror movie edge – just check out that John Carpenter-esque lighting, and Brian Thompson’s terrifying serial killer persona. It has action, violence, gore, guns, huge knives, car chases, big hair, montages, a synth-rock soundtrack, a few laughs and peak Sylvester Stallone doing his best to take it all seriously, and it is all here to enjoy in shiny 4K UHD. Roll on Tango & Cash…
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Chris Ward