"The Warriors" Appreciation

Whitty Hutton

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My pops first put me on to this flick when I was like 12. I was :gladbron:

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James Remar earned his role as Ajax after becoming so involved in the audition reading of the park bench scene, that he lifted the massive table around which the director and producers were seated.
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In the original script for the movie, Cleon is killed by the Grammercy Riffs, Cochise is killed by the Baseball Furies, Ajax is caught by the police, Vermin is killed by the Lizzies, and Swan gets kidnapped by the Dingos. This leaves only four Warriors in the battle with the Punks. Swan does, however, reappear at Coney Island to fight the final battle after the Riffs learn the truth about who shot Cyrus.
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Newcomers were cast to create the feel of "real people caught in dangerous situations". The cast felt like they were a gang before filming started. James Remar even spent time in Coney Island so he could observe real individuals to base his portrayal of Ajax on.
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There were always crowds of spectators during filming, even at 3am in the freezing cold.
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When the fictitious Turnbull ACs visited a hamburger joint during filming, people fled in fear of being attacked.
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The scene in the men's room with the Punks was the only scene shot on a set. The set, the only one constructed for the movie, was located at Astoria Studios, Long Island City - Queens.
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The Homicides were a real Coney Island gang, and they didn't approve of fictional gangs wearing colors on their turf. The wardrobe department made sure nobody walked off location wearing The Warriors colors. The actors were safe during the cemetery scene in Brooklyn because of a fence surrounding it.
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Crew members were sent death threats because local gangs weren't cast. Thousands of dollars worth of equipment were damaged when one gang tore through the set during a lunch break.
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The crew once got urinated upon from a tower block due to the noise they were creating in the night.
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Michael Beck was discovered by Walter Hill when Hill was watching the movie Madman, which Beck co-starred in with a then less-famous Sigourney Weaver. Hill saw that film because he wanted to see Weaver's performance, as she was being considered for the upcoming film Alien, but was so impressed by Beck's work that he had him come in for an audition which led to his being cast in THE WARRIORS.
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The original poster featured the words "These are the armies of the night. They are 100,000 strong. They outnumber the cops five to one. They could run New York City." This upset and outraged many people; some tried to have the film banned.
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The Warriors sign painted on the bath house for one of the photos was painted over a real gang's tag. The gang didn't take to lightly to this, so the producers paid them to be in the film.
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Loosely based on Xenophon's "Anabasis", the account of an army of Greek mercenaries who, after aligning themselves with Cyrus the Younger in the battle of Cunaxa (401 BC) in his attempt to seize the Persian throne, found themselves isolated behind Persian enemy lines.
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The name Ajax came after the Greek Warrior.
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Vermin was scripted to be killed by the Lizzies but Terry Michos who played Vermin made his character more comical to make it more memorable and get more on-screen appearances in the movie, which worked and the death scene was taken out.
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In the script, Snow was originally named Snowball and did not say a single word until the end when he gave a small statement about how they should fight the Rogues to avenge their fallen friends.
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Filming during the scene with the Orphans was interrupted by a police chase.
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Filming was allowed to take place uninterrupted all night, a first.
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1,000 extras were used at the big meeting, many coming from Riverside Drive Park.
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The Warriors aimed to create "tribal feeling of going into battle together, of loyalty, of support and shared goals" and to have "the audiences' sympathy as they fight off all the other gangs in the city".
 

