Daylight (1996) Retrospective / Review

what I'm going to try to do it collapse a section of that tube to seal us off from the fire and try to plug that leak I have to use it explosive no wonder you've got people killed mess they protect the tunnel we'll just make it this tunnel was drawn up by Edward tremolo 1918 on a napkin and a half of seven the tunnel which runs under 24 feet of riverbed and 72 feet of woods [Applause] as a goddamn genius right into the tongue tell us that oh we got a live one here and get a crew ready [Music] [Music] look I know you know your job but we did a simulation all be dead before you get through dead look I know you ran a drill in 94 right now you're not running the goddamn thing that tunnel is sealed from both ends I mean the mid-river here is like hanging like my back like pick-up sticks now what the hell is away or not [Music] how many people are left alive down there we're in the middle of the tunnel tell them we're coming down right now [Music] am I wrong in saying that you don't really know whether there's anyone alive to transmit period we saw people we're gonna break through from the Manhattan side that's the consensus of the city engineers if you bring in the heavy equipment cause of pressure shift the whole damn thing the only very those we're not gonna make it another hour that they shut this thing down are we gonna get out of here I just need some time to figure daylight exploded onto the big screen in the USA on the 6th of December 1996 and arrived in the UK on the 26th of that month directed by Rob Cohen who had just directed the hit fantasy adventure film dragon heart and produced by Raphael a DiLaurentis the film was made on a large budget of 18 million dollars and pulled in 160 million dollars worldwide making it a moderate hit it certainly didn't perform well in the USA only pulling in 33 million far lower than his budget but thankfully worldwide sales saved you from being another failure for the action star sylvester stallone whose previous two films Joss Dredd and assassins failed to make an impact the year before critics at the time were very mixed on daylight many praised its visual effects his premise and Randy elderman score Empire Magazine gave a glowing review but on the other side of the coin it made Gene Siskel z-- list of the worst movies of 1996 and Roger Ebert himself was also unimpressed with the film to add further damage unfortunately received two Golden Raspberry Awards for the worst actor award for Stallone and worst original song titled whenever there is love performed by Bruce Roberts and Donna Summer the film would however proved popular with the rental market and home video sales Universal Pictures released a special edition laserdisc as part of their Signature Collection loaded with special features and an audio commentary these extras will later get ported over to DVD and blu-ray Stallone years later would comment on the quality of the film saying he felt it was a good premise that didn't deliver as an IT saw number of disaster movies such as twister volcano Dante's Peak Deep Impact and Armageddon daylight got lost in the mayhem and became a bit of a forgotten entry in Stallone's long-running career writer les Boehm had come up with the script a daylight after reading about a real disastrous event that occurred in the Holland Tunnel in May of 1949 a truck carrying hazardous materials caught fire while passing through the tunnel which traveled under the Hudson River between New York City and New Jersey the fire nearly caused a tunnel to collapse it resulted in one firefighter being killed and 66 civilians being injured as a result of the accident the script was passed on to director Rob Cohen who was working on Dragonheart at the time and Rob was impressed and thought it would be a great return to the disaster movies of the 70s with hopes to give a modern twist making use of state-of-the-art visual effects Rob himself was involved in a near-death experience when he was trapped in a hotel that caught fire in 1979 he recalled seeing the wallpaper peel off the walls due to the heat and being saved at the last minute by the firefighter watching the hotel windows behind him explode that harrowing experience on what he witnessed he would translate onto film with Rob on board and Rafaela DeLaurentis producing they needed a lead to play skit Latura the hero of the story Robert first apparently wanted Nicolas Cage but Universal Pictures who are funding the film and distributing it worldwide wanted a bigger name feeling Cage was more of a character actor and Stallone was suggested doomed to being more commercially viable robbed phone sly and offered in the part he mentioned daylight would be a good successor to cliffhanger in that movie still have another conquer his fears of heights and Stallone said to rob he hates being wet on set and suffers from claustrophobia Rob said daylight would be another great opportunity for him to really challenge his fears the pot would also not be a traditional action lead the stallone for example wouldn't be showing off his muscles Salone during the early press for daylight felt he was getting too