Nighthawks
All actors and roles (10)
All team (38)
Short description
Nighthawks is an action thriller set in New York City. Deke DaSilva, a streetwise police officer who has spent his career working undercover and putting himself in harm's way, is reassigned to a newly formed anti-terrorism unit alongside his partner Matthew Fox. The unit is activated when Wulfgar, an international terrorist, arrives in the city to continue a campaign that has already struck in Europe. As DaSilva and Fox pursue him through the city, the conflict becomes a personal contest between the officer and the man he is determined to stop.
Directed by Bruce Malmuth, the film was the first of three features he made, followed by Hard to Kill in 1990 and Pentathlon in 1994. Sylvester Stallone plays DaSilva, with Billy Dee Williams as Fox, Rutger Hauer as Wulfgar, Lindsay Wagner as Irene, Persis Khambatta as Shakka and Nigel Davenport as Peter Hartman. David Shaber wrote the screenplay, and Martin Poll produced. The film runs 99 minutes and cost about 5 million dollars to make.
Released on 17 March 1981, Nighthawks took in roughly 20 million dollars worldwide, around four times its budget. On IMDb it holds a rating of 6.3 out of 10 from about 24,000 votes, while TMDB shows 6.4 from some 512 votes. A critics' rating of 6.2 from 24 reviews places it close to the audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- While working on this film, Rutger Hauer (1944-2019) lost his mother and best friend. He flew to the Netherlands for the funerals for a few days each time, but always returned. Despite all these difficulties and personal dramas, Hauer was glad that he did not abandon work on the film (as he revealed in his autobiography), because it was after this film that he was noticed in Hollywood, which marked the beginning of his international recognition.
- Sylvester Stallone was very unhappy with how the studio Universal Pictures re-edited this film after he himself had worked on the editing. He was particularly upset that very emotional scenes with his character and actress Lindsay Wagner were removed from the film, specifically the scene in the restaurant.
- Gary Nelson initially started directing the film, but then left the project and was replaced by Bruce Malmuth (1934-2005). When he couldn't get the train scene right, Sylvester Stallone filmed it (to avoid losing a shooting day). This caused complications with the Directors Guild, and the producers had to retroactively obtain permission for Stallone to shoot the scene, because the rules state that a member of the Directors Guild cannot be fired so that someone from the film's cast can continue shooting.
- To prepare for their roles as police officers, Billy Dee Williams and Sylvester Stallone spent several weeks on night shifts with members of a New York City Police Department unit dealing with street crime.
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