Whitty Hutton

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Filming sometimes had to move due to noise from crowds that came to watch. Some crowd members were forcibly removed from set.
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The Baseball Furies were created due to Walter Hill's love of baseball and the music group Kiss.
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The film trucks were "protected" by a real gang called The Mongrels for $500 a day.
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David Patrick Kelly improvised Luther's "come out to play-ay" taunt, basing it on an intimidating neighbor of his.
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Swan was to be abducted by a homosexual and sadomasochistic gang who had doberman pinschers. He was scripted to escape and lead The Warriors home.
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Walter Hill originally wanted a tough Puerto Rican girl to play Mercy.
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Walter Hill originally wanted the Warriors to be an all-black gang. Producers disagreed. He also wanted an initial subtitle which read "Sometime in the future" but Paramount thought it sounded too much like Star Wars.
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In the subway where Mercy is running with Fox's double, she fell and broke her wrist because the actor didn't let go of her hand. This is why she later appears in a jacket as it is covering up the cast. The filmmakers had Mercy disappear from the film for a while, meeting up with the Warriors at the subway platform and saying that she stole the jacket she was wearing before arriving there.
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In one take, Michael Beck (Swan) swings a bat into Deborah's face (in the scene where he throws it at the cop). She was rushed to hospital at 3am for stitches and still has a scar.
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Though it wasn't shown fully in the film, Cleon was killed.
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The film apparently took 60 days to shoot from midnight to 8am.
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The television version started with a day shoot at Coney Island with Cleon and his girlfriend (played by Pamela Poitier). The producers cut this scene stating that the only day scene should be at the end of the film after a night of horror.
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Real street gangs appear in the film.
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Here are the gangs that were listed in the script (some made it into the movie; others didn't): - The Alleycats, - The Amsterdam All-Stars, - The Baseball Furies aka The Furies, - The Black Hands, - The Blackjacks, - The Big Trains, - The Boppers, - The Boyle Avenue Runners, - The Charlemagnes, - The Colt 45's, - The Dealers, - The Delaney Rovers, - The Dingos, - The E Street Blazers / The E Street Shufflers , - The Easy Aces, - The Electric Eliminators, - The Eighth Street Bombers / The Eighth Avenue Apaches, - The Fastballs, - The Fifth Street Bombers, - The Filmores, - The Firetasters, - The Five Points, - The Gerrards, - The Gladiators, - The Go Hards, - The Gun Hill Dancers, - The Gramercy Riffs aka The Riffs, - The High Hats, - The High Rollers, - The Homeboys, - The Hoplites, - The Howitzers, - The Huks, - The Hurricanes, - The Imps, - The Jesters, - The Jones Street Boys, - The Judas Bunch, - The Jupiters, - The Knockdowns, - The Knuckles, - The Lizzies, - The Locos, - The Magicians, - The Meatpackers, - The Mongols, - The Moonrunners, - The Napoleons, - The Nickel Steaks, - The Nightriders, - The Ninth Avenue Razors, - The Orphans, - The Panzers, - The Phillies, - The Plainsmen, - The Punks, - The Queen's Bridge Mutilators, - The Real Boys, - The Red Hook Shooters, - The Roadmasters, - The Rogues, - The Romans, - The Runaways, - The Saracens, - The Saratogas, - The Savage Huns, - The Shanghai Sultans, - The Southern Cross, - The Speedwagons, - The Sports, - The Stevedores, - The Stilletos, - The Stonebreakers, - The Terriers, - The Turks, - The Turnbull AC's, - The Van Cortlandt Rangers, - The Warriors (aka The Coney Island Warriors), - The Whispers, - The Xenophones, - The Xylophones, - The Yo-Yo's, - The Youngbloods, - The Zodiacs, - The Zulus.
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The Warriors' vests were made of fake leather.
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The Baseball Furies were all around 30 or older and from Stunts Unlimited.
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Subway equipment throughout the entire movie consisted of IND/BMT R-27 and R-30 units, even though the IRT is implied in many instances. Apparently, no attention was paid to train markings, which varied considerably and were often unrelated to the actual routes traveled on. Other subway cars seen briefly are R-12, R-42 and R-46 units.
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The subway footage during the opening titles was filmed along the express tracks of the IND Fulton St. line in Brooklyn.
 

