Sylvester Stallone’s 1981 Thriller ‘Nighthawks’ Was Ahead of Its Time

After Sylvester Stallone achieved superstardom with the success of Rocky and its 1979 sequel Rocky II, Stallone was given broad authority over seemingly every aspect of his subsequent feature starring vehicles. His heightened level of influence was especially evident during the making of the 1981 thriller Nighthawks. While Stallone was initially contracted to only star in Nighthawks, he ended up taking more creative control after original director Gary Nelson was fired (replaced by Bruce Malmuth), including an extensive re-edit.

In Nighthawks, Stallone plays Deke DaSilva, a New York police detective who is assigned to a terrorist task force to prevent an international terrorist from setting off bombs throughout the city. In contrast to the one-man killing machine roles that increasingly defined Stallone’s screen persona, DaSilva balances street smarts and violence but shows restraint in high-stakes moments. Stallone, wearing a beard and eyeglasses, looks more like Al Pacino’s Frank Serpico than John Rambo.

Nighthawks underperformed relative to expectations for a Stallone vehicle following Rocky. The actor later reflected on the disappointing box-office performance, suggesting it was a result of audience skepticism that urban terrorism could be perpetrated within the United States in 1981. This was long before the tragedies of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, 9/11, and the Boston Marathon bombing.

Nighthawks Is an Exciting, Fast-Paced Action Thriller with a Terrifying Villain

Like Michael Mann’s Heat, Nighthawks alternates between the point-of-view of its hero, Sylvester Stallone’s Deke DaSilva, and DaSilva’s opponent, an international terrorist named Wulfgar, played by the steely-eyed Rutger Hauer. In Wulfgar’s introductory scene, he nonchalantly enters a London department store, where he plants a bomb that explodes, seemingly killing everyone inside, including several children.

Like Heath Ledger’s Joker in The Dark Knight, Wulfgar’s only motivation seems to be the creation of anarchy. After the department store massacre causes Wulfgar to be ostracized by his terrorist colleagues, he flees to Paris, where he connects with his primary accomplice, a mysterious woman named Shakka, and undergoes facial plastic surgery before traveling to New York, where he bombs several locations within the Wall Street district.

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DaSilva is unnerved by Wulfgar’s seeming lack of motive. After he commandeers a tramway car full of foreign dignitaries, DaSilva watches in horror as Wulfgar executes the wife of a French ambassador before tossing the body into a river. While this stunning execution compels the authorities to relent to Wulfgar’s demand for a bus to escort him and the remaining hostages to an airport and a waiting jet, he accepts the possibility that he might not survive this conflict and is clearly willing to die for his nebulous terrorist cause.

‘Nighthawks’ Redefined the Buddy-Cop Genre

The screenplay for Nighthawks was originally intended to serve as the basis for a second sequel to the 1971 action thriller film The French Connection, titled The French Connection III, in which Gene Hackman’s Popeye Doyle would have been teamed with a wisecracking cop played by Richard Pryor. When Hackman declined to reprise the role of Doyle, the script was rewritten as Nighthawks.

While 48 Hrs. and Lethal Weapon are often credited with birthing the modern buddy-cop genre, Nighthawks shows an alternate trajectory. Eschewing the comedic banter that came to define the genre in favor of filtering the gritty elements of the grounded, 1970s-set New York crime thrillers Dog Day Afternoon, Mean Streets, and Serpico, it’s a bridge between New Hollywood and what came after.

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This grittier approach to the genre is evident in Nighthawks with the believable camaraderie that exists between Sylvester Stallone’s character, Deke DaSilva, and DaSilva’s partner, Fox, played by Billy Dee Williams. Unlike the lighthearted sparring that defines the pairings in most modern buddy-cop films, DaSilva and Fox, while being supportive of each other, are both intent on completing their assignment in the movie.

There are no trademark buddy-cop catchphrases and quips in Nighthawks. When DaSilva and Fox’s target, the terrorist Wulfgar, escapes their pursuit following an extended chase sequence in which he ultimately refuses to take a killing shot at Wulfgar for fear of hitting a hostage. Fox, who is hospitalized after having his face slashed by Wulfgar, expresses anger toward DaSilva for not shooting.

Sylvester Stallone’s Action-Hero Persona Originated With Nighthawks

For Sylvester Stallone, the role of Deke DaSilva in Nighthawks marked his first starring role in a major action film and represented a relatively calming antidote to the increasingly outlandish persona that he adopted throughout the rest of the 1980s and beyond, beginning with Stallone’s debut as John Rambo in the 1982 thriller film First Blood. In contrast to the heroic exaggeration that became the hallmark of his action-hero persona, Stallone plays DaSilva as a flawed, reluctant hero who lacks a killer instinct and prefers to employ a psychological approach in confronting the terrorist Wulfgar.

DaSilva’s subdued approach reflects his latent fear of the clever, unpredictable Wulfgar. Unlike the over-the-top villains from Stallone’s special effects-driven action vehicles Cliffhanger, Cobra, and the futuristic Demolition Man, Wulfgar’s extreme tactics seem plausible, especially in retrospect. For DaSilva and audiences, the killing of Wulfgar doesn’t elicit exhilaration but rather nervous relief.