MovieChat Forums > Nighthawks (1981) Discussion > Bad Ending

Bad Ending

posted 17 years ago by Fitvideo
21 replies | jump to latest

I always dislike this film for many reasons...gave it another chance tonight and yep...I still hate it..

The scene at the party in London..it always seemed dated even at the time..it reminds me of both Animal House and Coogan's Bluff...it's comes across as a sixties/seventies thing...not 81...

Sly is a street cop in high heels, ex special forces (as usual), and becomes inducted into an anti-terrorism squad overnight..and becomes a specialist to boot..yeah..right...

Persis Khambatta should have stuck to being bald...

The soundtrack is awful...Keith Emerson was one of my keyboard heroes at the time, but this was dated about six months before it was released..I have no idea what he was thinking about...I belive it was about that time he swapped horses from one synth manufacturer at the time to another, and the sound was so limp...I won't name names...The disco scene if you listen to the music is rubbish..

Sly just likes cross dressing..the beginnig was bad but the end is just silly...why does he need to take off his wig prior to shooting Hauer in Slo Mo...
Parts of this film actually work well, but bits of it just don't...

Carpe Discum

[–] Lucabar80 17 years ago

Everyone has got his own opinion,I find this movie one of the best in his genre.
Why did Sly take off his wig just before shooting Wulfgar?
This is a surprise also for the movie's viewers because nobody believed Sly was washing up,people watching the movie thought that person was his wife.
In the movie,Sly waits to shoot because he wants to show Wulfgar that he is more clever and he made him fall into a trap without escape.
I also think that Deke's desire was facing Wulfgar face to face,he wanted to have him standing in front of to glance him well.

[–] 17 years ago

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[–] h-ahmad-1 17 years ago

The OP said something about Nighthawks not feeling like an '81 film - it was actually made between January and March 1980.

[–] mike-1730 17 years ago

I agree.
Along with Copland, this is one of the two best movies Stallone has made.

[–] RugGuy 17 years ago

Fuuny, I would like to dislike this movie for all the reasons you mention, but I can't. For me something about the movie works even tho it shouldn't.

[–] Lucabar80 17 years ago

The exact date of the movie is a mistery for me too:I sometimes read that it was produced in 1980 but in other occasions I discovered the different year of its release as 1981.
Who knows the truth?

[–] h-ahmad-1 16 years ago

I reckon it was made in early 1980, because it has a kind of late '70s feel to it and on the 'net, I once saw a pic of Stallone with his beard and it was taken at the tail end of 1979.

I guess they held the film's release back to April '81 due to certain factors such as competition (releasing Nighthawks in the summer would have been risky, probably) and its tone (terrorism). Remember in 1980, there was the Iran hostage crisis.

[–] Lucabar80 16 years ago

and the bomb explosion in Bologna station too...(august 1980)
I am italian...I was just born at the time...I was about one month old...

[–] puravida27 16 years ago

The guy who started this thread is a moron. How could you say that the ending is bad? are you out of your mind? the ending is great, suspenseful, surprising..............

ivan

[–] ramsfan 16 years ago

Really. This is one of the BEST endings to a movie of this type. Very well done and entertaining throughout. Can't agree with one thing the original poster said.

[–] InvasionofPALs 16 years ago

The original poster of this thread needed to take some Ex-Lax before he started this Post. Because he's so fulla s*h**i***t.

Good movie; great ending.

Amen.

-CG

[–] DameDigbyChickenCaesar 15 years ago

LOL w/ InvasionofPALs.

The OP definitely has something up their arse.

"Good thing he was pretty, 'cause he sure wasn't whiz kid Floyd."

[–] JAML 15 years ago

i agree...the ending is great! one of the best twist, surprise endings EVER.

[–] Herreken 15 years ago

I also like the ending a lot. One of the reasons he took off the wig was because he would have looked silly shooting Hauer (spelling?) with that blonde wig on. If the scene had been any longer, then it would have been funny. It was a good idea for them to only show Stallone briefly with that wig on.

Fitvideo does raise valid points about the rest of the story though.

DISPLAY thy breasts, my Julia!

[–] death_jamm_productions 15 years ago

only a complete idiot would think the ending to this film is bad

No Justice Just Us

[–] mhasheider 14 years ago

The ending is great instead of bad, just watching Wulfgar move quietly from the front door through the living room and into the kitchen is terrifying (and I wonder how anyone who saw the film in the theater reacted to that) if not like Hitchcock.

I know I'm probably not the first one to say that this movie literally screams for a special edition if not the people at Criterion can do it especially the disco scene (and the music originally used).

[–] where_is_my_mind09 13 years ago

I know this is a late ( years ) response to the OP but I couldn't help myself. I couldn't stop laughing at how the OP bashes this movie for "looking dated". The rest of their rant is pure Troll GOLD. LOL.

[–] 13 years ago

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[–] jerzy1 13 years ago

I hated the ending. How on earth did Wulfgar end up with six great big bloody entry wounds when Stallone only fired twice. Bloody censors. That spoiled the whole film for me.

[–] mjscarface 13 years ago

It was bloody great ending: actually making Stallone, in drag, a tense moment is quite an achievement.

RE: jerzy1

Yeah the multiple bullet holes is ridiculously bad editing (clearly Stallone shoots him like he does at the target range earlier, limbs and head etc.).

But it's something which could easily be put right if they made the effort - just a few quick cuts or sound effects to show Stallone blowing his ass down the hallway and finally out the door. If only...

"The only place I get hurt... is out there." - 'The Wrestler'

[–] JEyler1183 13 years ago

It's too bad the ending could not have featured a real fight between Stallone and Hauer instead of Stallone just shooting Hauer twice. It felt like a forced ending. In a way, it almost feels like the cast and crew were forced to shoot this ending. I am probably wrong, but just shooting the terrorist twice weakend the film,hence the box office results when it was plauing in local cinemas. The director did a good job with the use of music and effects ehile filming the tense climax, when Stallone tuned around in the nick of time to reveal himself. Again, just my opinion, but I wish the director would have came up with a better ending. I still like this film a lot. I wish Universal would have put this film out on Blu-Ray, accompanied by a retrospective withe Stallone and Hauer, a documentary on the making of this film, and maybe an audio commentary from Stallone. I have noticed Stallone has provided quite a few commentaries for Rocky, First Blood, Cliffhanger, Rocky Balbola, The Expandebles and Rambo (2008). I guess I'm dreaming though as this is just very wishful thinking.