old for the action genre and wanted to move away from it sly eventually agreed and accepted the job but of course at the time Stallone was charging nearly 20 million dollars per pitcher and he got the paycheck he wanted [Music] to fill out the rest of the cast we have Amy Brennan them as Madeline a struggling playwright who has decided to move out of New York City when the tunnel explosion traps are inside Amy starred in a popular show NYPD Blue and made the jump to film with Casper and heat Amy still worked steadily today on TV with a recent show Goliath Stan Shore places George Tyrell a transit cop trapped in a tunnel by the explosion and keeps he survivors together to maintain high spirits a familiar face on a big screen starring in rocky the Monster Squad the box-office flop cutthroat island snake eyes and more recently in Jeepers Creepers 3 Viggo Mortensen plays as Roy Nord a rich sporting goods celebrity known for doing commercials gets trapped in the tunnel and decides to make his own way out but his ego gets in the way of him knowing the true danger he is in Robert Cohen saw Viggo in Crimson Tide and was impressed with him and cast him in daylight Viggo's career really took off once he was cast in the Lord of the Rings trilogy Jo sander stars as Steven Crichton who was taking his wife and daughter to New York to patch up his strained relationship with them after cheating on his wife and gets caught up in the explosion trapping all three of them in the tunnel jay has starred in many films and TV shows and appeared in another disaster movie with The Day After Tomorrow in 2004 karen.yeung plays a Sarah Stephens wife Karen starred in the hilariously awful jaws the revenge early on in her career she would go on to have a very successful acting career on TV starring in shows such as The Sopranos and Law & Order Special Victims Unit Danielle Harris plays us Ashley their daughter Danielle started acting at an early age becoming a familiar face of the horror genre starring in Halloween 4 & 5 urban legends and the Rob Zombie remake of Halloween Colin Fox stars as Roger trilling an elderly man trapped alongside his wife Eleanor and their late son's dog Cooper in the tunnel Colin had been acting since the late 60s mainly focused on TV and as a voice-over actor working on cartoons such as The Legend of Zelda and Beetlejuice and still work steadily today Claire Bloom plays as Roger's wife Eleanor Clare has had a long running career on film and TV starring in classics such as Laurence Olivier's Richard the third Clash of the Titans and more recently playing as Queen Mary in King's Speech the late sage Stallone plays as Vincent a young con artist going to juvenile prison when the explosion traps him and other delinquents in the tunnel sage was cast you to rob coen needing another prisoner on the bus and Sal I suggested his own son sage auditioned like everyone else and got the part sage got his first acting gig playing Rocky's son in Rocky v sage unfortunately didn't have a big career as an actor and attempted to shift his career into directing sadly he passed away in 2012 due to a heart attack at the young age of 36 for the other prisoners on the bus we have Rennell a Santiago as Micky Rennell a starred in Dangerous Minds and went on to appear in hackers and Conair Trina McGee plays as Latonya Trina is Polly best known for starring in the public hit show Boy Meets World and we have marcelo Thetford as Kadeem marcelo also starred in Dangerous Minds alongside Rena Lee he had a part in Crimson Tide and after daylight appeared in another disaster film of volcano and last we have the director Rob Cohen getting 2 cameos in the film the first being as Madeline's ex-boyfriend on the phone and the other working for Roy Nords company when it came time to shooting the film the producers were scouting for studios to build the tunnel to set most of the movie they had looked at using Pinewood Studios but they didn't meet their requirements Rafaela suggested shooting in Eastern Europe to keep costs down but sly didn't really want to travel that far to film so they made use of Cinecitta studios in Rome which had floodable sound stages and a space to build the tunnel which would stretch 1/3 of a mile and 90% of the movie would take place in there and the set would have to be redressed 7 times to reflect the changes of conditions and damages as the water rises the shooting road would last about 3 months all the cars featured in the tunnel was shipped over from the USA to Italy to keep up the illusion that it takes place stateside they spent a couple of weeks in New York capturing all the exterior sequences and made use of the Midtown Tunnel in New York to film the entrance they would manage to close two tunnel over a couple of nights to dress the location to capture the commuters stuck in traffic before the disastrous and event the film opens in New York with a waste management firm illegally shifting bowels of toxic waste across the city to New Jersey to avoid paying environmental fees as the drivers make their way across the city to the Holland Tunnel we are introduced to the other commuters a struggling playwright a