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Robert De Niro was asked to be Cowboy, but he passed on it.
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The last part to be cast was Cochise.
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The choreographed fight with the Punks in the men's room took 5 days (8pm to 7am) to shoot.
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The IND Hoyt-Schermerhorn subway station in Brooklyn was used for the 96th St. station scenes. The train operated on one of the unused outer tracks.
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The park at the beginning of the movie was supposed to be in the North Bronx. The scene was actually shot in Riverside Park, on Manhattan's Upper West Side.
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After several violent incidents that occurred at various showings of the film, the producers decided to change the poster as a way of cutting down on the violence. The original poster featured the logo as well as a picture of several tough looking gang members. The second poster just featured the logo against a white background.
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One of the "Punks" in the men's room-brawl is Craig R. Baxley. He is the one that gets thrown into a toilet booth upside down. Another is the late stunt-great A.J. Bakunas.
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One of the "Baseball Furies" was late martial-artist/actor Steve James.
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This is a "collective hero" movie, in which the protagonist actually consists of nine people acting (more or less) as one. Walter Hill uses this gimmick frequently; other movies he has made that work this way are Southern Comfort and The Long Riders.
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Tony Danza was offered the lead, but he chose to film the television series Taxi instead
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During the opening credits of the T.V. version, the knife that is thrown into the board was thrown (off camera) by Penn Jillette.
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According to an interview with a Hell's Angel Member on the Howard Stern Show, the Warrior's vest logo was taken from a picture of a bike built in a California prison by an incarcerated Hell's Angel, which appeared in a motorcycle magazine. It has apparently caused several fights; Hell's Angels will violently defend ownership of any of their logos.
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The logo on the back of The Warriors vest appears during amusement ride The Revenge of the Mummy at Universal Studios - Orlando.
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The fight between the Warriors and the Baseball Furies was scripted as extremely graphic and realistic. Producer Lawrence Gordon suggested adding music to defuse the impact of the violence.
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Director of Photography Andrew Laszlo campaigned successfully to have a scene early in the film where there is a sudden rainstorm, because this allowed him to "wet down" the streets for the rest of the movie and produce lighting effects that wouldn't have been possible on dry surfaces (it also worked well with the film's limited budget).
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Originally planned with Orson Welles narrating.
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The Baseball Furies are a reference to Second Base, an uptown gang from the 1970. Second Base wore Lettermen jackets with "Second Base" across the backs, not the baseball uniforms and painted faces of the Baseball Furies. The connection is quite obvious when New York Boppers are informed that The Warriors have "... made it past Second Base".
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Due to lack of Lights, extra light posts were added to the park scenes.
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In the script, Fox was originally the love interest of Mercy, but the two actors had no chemistry and the Mercy romance was transferred to Swan. Waites was fired eight weeks into principal photography, for being difficult and arguing with Walter Hill (director); his character was removed from the movie when a cop threw him into the path of a train during a fight. To this day, Hill felt bad about the rough times he has with Waites. Waites is not in the final credits because he didn't finish the movie.
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Walter Hill and Larry Gordon saw David Patrick Kelly in a Broadway play called "Working". Kelly performed a monologue as a hippie that espoused peace and love, but was actually extremely passive-aggressive.
 

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Walter Hill told Deborah Van Valkenburgh she was "the unobvious choice" when she was cast.
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Deborah Van Valkenburgh's boyfriend at the time discouraged her from auditioning because he thought the director was looking for someone more well endowed.
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The night scenes of The Warriors talking about Cyrus and the big meeting at The Bronx were part of re-shoots after the original opening of the film was cut out. The original opening of the film (which can be viewed on the Ulimate Edition DVD) was set in Coney Island during the daytime which Cleon's girlfriend says goodbye to Cleon and also features the rest of the gang being told by Cleon why they were chosen to go to the big meeting. The main reason why this opening was cut was because the editors told Walter Hill that the scene completely fell through because it set in the daytime (95% of the film is set in nighttime) and they felt it wouldn't work since it would cut to nighttime and it was a distraction. Walter agreed and decided to go back and re-shot the conversations that The Warriors have before their train arrives.
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According to executive producer Frank Marshall they originally hired a real gang member for the role as Cyrus, but could not find him on the day and never heard from him again. According to Michael Beck, however, Roger Hill was always supposed to play Cyrus, so the real story remains a mystery.
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According to the filmmakers on the Ultimate Edition DVD, the film was going to be a big hit after the movie was #1 at the box office charts despite negative reviews from critics (it earned $3.5 million in its opening weekend). However, word of mouth and a couple of incidents killed the film's momentum. According to Walter Hill, what had happened was gangs were attracted to the film and they had saw their rival gangs and caused violent incidents. Paramount Pictures panicked and decided to pull the movie out of theaters. Lawrence Gordon said the movie still kept going while the studio pulled the movie out of marketing. Despite this, the movie went on to be not only a cult hit but also a timeless classic; it even made a profit since it earned $22.4 million in initial box office receipts against a budget of only $6-7 million.
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When Ajax and Cowboy are running from the Baseball Furies, you can see several times that James Remar reaches over and slaps Tom McKitterick on the butt. He does this to coax him into running faster.
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President Ronald Reagan was a fan of the film, even calling the film's lead actor, Michael Beck, to tell him he had screened it at Camp David and enjoyed it.
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Paul Greco's character, the Orphan leader, isn't given a name in the film, and other media frequently refer to the character simply as "Orphan" or "Orphan Leader." However, his character's actual name, Sully, was revealed in the Warriors video game.
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Originally set in Los Angeles.
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Ajax's line, "I'll shove that bat up your ass and turn you into a Popsicle" is ranked #12 on UGO's Top 50 Tough Guy Lines, and on the top 50 Greatest Baseball Lines Ever.
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At some point during the film's promotion or after the initial ruckus when released, it was ordered that several bits of voice over in the trailer be censored. This is done by placing a piece of tape over the optical soundtrack. In the trailer, the narrator states "...between them and safety stand 20,000 cops and 100,000 sworn enemies." The fact that gangs out numbered the police by five times apparently was considered a security issue and the words "ten thousand" and "twenty thousand" were bleeped out with tape. (This probably coincides with Paramount promoting the film after violence at screenings, such as the new poster campaign).
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The second-in-command of the Riffs who takes over when Cyrus is killed is named Masai. This name is not used in the film, however it does appear in the credits.
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Despite being a movie about tons of gangs, the only gangs that are ever actually seen using guns are the Lizzies and the Rogues.
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The original preview uses the music from 'Sorcerer' (1977) by 'Tangerine Dream'.
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Irwin Keyes was also considered for the role of Ajax, but wasn't cast because Walter Hill thought he was too old for the part. However, Keyes still appears in the movie as the cop who arrests Ajax in the park.
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Producer Lawrence Gordon had discovered the book which this film is based on, without a cover, at a book store. After reading the description of the plot, he became very interested and bought the rights out of his own pocket. Gordon hired David Shaber to write it and approach Walter Hill to direct it after working with him on Hard Times and The Driver. Hill was very interested in the project but he felt that no studio would let them make the movie so the pair decided to make a western called "Last Gun" instead. However, financing fell though and Gordon was able to get The Warriors funded by Paramount Pictures. To this day, "Last Gun" has not been made.
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The film originally sported the subtitle "Sometime in the Future". This was removed for the original theatrical release version but was re-instated, displayed within the comic book title cards, for Walter Hill's 2005 Director's Cut DVD edition.
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Sol Yurick wrote the original book as a rebuttal to the romanticized view of street gangs presented in West Side Story based on his experience as a New York City welfare department worker.
 

