DAYLIGHT (1996)
Tagline: Hold your breath
(Adventure, Action, Drama) [PG-13]
Hypothermia. It's when your body loses heat and shuts down. When your body is getting tired, really, you're getting dead. Does that sound fair enough?
When it comes to the long list of underrated movies, or best survival or disaster flicks, this movie comes up often. It’s probably one of Sylvester Stallone’s (who plays Kit Latura) better performances. It’s also the first movie I ever saw Amy Brenneman (who plays Madelyne Thompson) in since HEAT never hit my radar as being something I cared to see.
In this one, a bunch of people is headed through a tunnel that links Manhattan to New Jersey. A group of robbers is speeding through when they hit a truck that is full of highly flammable material. The explosion causes a chain reaction that leads to both ends of the tunnel caving in leaving anyone that survived trapped. Kit Latura has trained for just this type of an issue, but due to a scandal had to retire as captain from the rescue team that would normally handle this. He’s a cab driver now and he’s gonna piss his passengers off because it’s time for him to jump into action and figure out a way to save anyone that is still breathing. OH…and this tunnel is underwater and is running out of air so no pressure Latura.
First off, this movie is actually pretty damn good. It’s got plenty of suspense and lots of character building. A group of people goes from being a paranoid freaked out bunch of chickens to focused, caring, and willing to take huge risks to survive.
Stallone is stellar and a lot of the other performances stand out as well. Jay O. Sanders plays a father who is a bit of a jerk named Steve, and even his character matures throughout the movie. What I also interesting that Jay O. Sanders was in an ABC After School Special. The show ran from 1972 to 1997. It was kind of meant to teach you stuff after school on TV. Like don’t do drugs and don’t steal. Stuff you would think it common sense, but idiots would do anyway. I remember being in high school telling friends that were headed down the wrong path, the last thing they wanted to do was be the subject of an “After School Special”. Anyway, this movie also has Danielle Harris in it (probably most famous for the HALLOWEEN series). When she did the role she was already 18 years old and had been in a ton of movies. It seems like she’s playing a younger character as Steve’s daughter, but when given some of the lines she delivers, maybe she was actually playing an 18-year-old. Viggo Mortensen also has a pretty “gung ho” role in this movie as Roy Nord, a thrill-seeking sports drink mogul. I found it interesting to see him in this type of role rather than as Aragorn from LORD OF THE RINGS and some of the other stuff he’s done.
The cinematography is stellar and the movie does a great job of keeping things feeling very claustrophobic. In fact, if you are claustrophobic, this might not be the movie for you. Some of the shots are almost too dark to see everything we need to, but most are spot on. The writing is really good as well which makes sense because this was done by the writer of DANTE’S PEAK.
One issue I do have with this movie is that they give a bit of a back story for a character that we start to really like and that character doesn’t make it. This actually happens several times. It made the movie slightly darker than it really needed to be. Even just keeping it to 1 or 2 of those characters dying would have improved the film. A lot of times these moments are meant to add levity to the dangers of the situation, but I think we got the point after the first couple of “well crap” moments.
Overall DAYLIGHT gets a solid 5 out of 7 for me. It’s a movie I don’t mind watching once a year or more, but like CLIFFHANGER I never bought it. For pure Stallone fans, this is probably a must.
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