Coming on the 20th anniversary of the release of Rocky, the Academy Award-winning film starring and written by Sylvester Stallone,Daylight brings to the screen all of international superstar's natural appeal, enriched by two decades of experience. As Kit Latura, Stallone returns as the heroic blue collar Everyman who confronts near-hopeless odds with the burning determination to prevail that characterized Rocky Balboa. "Daylight is a pure adventure film with psychological thriller overtones," Stallone explains. "It's about the internal combustion of fear and trying to suppress it and overcome it, then pressing into action. "That, combined with the elements of nature working against the indomitable spirit of the survivors, was a coming home to something I can relate to." "Daylight offered Sylvester Stallone the chance to go back to the genre in which he began," adds director Rob Cohen, who was responsible for this summer's Dragonheart as well as the 1993 hit Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story. "With his incredible debut in Rocky and following that with F.I.S.T., he was a John Garfield-style blue collar hero. He subsequently took a different fork in the road of stardom with his Rambo series and his superhero roles. I was most eager to try to return him to his roots. "The guys who join services like EMS, the Police Department and the Fire Department, they're really blue collar guys, and they're intelligent and they're brave," Cohen continues. "A lot of it is family tradition, especially in New York, where certain departments are heavily Irish or Italian. Of all the movie stars in America, Sylvester Stallone epitomizes the blue collar hero." Stallone adds, "Kit Latura is a man who finally has to face himself and get by on his wits, suppress his fears and try to instill in the people around him some sense of survival, pride and belief in their ability to overcome these insurmountable odds." By combining Stallone's vulnerable hero with a gripping and visually stunning race against time story, the filmmakers have given the classic "disaster movie" genre a distinctly modern flavor, with a gritty realism and believability seldom attempted or achieved in the past. The real-life inspiration for Daylight was an actual tunnel explosion back in the 1940s. Screenwriter Leslie Bohem came across a magazine article in which a load of toxic and volatile chemicals exploded in New York City's Holland Tunnel, and a number of vehicles were destroyed. Although this particular explosion didn't seal off either end of the tunnel, all the essentials were there for a reality-based, nail-biting adventure. "Here was a script that had genuine human drama," Cohen explains. "We worked to expand it to where it became a movie for 1996, in the sense that it incorporates the latest special effects, computer graphics and other techniques, as well as an up-to-date outlook." Starting with the spectacular explosion that initially devastates the tunnel, the characters in Daylight face a constantly deteriorating situation; overcoming one obstacle only seems to create an even more threatening one. To make matters worse, while leading this dwindling band of survivors, Kit is haunted by his last act as chief of the Emergency Medical Services, where a wrong decision led to the deaths of men under his command. Another wrong decision and more will die. As each minute passes, it is more and more unlikely to those on the outside that there's anyone still alive on the inside. The final irony comes when salvage--not rescue--operations begin, threatening to finish off those who have struggled so hard and so valiantly to survive. With his back to the wall and time running out, the only option left for Kit is to try to cheat death by executing the dreaded "blowout." So fantastic that it seems to be a purely cinematic invention, a blowout is a natural occurrence in which a geyser-like explosion is caused by a catastrophic shift in air pressure between the inside of a tunnel and the material surrounding it. Perhaps the most dreaded hazard in tunnel construction, men and construction equipment have been thrust through yards of river bottom mud and tossed high into the air by the violently escaping air of a blowout. One particularly famous example of such an event occurred in 1916, in which legendary sandhog (tunnel construction worker) Marshall Mabey actually survived. Director Cohen's attraction to Daylight was enhanced by his personal history with disasters, both cinematic and real-life. "The first film set I ever worked on was The Poseidon Adventure," he explains. "It was extraordinary to see the magic of Hollywood in the making." The Poseidon Adventure, of course, was the classic disaster film set in the surrealistic world of an overturned cruise ship in the middle of the ocean. More harrowing was his experience at a 1980 hotel fire in Boston, where Cohen was rescued from the ninth story window ledge by outstretched Fire Department ladders. Five people died in the disaster. "It was like a real life Towering Inferno," Cohen recalls. "I had seen the movie and actually used some of survival techniques from it: staying low to the floor to avoid breathing the smoke, using wet towels to block off the bottoms of the doors, staying put until the rescuers were ready." After he was plucked from the conflagration, Cohen reflected on some unique perspectives. "I had been a part of a real disaster from real life. I saw the good and the bad. I saw heroism, goodness and compassion, as well as cowardice, selfishness and indifference." These hard-won perspectives add a special understanding of the drama inherent in the circumstances depicted in