bust of young offenders a family on vacation an elderly couple with their dog and a popular retail sports manager Roy Nord across town a gang of Punk's steal some gems and escape in a car and narrowly avoid the NYPD and speed into the tunnel the gang pushed their way through the traffic and the driver loses control smashing through a security booth and into one of the trucks containing the toxic waste causing it to detonate resulting in a massive explosion a devastating fireball sweeps through the tunnel destroying the entrances and burning the majority of the motorist within it a former emergency medical services chief Kit batura who now works as a taxi driver is approaching the Manhattan end of the tunnel and slams on the brakes of the fire shoots out of the tunnel destroying the entrance it helps some of the other commuters hurt in the accident and bumps into his old EMS colleague he tries to offer advice but due to being fired from the EMS the commanding officer doesn't want to listen to him Kip decides to speak with the tunnel administrators and finds out the best route into the tunnel and that is through the vent system which is highly risky as they can only be turned off for a limited amount of time the survivors trapped in the tunnel see naught as their best way out as he believes he can find a way through the mid-river passage kit arise by breaking through a manhole and finds Nord warning him that the passage could come down at any moment but nor dismisses the possibility kit barely escapes as the mid-river collapses killing Nord and causing another explosion water begins leaking in from the river above and kit uses an explosive to stop the leak George returns from investigating the Manhattan end and is crushed under a truck as the road cracks the group managed to free him before he can drown but he's left with a broken neck the water level continues to rise and the angry survivors confront kit about his past and question if he really knows what he is doing with the water rising and these survivors losing faith in him he needs to find another exit before it's too late the visual effects for daylight were largely handled by Industrial Light and Magic with help from vision art Pacific Ocean post and illusion arts the film incorporates in-camera effects and miniatures CGI and digital map paintings the film's biggest display of effects is the explosive in the tunnel that lasts for roughly two minutes Rob Cohen worked with the storyboard artists to break down each shot and met with the FX team to decide how each shot could be achieved for the best results to make it as believable as possible the miniature effects work is really spectacular during this sequence as we see the casket crushed by the tunnel walls as they collapse around them granted there one or two miniatures shots that don't quite work as well as a scale of the car seemed a bit off I love the shot of the flames blasting through these doors and they shoot up and destroy the tower on the New Jersey side and the Builder desk shouts out which is really effective in bringing across the horror and sudden shock of the carnage when replicating fire in CGI it often provided inconsistent results during the 90s sometimes looking too flat and stuck on but in the case of daylight the flame effects have stood up well as we see it destroyed the vehicles for the finale as we seek it and Mady escape from the tunnel with a blowout effect I LEM handled this sequence with the actors on camera on wires to simulate being underwater this effect is called dry for wet often news to avoid filming underwater and putting any actors at risk ILM use computer effects to simulate mud and dirt which do look very convincing as CGI became more affordable through the 90s we saw many films incorporating the technology and often abusing it resulting in effects that have struggled to stand up over time come the late nineties FX artists and directors were using it when it was really needed so he had a mix of miniatures and map paintings and CGI so films such as Starship Troopers Dante's Pig and Titanic has stood up well to scrutiny and I think daylite nicely fits into that list [Music] Randy Edelman composer score to daylight Randy hadn't worked the rob coen on Dragon a Bruce Lee story and dragon heart from the year before and daylight would be his first disaster flick fans of the composer's work are probably familiar with his style of combining synthesized keyboarding and a moderate orchestra a neutrally mixed with an array of percussive beats and modern with um's during the 90s action scores have taken a shift in style the late 80s we had hands him are bringing his style and approach to Black Rain then mark man Cena really set the tone with speed and bad boys the same year daylight came out composer John Debney had scored the band a movie sudden death and both films have a similar sound an approach to how the music would represent the action if he watched a trailer for daylight and the featurette produce at the time of its release they actually make use of the sudden death score the main theme which gets used throughout the film establishes a pace to the music