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One of a number of 1979 "gang movies" which were first released in that year. The pictures included Walk Proud, The Warriors, Boulevard Nights and The Wanderers. Then in 1980 came another New York gang movie, John Carpenter's Escape from New York.
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First of three collaborations of director Walter Hill and cinematographer Andrew Laszlo. The films include The Warriors, Southern Comfort and Streets of Fire.
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The movie uses a plot device common to some of the movies written and/or directed by Walter Hill where the leader of a group is eliminated in the first act, whereby the leadership and security of the team is thrown into disarray by the loss of its head. Such Hill pictures using this story element include Aliens, The Warriors and Southern Comfort.
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Walter Hill says of this film on his 2005 DVD introduction: "At the very beginning, I said [that] to do this properly and to do the vision of the novel, it really only makes sense if you do it all black and Hispanic. And the studio was not very keen on that idea. I later came to realize that the studio forced me into the comic book idea, because it was the only way I could make it all make sense to myself".
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The picture's opening credits title cards and the film's movie poster title logo featured font lettering in the form of graffiti paint.
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First of three collaborations of actor David Patrick Kelly and writer/director Walter Hill. The films include The Warriors, 48 Hrs. and Last Man Standing.
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Debut performance in a film production of actress Deborah Van Valkenburgh.
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The film was made and released about fourteen years after its source novel of the same name by Sol Yurick had been first published in 1965.
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First of four cinema film collaborations of actor James Remar and writer/director Walter Hill. The films include The Warriors, 48 Hrs., Wild Bill and The Long Riders.
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The film's added-on opening prologue for the DVD Director's Cut edition of the movie states: "Battle of Cunaxa 401 BC. Over two millenniums ago, an army of Greek Soldiers found themselves isolated in the middle of The Persian Empire. One thousand miles from safety. One thousand miles from the sea. One thousand miles with enemies on all sides. Theirs was a story of a desperate forced march. Theirs was a story of courage. This too is a story of courage".
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A PS2 game based on the film by Rockstar Games was released in the United States on 17th October 2005.
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The picture is listed as a "Cult Film" by Danny Peary in his "Cult Movies" book, his first about them.
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The movie features a large number of "wipes" which are old-fashioned editing-style transitions between scenes.
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According to the movie's source script, the full name of "The Warriors" gang was actually "The Coney Island Warriors". The main gang in this film, it was not the name of the main gang in Sol Yurick's source novel where the main gang was called "The Dominators" aka "The Coney Island Dominators". The element the two gangs had in common was the they were both from Coney Island.
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The travel route the Warriors gang must travel all through the night to get back home went from The Bronx via Brooklyn to Coney Island.
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In order to get the movie out before rival "gang" film The Wanderers, post-production on this picture utilized three editing teams in three editing suite cutting rooms which worked around the clock to finish the film. As such, The Warriors debuted in February 1979 with The Wanderers launching in July later that year.
 