Daylight. "A group of disparate characters is thrown together in what for them is an unbelievable situation, and under the leadership of one man, are formed into a true community," Cohen explains. "All of the jeopardy, all of the danger, all of the horror, all of the pressure is on them equally, regardless of who they were one minute before the tunnel blew up. Unless they work together, no one gets out. The equalization of these people is a metaphor for what we're really facing." Stallone agrees that the instinct for survival transcends all other considerations. "The people trapped in the tunnel are a cross-section of the world, not just America," he says. "You have rich and poor; black and white; criminal minds and upstanding citizens; even a good-natured dog. It's kind of like Noah's Ark inside the tunnel. "But once we strip away the patina of culture--social background, upbringing, our mores and values--people have one overriding desire, and that is to survive. But do you survive alone in a situation like this? No. Just like no one wins a war alone. You win with an espirit de corps and group bonding. That's what this film is about." "I think there's the potential for heroism in most people," Cohen adds; "they just don't get into a situation in which to test themselves. This movie is one big, giant E-ticket ride that tests the mettle of all of these characters." Stallone credits director Cohen for not letting the effects overwhelm the story. "Rob doesn't allow himself to become encumbered with the need to create spontaneous combustion just for the sake of sight gags," he says. "Everything has to be logical. The most important thing is the characters--why are they here now and where are they going?" Along with Latura, key among the many characters is feisty Madelyne Thompson, a role that took actress Amy Brenneman to the limit physically. Her harrowing early-on rescue of the teenage criminals is only the beginning for the deceptively frail-looking Brenneman, best known for her roles in such films as Casper and Heat and on the hit TV series NYPD Blue. As the survivor most trusted and counted on by Latura, Madelyne often finds herself in the thick of the action--wrestling with a high voltage wire, helping plant explosives, standing up for Kit when the others doubt him and trying to surmount the rapidly rising water. It's well known that Stallone does most of his own stunt work. On Daylight, Brenneman joined him. "We did all of our stunts together," she laughs. "We even had pet names for each other. He was 'Mr. Stunt,' and I was 'My Lovely Assistant.'" A talented supporting cast lends added texture to the story. Stan Shaw, Claire Bloom, Karen Young, Viggo Mortensen and Dan Hedaya bring familiar faces and strong performances to the screen. Especially notable is Shaw, best known for his work in the hit film "Fried Green Tomatoes," who as good-natured tunnel cop George Tyrell, tries to keep the survivors together in the immediate aftermath of the explosion, and whose misfortune provides them with the incident that finally transforms a group of individuals into a team. With quiet dignity, shows makes the selfless Tyrell heartbreaking and memorable. At the other end of the spectrum is Mortensen's portrayal of the arrogant and self-aggrandizing sportswear entrepreneur Roy Nord, who is all too willing to exploit the tragedy for some personal publicity. Highly respected veteran astress Bloom, whose film work has has ranged from Charlie Chaplin's Limelight to Laurence Olivier's Richard III to Woody Allen's Crimes and Misdemeanors, brings an artistocratic sensibility to the survivors as Mrs. Trilling, a wealthy matron caught in the explosion with her husband and dog on their way home from the dog psychiatrist. Young, who's appeared in such films as Torch Song Trilogy, Hoffa and Heat, provides a mirror image as Sarah Crighton, a long-suffering, suburban middle class wife and mother trying to keep her dysfunctional family together. Popular character actor Hedaya (Clueless, The First Wife's Club)brings his frowning countenance and gravel voice to the role of EMS Deputy Chief Frank Kraft--the man whose brother was killed by Kit's misjudgment years earlier. Another veteran actor, Barry Newman, comes through as Norman Bassett, a veteran suprvisor for the Tunnel Authority, as does Vanessa Bell Callaoway, (Coming to America) as Bassett's associate Grace, who also happens to be George Tyrell's girlfriend. Daylight also a professional reunion for a father and son Sylvester and Sage Stallone. The younger Stallone made his screen debut in 1990's Rocky V, in which he played Rocky Balboa's son. This time around, Sage portrays Vincent, a middle class teenage thief. "He's not little Rocky. He's not little Rambo. He's not even little Sylvester," the senior Stallone remarks. "He's his own man. He has a small character part, but he was born into the business and does a very good job. I think he's better than I am, and I'm very happy about that." As the setting for most of the action, and in a story without a specific human villain, the tunnel itself looms large, almost another character in the cast. In a sense, it is the tunnel that traps the people, and it is the tunnel that is trying to kill them. Ultimately, it is the ominous reality depicted in Daylight that takes the film beyond the realm of purely escapist entertainment. "What's uncanny about the tunnel is that it's something that could happen at any moment in real life," Stallone points out. "When you realize that a great many infrastructures around the world are quite old, you grasp that an accident like the one that takes place in Daylight could easily happen anywhere."