The early supposition that "Daylight" is really just "Die Hard in a Tunnel" was wrong. It's "Indiana Jones and the Tunnel of Doom."
Sylvester Stallone stars, playing a former head of New York's top Emergency Medical Services team who was disgraced and fired a year earlier. Now he's driving a cab, and when a disaster occurs in an undersea tunnel linking Manhattan and New Jersey, Stallone just happens to be near the New York entrance.
And, of course, he's the only one who can save the few survivors trapped inside.
There are no overt "bad guys" in "Daylight," unless you count a number of bungling idiots - and city engineers who don't believe there are any survivors.
The film begins in the disaster-formula manner, introducing us one-by-one to various people from all walks of life who will be thrown together inside the tunnel when disaster strikes.
The disaster comes in the form of a truck, illegally transporting several barrels of toxic waste, which is hit by an out-of-control car driven by a bunch of young criminals who might look more comfortable in a "Mad Max" movie.
The subsequent explosion sets a river of fire rolling through the tunnel, burning most cars and their occupants to a crisp. But a few stalwart souls survive, simply by ducking below their cars' dashboards. The flames apparently overlooked them.
Among these are a volatile, unhappy family of three (Jay O. Sanders, Karen Young, Danielle Andrea Harris), a shoe-selling athlete (Vigo Mortenson), a failed playwright (Amy Brenneman), an on-the-job cop (Stan Shaw), an older couple with a dog that is like a child to them (Claire Bloom, Colin Fox) and several inmates who were en route to prison (led by Sage Stallone, son of the film's star).
Their reactions to the situation, of course, range from hysteria to stupidity, as the tunnel's infrastructure begins to collapse and the Hudson River begins seeping - and eventually, gushing - in.
The real star here is the special-effects team, and there are some sequences - most notably Stallone's attempt to traverse a series of huge fans - that are real nail-biters.
If ever there was a tribute to the '70s master of disaster Irwin Allen, this is it, with scenes that specifically bring to mind "The Poseidon Adventure," "The Towering Inferno" and "Earthquake."
"This is too much," Karen Young says with resignation when yet one more horrible event occurs. She's not kidding.
Stallone gives it an earnest go, but "Daylight" makes one major mistake that will probably prove to be its fatal flaw. The film is almost completely without humor. It is so humorless, in fact, that the audience will not likely return for repeat viewings, which is the nail in the coffin for big-budget action pictures.
While it's true the success of these movies hangs on their impossible cliffhanger escapes and wild-eyed stunt work, they also rely heavily on a sense of humor.
For example, if "Twister" had been too soap opera-serious in its plotting, chances are it never would have been the summer hit it became. But because the principal players in that film are cracking jokes, it relieves tension and allows the audience to laugh with the movie instead of at it.
"Daylight" has no such luck. It is so deadly earnest with its story of disparate personalities who must rely on each other to survive that a little levity would have gone a long way toward ingratiating audience sympathy.