Daylight: Where the high-voltage thriller with Sylvester Stallone was filmed

After Rocky , Rambo and Cliffhanger , Sylvester Stallone has lent his artistic talent to another very intense action film: Daylight . Dated 1996, written by Leslie Bohem and directed by Rob Cohen , the film has made its mark, taking a place of honor among the cult films of the 90s. Tension and drama blend together to create an adrenaline-filled adventure that involves you in its oppressive grip. An anxiety-inducing vortex therefore in which the locations, one in particular, are fundamental to the narrative context that the film stages.

What is the movie about?

On a quiet New York evening, a catastrophic explosion rocks New York 's Holland Tunnel , which runs beneath the Hudson River . Unfortunately, the event leaves a group of people trapped inside the tunnel, surrounded by debris, rapidly rising water and the constant threat of further collapses and explosions. Among them are office workers, prisoners in transfer, a young woman on the run and even a dog. Cut off from the outside world and trapped in a suffocating environment of toxic gases, fires and floods, they must join forces to find a way out, before everything comes crashing down. Their only chance is Kit Latura (Sylvester Stallone), a disgraced former head of the city's rescue team. Witnessing the disaster, he decides to take action: he enters the tunnel through a service passage and takes on the desperate task of leading the survivors to safety. But as the oxygen runs out, the structure collapses and the dangers grow ever closer, the race against time becomes a fight for survival - and for redemption.

Where was it filmed?

The disaster movie starring Sylvester Stallone used several locations to tell its story, but mainly chose Italy for its most impactful sequences. Production took place between September 1995 and February 1996 and director Rob Cohen chose Cinecittà primarily for its great scenographic flexibility and the experience of the Italian technical team. The visual effects were created without CGI, favoring practical effects such as real water, explosives and live stunts. This helped make Daylight one of the most spectacular and technically impressive disaster movies of the 90s.

Cinecittà, Rome

Most of the tunnel scenes were filmed here, including reconstructions of the Holland Tunnel with large sets for the most spectacular sequences. Full-scale sets were built, including: the collapsed portion of the Lincoln/Holland Tunnel, the flooded areas, the ducts, the sewers, the vertical shafts and the ventilation ducts. At the time of the film's production, the practical special effects used (such as flames, explosions, water) but also in terms of the urban infrastructure reproduced in the studio, were among the most ambitious ever made. The production built a 120-meter tunnel inside Cinecittà , with movable walls to simulate collapses and landslides. Many members of the cast, including Stallone, filmed the scenes immersed in freezing water, under the supervision of divers. Cinecittà is one of the most important and historic film studios in Europe. Founded in 1937 in Rome, it has hosted major Italian and international productions such as Ben-Hur, Cleopatra and Gangs of New York . It is famous for hosting films by legendary directors such as Federico Fellini, Roberto Rossellini and Martin Scorsese .

New York, Manhattan and surroundings

The exterior scenes instead took place in America. Roger & Eleanor's Apartment (1030 5th Avenue – East 84th Street), for example, was chosen as the building where one of the characters (Roger) lives, while The Peninsula Hotel (on the corner of 5th Avenue and West 55th Street) was used for the exteriors of elegant settings. All the shots along the Hudson River are also real, visible in particular in the opening and final scenes, such as the exit from the submerged tunnel where the survivors emerge into the waters of the river. The shots in the water were however combined with studio effects, some night shots are real, others (as we were saying earlier) were recreated on the backlots of Cinecittà. The sequences in NYC were therefore short but fundamental, precisely to give a sense of urban realism to the film. The exteriors of Manhattan are also used to show the initial impact of the explosion and the panic in the city.

Other US locations (minor)

There are some lower-profile scenes that were filmed in other parts of the United States. Monterey, California, for example, was chosen for miniature sequences of the collapsed tunnel, used in combination with models and matte paintings. Monterey is a coastal town in California, known for its photography and cinema. Scenes such as the initial explosions or the collapses were filmed on highly detailed miniatures (1:10 scale) and at the end of each take, all these unique pieces were destroyed, scene after scene, to ensure authenticity. Other locations chosen for Daylight were: Milford (Connecticut), Ossining and Croton-on-Hudson (New York). The scenes filmed in these cities were all additional exterior shots, streets and surrounding urban environments. Some flashbacks and evacuation scenes were also filmed in these areas.