with the keyboard motif with a solo piano performance that foreshadows a danger coming it's an enjoyable theme and simple in its execution that rises and falls helping visualize a sense of heavy traffic Randy gives a score sense of suspense that really helps in underscoring the survivors who are running out of time there is an emotional and heroic theme for Latura who is out to seek redemption for his past mistakes and Randy gives a score the right tone to help the audience get behind Stallone's character is a really enjoyable score to listen to by itself there wasn't a huge amount of variety of themes throughout but Randy provides enough action cues to police fans of the genre the CD release of the score arrived when the film came out featuring 14 tracks of his work and two additional pop songs one titled whenever there is love by Bruce Roberts and Donna Summer and the other titled don't go out with your friends tonight by ho-hum which are a bit crap the CD has been out of print for years and has never been re-released or put out with an expanded version you can think they get it on digital platforms such as iTunes and certainly worth seeking out if you're a fan of Randy's work and love action scores I saw daylight when it first hit cinemas in new UK I must have watched it in early January of 1997 as it was still playing at my local Warner village cinema it was the first alone movie I could see on the big screen I was too young to see jaws red which came out two years earlier the height for the movie was quite strong the trailers were impressive and seeing snippets of the opening explosive sequence was certainly a good reason to go see it as astir movies are always best to watch on the big screen and daylight's somewhat delivered in satisfying my hunger for some good action and it was nice to finally watch a Stallone film at the cinema instead of a Warner VHS tape I would have rented despite the film's opening explosive sequence which kick starts exactly 15 minutes into the movie you start to drag and lose its momentum I still have a vivid memory of just being blown away by the sound mix it's just phenomenal if we have a copy with a DTS soundtrack then it's definitely worth listening to on a home cinema set up but in terms of delivering more danger and peril they really struggled to top the opening act and the supporting characters we are introduced to really didn't help in keeping me engaged with the film over the years I've gone back to it many times and I certainly have warmed to it more over the years with all disaster movies often the most interesting aspect is how the events unfold - the big explosive moment Dante's Peak has his great build-up to the volcano's inevitable eruption that engulfs the town it builds attention surprisingly well that movie was also written by les Boehm who I think that's provided a better script for that film shock like volcano strongest and interesting aspect is how the lava makes its way to the surface everything else about it I personally found laughable in the case of daylight is not a natural disaster is just human error and dealing with the elements of nature which ultimately isn't very interesting there's no villain to the piece the only bad guys are the punks who caused the accident due to poor driving come 1996 and using Punk's to be the bad guys felt very dated is something Gene Siskel pointed out choosing punks were the safest option not to offend anyone but in reality made it very silly one skit comes to the rescue attempts to stop the water the film essentially turns into the Poseidon Adventure instead of a ship it's a tunnel that slowly becomes flooded the biggest issue I have in the film and had it since I saw it back in early 1990s and is he supporting characters once Stallone manages to get into the tunnel they are rude and for the most part really horrible and hostile towards him he's made to feel like a total [ __ ] despite risking his own life to save theirs Madeline who you can say is supposed to be a somewhat love interest is the only one from beginning to act supportive she's the first counter in the film to take part in an action scene to say the young offenders get Latura has a clear story arc of trying to redeem himself of his past mistakes but you're sitting there thinking just leave these people they're horrible still oh he's so good at making you feel sorry for him he really gets across the emotionally impact he takes in struggling to save these people and knowing that he may have doomed them all of course the survivors start out aggressive and just want results and soon support him but the fault lies with the writing they didn't need to be written that way but you always find in these types of movies characters who were just aggressive unreasonable and downright annoying for the lead to interact with to create some drama the authorities as well come across as idiots and heartless they want to start digging to repair the tunnel thinking they can get the traffic flowing again which is insanely stupid it's going to take months to repair the tunnel so giving the torah' a few more hours to save them is perfectly reasonable these are the