Sylvester Stallone Had A Cameo In John Travolta's Awful Saturday Night Fever Sequel
When John Badham's "Saturday Night Fever" grossed $282.4 million in theaters worldwide against a $3.5 million budget following its release in 1977, a sequel was a foregone conclusion. Producers Robert Stigwood and Norman Wexler got right on it, and, fortunately, newly-minted movie star John Travolta was down to return as the dance-loving Tony Manero. Unfortunately for the film's producers, however, Travolta had significant leverage in determining the direction of the sequel, and he didn't like their initial idea. About all they agreed on was the title: "Staying Alive."
The bone of contention was the portrayal of Tony. In the first movie, he's a complete jerk until the final scene. While there's no denying he's a talented disco dancer, how far can that talent really take him? Stigwood and Wexler didn't envision a promising future for Tony, which bothered Travolta. As a result, the project was dead until 1981, when Travolta landed on the idea of Tony becoming a Broadway dancer (via The New York Times). Wexler wrote a new screenplay that found Tony landing a gig as a chorus dancer, but, again, that wasn't good enough for Travolta. He wanted Tony to hit it big.
It was around this time that Travolta, a fan of Rocky Balboa himself, Sylvester Stallone, saw 1982's "Rocky III" and was dazzled by its energy (as he should've been because "Rocky III," with its exhilarating ending, is the most entertaining movie ever made). Travolta wanted "Staying Alive" to mimic the sizzling verve of Stallone's film, and he asked Stigwood and Paramount to find a director who could approximate this. Paramount did him one better: it hired Stallone. And while Stallone didn't want a role in the movie, he did give himself an Alfred Hitchcock-style cameo, bumping into Travolta during a New York City street scene.
Is Sylvester Stallone playing himself in Staying Alive?
Sylvester Stallone was coming off arguably the most triumphant year of his career when he agreed to direct "Staying Alive." On top of "Rocky III" becoming a blockbuster, 1982 saw the release of "First Blood," which was a big enough success to suggest that Stallone's version of the John Rambo character had franchise potential. John Travolta, on the other hand, was smarting from the box office disappointment of Brian De Palma's masterpiece "Blow Out." He wasn't exactly desperate for a hit, but a bounce-back would be nice.
The good news is that "Staying Alive," which finds Tony becoming the star of an adrenalized, dance-centric Broadway musical called "Satan's Alley," delivered commercially, grossing $126 million at the global box office against a $22 million budget. The bad news is that it's the antithesis of "Saturday Night Fever." Tony has been transformed into a good-hearted lunkhead à la Rocky Balboa, and the whole film devolves into a production of "Satan's Alley" that plays like a glam-tastic prize fight.
Critics absolutely savaged "Staying Alive" (it currently holds a 3% Tomatometer rating on Rotten Tomatoes), but it's a disastrously wrongheaded blast for most of its runtime. And, if nothing else, it did give us Frank Stallone's supercharged hit single "Far from Over." I just have one question: Is Sly playing himself in that street scene? Because when Tony looks back at him, then walks forward, he seems jazzed that he just encountered a movie star. Someone needs to solve this mystery.