--- title: "Daylight" year: 1996 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/daylight" fi1m_id: "daylight" imdb_id: "tt0116040" tmdb_id: 11228 wikidata_id: "Q225916" fi1m_score: 54 critics_score: 47 critics_reviews: 7 published: "2026-10-05T00:22:17.848980+00:00" updated: "2026-10-05T00:22:18.456315+00:00" region: "HK" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Daylight (1996) Directed by Rob Cohen · 1h 55m · Action, Adventure, Thriller ## Identity Daylight - **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/daylight - **Type:** Film - **Fi1m ID:** daylight - **IMDb ID:** tt0116040 - **TMDB ID:** 11228 - **Wikidata ID:** Q225916 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116040/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/11228, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q225916 **Fi1m score: 54** · Critics 47 from 7 reviews *In a sentence:* The tunnel floods, the roof drips, and the people Stallone crawls through a giant fan to save are the film’s biggest hazard > Rob Cohen stages the opening explosion with real conviction, and then asks us to spend ninety minutes in the dark with people the script has not bothered to make bearable. Stallone, quieter than usual, nearly carries it. Nearly. ## Synopsis A road tunnel under the Hudson River, between Manhattan and New Jersey, on an ordinary evening. A truck carrying toxic waste collides with a car full of jewel thieves fleeing a robbery, and the explosion that follows seals both ends and fills the tunnel with smoke and rising water. Kit Latura (Sylvester Stallone), once head of the city’s emergency medical service and now driving a taxi after a disaster that cost him his job, is on the Manhattan approach when it happens. He talks his way past the tunnel chief, Frank Kraft (Dan Hedaya), and goes in through the ventilation fans. Inside, playwright Madelyne Thompson (Amy Brenneman), tunnel officer George Tyrell (Stan Shaw) and sports tycoon Roy Nord (Viggo Mortensen), who thinks he can lead the survivors out himself, wait in the dark. ## Review *Daylight* is a disaster film in the old 1970s manner: gather some strangers, drop something enormous on them, and see who behaves. Leslie Bohem’s script takes a road tunnel under the Hudson, puts a truck of toxic waste in one end and a carload of jewel thieves in the other, and closes both ends with the fire that results. The explosion is the best thing in the film. At 115 minutes, that leaves a good deal of film afterwards. It is a fine explosion, though. Peter Amundson cuts it as a chase, the fire rolling along the tiled roof car by car while drivers turn in their seats to see it coming, and we flinched, properly, when it reached the coach. David Eggby lights what remains in sodium orange and torch beams, so that survivors appear out of the smoke and vanish back into it. Benjamín Fernández’s set, a tiled tube with a floor of crushed cars and water already pooling at the kerb, is a real place rather than a backdrop. The first quarter of an hour promises a tighter film than the one we get. Stallone is better than the film around him. Kit Latura is a disgraced former emergency chief now driving a cab, and Bohem makes him carry that shame instead of a gun. Stallone plays him low and unsure, a man who needs telling he is still useful, and he gets through the ventilation fans with his face rather than his arms. Those fans, with blades the size of a house and a timing problem the film explains clearly and then exploits, gave us the one stretch where our hands went cold. Rob Cohen handles that sequence with patience, which he does not show elsewhere. Viggo Mortensen’s Roy Nord, a rich adventurer who sells climbing gear and means to climb out, is the only person in the tunnel with an idea of his own, and Mortensen plays him as a cheerful egotist who is probably right about half of it. The film does something with him we will not describe, except to say the tunnel is duller afterwards. The others are the problem. Bohem has written a playwright (Amy Brenneman) leaving town, an elderly couple (Claire Bloom and Colin Fox) with a dog, a family (Jay O. Sanders and Karen Young) with a sullen daughter, a van of young offenders led by Mikey (Renoly Santiago), and a tunnel officer, George Tyrell (Stan Shaw), who is the only one of them we would trust with a torch. They shout. They blame Kit. They argue about who goes first. By the hour mark we were bored by them, and then irritated, because the water was rising and the film kept stopping to let people be unpleasant to one another. Above ground, Barry Newman and Dan Hedaya sit in a control room and tell each other what might go wrong next. Randy Edelman’s score announces how we should feel with brass that arrives a bar before anything has happened. Thomas Casterline and Isis Mussenden dress everyone in sensible coats that get wetter and greyer as the night goes on, which is about the only thing in the film that changes gradually. Against *The Poseidon Adventure* and [*The Towering Inferno*](https://film.one/film/the-towering-inferno), the films it is openly copying, it is shorter, better lit and more modestly cast, and it lacks the one thing they had, which was a survivor you were sorry to lose. Cohen had just made *Dragonheart*, and he directs the big set pieces well here; it is the talking in between that he cannot make matter, and there is a lot of talking. Most critics landed where we have, somewhere between tolerant and tired, and we see no reason to argue with them. It carries a 12 certificate, so the water does more damage than anyone’s language. See it for the first fifteen minutes and for the fans. At home you can get up and make tea while the survivors argue, which we suspect Kit would have liked to do as well. *Fi1m score 54, published 5 October 2026.