Editing Cobra (1986 film) (section)

===Development and writing===
When Sylvester Stallone was signed to play the lead in ''Beverly Hills Cop'', he decided to rewrite the script almost completely, removing nearly all the comedic aspects and turning it into an action movie that he felt was better suited to him. The studio read his revised script and rejected it.<ref>{{cite web |title=Round Two With Stallone: Rocky, Beverly Hills Cop, Rambo 4, Elvis, Poe, Horror, Incredibles 2 &... |url=http://legacy.aintitcool.com/node/30865 |website=Aint It Cool News}}</ref> The proposed action scenes would have increased the budget far beyond what they planned.<ref name="Cronin">{{cite web |date= January 16, 2013 |first=Brian |last=Cronin |title=Movie Legends Revealed: Sly Stallone as Axel Foley? |url=https://www.cbr.com/movie-legends-revealed-sly-stallone-as-axel-foley/ |website=CBR |access-date=January 1, 2021}}</ref> Stallone later channeled his ideas for it into an original script.<ref name="Rabin">{{cite web |date=September 12, 2014 |last=Rabin |first=Nathan |author-link=Nathan Rabin |title=Cobra gave 1986 the Dirty Harry knockoff it deserved |url=https://thedissolve.com/features/forgotbusters/749-cobra-gave-the-1980s-the-dirty-harry-knockoff-it-d/ |work=The Dissolve |access-date=June 3, 2016}}</ref> When Stallone left ''Beverly Hills Cop'', [[Eddie Murphy]] was brought in to play the lead role.<ref>{{cite episode |title=I Took Over A Role From Someone Else And Now I'm Famous |url=http://www.thebiographychannel.co.uk/shows/the-role-that-changed-my-life/series-one/episode-guide.html |url-status=dead |access-date=December 14, 2010 |series=The Role That Changed My Life |season=1 |number=4 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101201164810/http://thebiographychannel.co.uk/shows/the-role-that-changed-my-life/series-one/episode-guide.html |archive-date=December 1, 2010}}</ref>

The novel ''A Running Duck'' by [[Paula Gosling]] was cited as source material, enough so that she received a screen credit.

Sylvester Stallone's earlier draft of the script contained many differences from later drafts and the final film. These include the opening shootout taking place in a movie theater (instead of a supermarket), during which many more people are killed; Cobra mentioning how he had a girlfriend who was killed by a psychopath he was trying to catch; an additional nighttime action sequence on a boat where Cobra and Ingrid are hiding and are attacked by the Night Slasher's cultists, with Cobra and Gonzalez managing to kill them all; and a different ending, in which Monte, revealed to be the actual leader of the New World, attempts to kill Ingrid at the last second before being killed by Cobretti.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://rawrvintageisclassic.blogspot.mx/2014/05/first-draft-screenplay-of-cobra.html |title=First Draft Screenplay of Cobra. |website=rawrvintageisclassic.blogspot.com |date=May 20, 2014 |access-date=September 11, 2016}}</ref>

The line, "This is where the law stops and I start, sucker!", was inspired by a line spoken by [[Steve McQueen]] in ''[[The Reivers (film)|The Reivers]]''.<ref name="Siskel-1986-05-18">{{cite web |date=May 18, 1986 |author=Gene Siskel |author-link=Gene Siskel |title=STALLONE WIELDS A PEN WITH RAMBONIAN POWER |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1986-05-18-8602040747-story.html |website=ChicagoTribune.com }}</ref>

''Cobra'' needed much additional editing because the film was so graphically violent that it originally received an X rating. It was edited to receive an R rating.