typical checklist of things you need in a disaster movie making it all too familiar there are moments where the film was trying to take itself seriously but it does come across as unintentionally funny Madelon trying to move the electrical cable getting thrown around like a rag doll and George getting sucked under the water as the car falls on him he lets out this girly scream and I couldn't help but laugh George is probably the most unfortunate victim of the story he's written to be a very nice character and was going to propose to his girlfriend and he gets left behind due to being injured still don't understand do a wonderful job with their scene then parting ways a Stallone's character has to leave him there to die after daylight Stallone's career as an action star was very much coming to an end he can no longer be charging producers 20 million dollars per movie he's power at the box office was starting to wane Stallone himself wanted other roles outside of action and did an incredible job on Copeland the following year but that critical success didn't stay on track and his career nosedive for a number of years starring in turkeys such as the remake of gate car driven and I see you it was nearly a decade for him to return to the success of his past with Rocky Balboa and Rambo for and he kick-started a new action series with the Expendables day line is certainly not a bad film but it is a bit forgettable the visual effects are stated earlier are very impressive and they still hold up very well today thanks to the large amount of miniatures and in-camera effects Stallone despite later on saying they didn't deliver on the movie I feel is probably right I think it's a perfectly fine disaster flick though that would entertain most people on a Friday or Saturday night when it's the best time to watch a movie with your friends or your partner this always says pulling the last of Stallone's most physically demanding roles he appears to be doing a lot of his own stunts and daylight would make a great double bill with cliffhanger but if you had to compare the two cliffhanger would easily be the winner thanks to a stronger cast of characters and their being far more action and adventure on display ultimately what lets daylight down is its supporting characters and struggle to throw in more action and peril to really keep up the threat that they may never escape having this big opening sequence made it really tough for the filmmakers to come up with something more exciting you have an impressive sequence or Stallone making his way through these giant fans but it goes on for a bit too long and then once he gets into the tunnel it just becomes this race to avoid drowning they throw in some additional explosions but unfortunately that's not enough to really keep one excited to the very end it's a well-made movie there's no doubt about that it has a lot of talented people on the production but sadly it doesn't really deliver on the expectations of the genre is maccha ballanced alone does give it his all but I think it's fair to say that is an overall disappointing big-budget movie with Sly in the lead to wrap up his 90s career as an action star [Music] you wanna buy some time you gotta blow the tunnel shut what are you doing here kid you're not part of this I know you know your job but we did a simulation all be dead before you get through dead you don't get it do you you don't work here anymore alright here's what I get just watch me for a minute come on kid he's gonna have your wrestler look you gotta blow the tunnel shut talk to him you owe me that friend Frank are you that can cheat for what yeah kid American chief so one or two out this past history said nothing you're wrong about that I don't think a chance now you do I was in the same situation at you but what do you do Frank decide to think about here's three hours three hours we are time for that tunnel is an artery the city is bleeding if you try to read direct half a million people in and out of the city without that tunnel you got a problem that you don't want to think about what are you saying are you saying that because of a traffic problem you're giving up on possible survivors man you gotta hold off from the drone look city engineers make the decisions get fired I'm sorry I wouldn't worry about me she said she read you got people killed she's right she mention was a building fluffs in South Bronx you gave me blue on the way out three men died I hope you enjoyed the video be sure to subscribe to see more retrospectives and commentaries also click on the bell to be notified of the latest for reviews if you want access to exclusive videos and to watch my content a few days before it's on youtube you can head on over to my patreon thank you very much

Channel: Oliver Harper

Views: 75,150

Keywords: daylight, 1996, stallone, rob cohen, oliver harper, retrospective review, making of, randy edelman, sylvester stallone, daylight 1996, amy brenneman, viggo mortensen, sage stallone, stan shaw, oliver harper retrospective, oliver harper commentary

Id: o7xPBI7xQck

Length: 25min 19sec (1519 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 21 2020