* ## What the critics say Most critics treat Daylight as a conventional disaster thriller, and the reviews lean mixed to negative. Where there is praise, it clusters on the spectacle: the special effects, the opening fireball and the suspense of the rescue sequences, with several reviewers allowing that the film delivers the genre’s basic goods competently. Rob Cohen’s action staging draws a nod, and Sylvester Stallone is noted for a more vulnerable turn than usual, which Radio Times counts as an unexpected strength. The reservations gather around the story and the people in it. The plot is called formulaic by nearly everyone, and the harsher reviews find the trapped survivors hard to care about; The New Yorker goes further, judging the effects swamped by the star’s vanity. Variety’s dissent is specific, admiring Viggo Mortensen’s charisma and regretting how little the film makes of him. The spread is wide: Empire alone recommends it outright, while three reviews are plainly negative. ## Straight answers **Is Daylight worth watching?** *Daylight* is worth watching only for its first fifteen minutes and one sequence in the ventilation fans, and we scored it 54. Rob Cohen stages the tunnel explosion with real conviction and Stallone plays the disgraced rescuer quietly and well, but the survivors he goes in for are so quarrelsome that the rising water becomes a relief. **How long is Daylight, and what is it rated?** *Daylight* runs 1h 55m. It is an action and adventure film. **Where can I watch Daylight in Hong Kong?** *Daylight* is available to rent from Apple TV from HK$28.00. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service. **How violent or frightening is Daylight, and is it suitable for children?** *Daylight* carries a UK 12 certificate, so its danger comes from fire, smoke and rising water rather than blood or bad language. The opening explosion rolls through the tunnel car by car and may alarm younger children, and the sequence in the giant ventilation fans is tense. Older children and teenagers who can take a disaster film should manage it. ### Reviews we read (7) - **Empire**, Ian Nathan (75/100, inferred): Nathan finds the film an enjoyable, effective disaster movie that delivers exactly what it promises. He praises its spectacular special effects, especially the opening fireball, while noting its cheesy acting and predictable story. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/daylight-review/) - **Time Out**, NB (64/100, inferred): The available page identifies this as a review but does not reveal the critic’s verdict. Its description gives the trapped-group premise, without showing what the critic praises or criticizes. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/daylight) - **Radio Times**, Jason Caro (3/5): Caro finds the film involving and solidly entertaining, though not a genre classic. He praises Rob Cohen’s action staging and Sylvester Stallone’s unexpectedly vulnerable performance. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-0j8n2m/daylight/) - **RogerEbert.com**, Roger Ebert (2/4): Ebert regards the film as a conventional disaster thriller. He singles out its suspenseful rescue sequences, while finding the story formulaic. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/daylight-1996) - **The New York Times**, Janet Maslin (30/100, inferred): The review is negative about the film. It faults the disaster-movie storytelling rather than singling out a strength. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/1996/12/15/movies/daylight.html) - **Variety**, Todd McCarthy (30/100, inferred): McCarthy finds the disaster thriller limited in imagination and excitement, with its trapped characters often difficult to care about. He praises Viggo Mortensen’s charismatic performance, lamenting that the film kills off his character too early. [Read](https://variety.com/1997/film/reviews/daylight-2-1117436682/) - **The New Yorker**, Sarah Kerr (20/100, inferred): The critic finds the disaster film a poor entry in its genre, with special effects overwhelmed by the star’s vanity. She also singles out the trapped survivors as clumsy, hysterical, and mean. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1996/12/23/1996-12-23-040-tny-cards-000153434) ## Details - **Director:** Rob Cohen - **Director:** Rob Cohen - **Screenplay:** Leslie Bohem - **Cinematography:** David Eggby - **Editor:** Peter Amundson - **Music:** Randy Edelman - **Production design:** Benjamín Fernández - **Costume design:** Isis Mussenden, Thomas Casterline - **Producer:** John Davis, David T. Friendly, Joseph Singer - **Cast:** Sylvester Stallone as Kit Latura; Amy Brenneman as Madelyne Thompson; Viggo Mortensen as Roy Nord; Stan Shaw as George Tyrell; Barry Newman as Norman Bassett; Dan Hedaya as Frank Kraft; Jay O. Sanders as Steven Crighton; Karen Young as Sarah Crighton - **Runtime:** 1h 55m - **Release (Hong Kong):** 19 December 1996 - **Genres:** Action, Adventure, Thriller - **Budget:** $80 million - **Box office:** $159 million ## Where to watch in Hong Kong - Apple TV: rent HK$28.00, hd - Apple TV: buy HK$88.00, sd *Checked 2026-10-05.* Also available in: AE, AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HK, HR, HU, ID, IE, IL, IN, IT, JP, LT, MX, MY, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PH, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SG, TH, TR, UA, US, VN, ZA. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## Awards - Academy Awards 1997: Best Sound Editing (nominated) ## If you liked this - *The Poseidon Adventure* (1972): The upside-down liner that set the template, with strangers you actually mind losing. - *Tunnel* (2016): A Korean salesman trapped under a collapsed motorway tunnel; quieter, funnier and far more frightening. - *The Wave* (2015): Norwegian fjord, imminent tsunami, one worried geologist; small cast, real dread, proper water. - *Cliffhanger* (1993), Fi1m 74: Stallone on a mountain instead of under a river, with villains worth the climb. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/cliffhanger.md) - *Juggernaut* (1974): Richard Lester’s bomb-on-a-liner thriller, dry and British, where the professionals are allowed to think. --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/daylight