Sylvester Stallone’s Greatest Cinematic Moment Was Showing Us How Ultimate Action Stars Eat Pizza

Sylvester Stallone in 'Cobra'

Speaking personally, I firmly believe that Cobra and Stallone’s performance as Lieutenant Marion "Cobra" Cobretti is the actor's greatest, most iconic, and most culturally significant role. It’s a bit of an underappreciated masterpiece, for sure, but as we’ve written in the past, Cobra can be traced as a launching point for the 80s and 90s “ultimate” era of action movies, which I and millions of fans hold dear to our hearts.

Parts awesome, parts cheesy, but always stylish and focused on pure cinema-ism through and through, Cobra showcases Stallone at the height of his action movie powers and almost single-handedly creates new character tropes in the process as Stallone’s lone wolf cop instantly becomes the standard that movies still copy today.

Yet, for all of its great fights, iconic one-liners, and genre-bending action and horror feats, there’s one scene from Cobra that might be the most iconic not just from the film itself, but from Stallone’s career.

How Real Men Eat Pizza

There’s a scene in Cobra where we see our hero, Stallone’s Cobra, a lone wolf cop, head back to his bachelor pad so we can see how this cool character lives. And, guess what, it’s exactly what you’d expect. Set against the picturesque backdrop of Los Angeles, with the beach and ocean visible from the window, Stallone’s Cobra doesn’t live a life of luxury; instead, he lives a life that’s there to get him ready for his next foe.

In typical 80s action style, Cobra keeps his shades on while inside and spends his free time cleaning his gun, watching news stories about his eventual bad guy target, and—of course—having a slice of “za” to sustain himself.

Except, instead of taking out a slice of leftover pizza and, you know, putting it on a plate and warming it up in a microwave, or even on a burner, which would still be manly and cool. Stallone’s Corba simply takes the leftover pizza in its box to his desk, where he, for whatever reason, cuts it with scissors before eating it with his leather gloves still on.

Action Movie Hero 101

While this might not have seemed too over-the-top at the time, it was certainly a glimpse of what action filmmakers of the era would ultimately focus on when designing their male leads for the next decade.

Tough, lonely, and always focused on the job, Stallone’s Cobra was the epitome of an '80s and '90s ultimate action movie hero. And, more so than any other scene perhaps, Stallone’s Cobra cutting a pizza with scissors and eating it while cleaning his gun did more to showcase what this character should look and act like than any other.