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Debut American film of American actress Mercedes Ruehl who plays a policewoman. The movie was though actually the second feature film for Ruehl whose one previous picture had been the Brazilian movie "Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands" [Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands].
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According to the film's composer Barry De Vorzon, the picture was the first movie, bar the film's closing song, to feature an entire music score of synthesized rock 'n' roll music.
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One of two 1979 "gang movies" which both films had similar titles to each other. The other film was The Wanderers.
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Third of seven cinema film collaborations of producer Lawrence Gordon and director Walter Hill.
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David Patrick Kelly also played a character named "Luther" in another Walter Hill movie 48 Hrs. made and released around three years later.
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Near the end of the movie, on the subway ride back to Coney Island, one of the passengers is played by a very young Debra Winger.
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The revolver that the Rogues gang leader, Luther (David P. Kelly) uses to assassinate Cyrus is a Smith & Wesson model 28 .357 magnum.
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Spoilers


The trivia item below may give away important plot points.

For the last shot in the film, where the vindicated Warriors and Mercy walk away along the Coney Island shoreline as the sun rises, Michael Beck and Deborah Van Valkenburgh were not told when to stop walking. Van Valkenburgh became irritated because they noticed they had reached a point where they were out of the cameras' ranges. But when they went back, they found out that the cast and crew had done this so they could bring out a huge bouquet of roses which they then presented to a surprised Van Valkenburgh.
 

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Differences between the novel and film
  • The film focuses on nine members of a Coney Island street gang actually named the Warriors; their names are Ajax, Cleon, Cochise, Cowboy, Fox, Rembrandt, Snow, Swan and Vermin. They are racially mixed. The novel focuses on seven members of a Coney Island youth gang named the Coney Island Dominators; their names are Papa Arnold, Bimbo, Dewey, Hector, Hinton, The Junior and Lunkface. All are either black or Hispanic. Director Walter Hill wanted the Warriors to be an all-black gang but Paramount vetoed that idea.
  • Throughout the novel, the character The Junior reads from a comic book, a classic-comics version of the story Anabasis by Xenophon, on which the book is loosely based. There is no reference to that story in the film (except in the ultimate director's cut), although the film's plot line is much closer to the plot line of Anabasis than the novel. Walter Hill originally wanted a comic-styled introduction and transitions, but Paramount rejected.
  • The Warriors' gang uniform consists of a red-orange pleather vest embroidered with the Warriors' logo on the back: a death's head with an Indian war bonnet shaped like eagle wings. The gang has an overall Native American theme, which is accented by the Indian-style bead necklaces and armbands worn by some members. The Dominators' uniform consist of black chino pants, high-topped black shoes, "short" jackets that are "monkey-jacket" tight (except for Bimbo, who wears a raincoat in order to carry the gang's "supplies"), and hats bearing both their "war cigarettes": black-papered, hand-rolled cigarettes put in the hat brims that signify the gang's current status (at war, at peace, etc.), depending on their position, and the gang's insignia: Mercedes-Benz symbols which the gang has broken off of cars and converted into pins in their wood-shop class.
  • The Warriors never directly kill anybody, even in self-defense; the Dominators murder an innocent bystander just for looking at them. (It should be noted, however, that the Warriors kill many gang leaders in the video game, as the game is much more violent in tone).
  • Rembrandt (Warriors) and Hinton (Dominators) share the role of the artist in their respective gangs; however, they have totally different personalities. Rembrandt is portrayed as being level-headed but weak when it comes to fighting, whereas Hinton is a lot braver and has a rep for going "psycho" every now and then. Hinton ends up being the focal point of the novel.
  • In the film, the Warriors encounter a gang called the Orphans who try to prove they're tough by showing the Warriors newspaper articles of incidents and crimes done by their gang. In the novel, the Dominators encounter a gang called The Borinquen Blazers and exchange newspaper articles with them of their doings in an attempt to avoid trouble from the gang.
  • In the film, the gang conclave (assembly) is called by Cyrus and the Gramercy (Manhattan) Riffs; in the novel, the conclave is called by Ismael Rivera, whose gang's name is the Delancey Thrones. The name Cyrus is an allusion to Cyrus the Younger, the character in the Anabasis on whom Ismael is based.
  • In the film, Cyrus is shot and killed by Luther, leader of the Rogues, who then blame the Warriors (because Fox caught Luther in the act); Luther later states he killed Cyrus for no reason, adding "I just like doing stuff like that!". In the novel, when Ismael's conclave is broken up by the police, several of the gangs take it for a trap; their leaders pull guns (which was to serve as a peace offering to Ismael and the Thrones) and shoot Ismael, a less nihilistic reason for his death.
  • The Dominators are all aged from 14 to 16. The Warriors' ages are never specified (although most of the actors playing them were, at the time, in their twenties).
  • Both the Warriors and the Dominators have themes to their gangs, however they are very different. The Warriors have a Native American theme, scalling their leader and second-in-command Warlord and Warchief respectively and some members (such as Cochise) wearing Native American necklaces and jewellery, whereas the Dominators base their gang on a family, calling their leader and second-in-command Father and Uncle respectively. The rest of the Dominators are "brothers" to each other, with the third in command being "Eldest Son".
  • In the film, a girl called Mercy (Deborah Van Valkenburgh) leaves the Orphans and follows the Warriors after their encounter. Mercy and Swan start up a romance. In the novel, a girl who was with the Borinquen Blazers decides to follow the Dominators after an encounter, however the Dominators end up gang-raping her and leaving her behind. In both of these situations, the girl initially tries to stir up the Warriors/Dominators by asking for a piece of their clothing. Mercy (the Orphans' girl) asks for a Warriors' vest, and the Blazers' girl asks for a Dominators' pin. In the film, Swan threatens to have the gang "run a train" on Mercy at one point (a possible reference to the novel).
  • Both the Warriors and the Dominators get split up into three separate parties at West 96th Street. One party (Hector, Lunkface and Bimbo) heads toward Riverside Park; another (Dewey and Junior) jumps onto another train; the third (Hinton) enters a subway tunnel.
  • The Dominators never encounter a rival gang that they have to fight, as they spend the bulk of the novel on the subway, which is neutral territory, whereas the Warriors get into multiple violent situations.
  • After the Warriors (in the film) fight and defeat a rival gang named the Baseball Furies, one of them, Ajax (James Remar), attempts to rape a woman (Mercedes Ruehl) who turns out to be an undercover cop. She handcuffs him to a bench and arrests him. The Baseball Furies do not appear in the novel; instead, three of the Dominators: Hector, Lunkface, and Bimbo attempt to rape an aging, alcoholic nurse, who has all of them arrested.
  • Six of the Warriors make it home; only four of the Dominators make it home. However, in both cases, three members are lost.
  • The film's ending promises the potentiality of happiness (but after the ending, in the game it is shown that the Warriors are both happy about their heavy rep on the news and sad about Cleon's and Fox's deaths), but the novel's ending shows the coming of age for the now broken Dominators.
  • In the novel, at Grand Central Station, Hinton plays an arcade game of "shoot it out with the sheriff", consisting of a moving mannequin sheriff and a fake gun (which the player must draw before the sheriff does). Hinton plays this game a few times, indicating his hatred and rejection of authority in general. In the film, Swan (Michael Beck), at the Union Square station, is being tailed by a rival gang (called the 'Punks' in the films credits), and, acting nonchalant, stops in front of a nearby arcade, standing right next to a "shoot it out with the sheriff" arcade game. This was possibly director Walter Hill's tip-of-the-hat to the novel.
  • In the film, Warlord Cleon (leader of The Warriors) is jumped and (apparently) beaten to death by the Gramercy Riffs while checking on the dead body of Cyrus after Luther (David Patrick Kelly), who really shot Cyrus, blames the murder on The Warriors after Fox (Thomas G. Waites), one of the Warriors, saw him do it. In the book, Papa Arnold (leader of the Dominators) is also jumped for checking out Ismael's dead body but it is revealed at the end of the novel that he made it back "hours ago" before the three remaining members of the gang (Hinton, Dewey, and The Junior).
 
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