Nighthawks is a 1981 thriller film starring Sylvester Stallone, Billy Dee Williams, Rutger Hauer, Lindsay Wagner, Persis Khambatta, and Nigel Davenport. It was directed by Bruce Malmuth. The original music score was composed by Keith Emerson.

The story revolves around the lives of two NYPD police detectives, Det. Sgt. Deke DaSilva (Sylvester Stallone, sporting a beard) and Det. Sgt. Matthew Fox (Billy Dee Williams) who work undercover, and a terrorist Heymar Reinhardt, alias Wulfgar (Rutger Hauer). In the prologue, set in the late night to early morning hours on New Year's Eve 1979, three armed assailants attempt a mugging on a supposedly unsuspecting woman, who turns out to be DaSilva in drag for a carefully planned sting operation. Fox immobilizes two of the suspects as Deke chases the third upstairs to the 174th Street (IRT White Plains Road Line) Subway Station platform and dares the man to cut him. Deke then incapacitates him and places him under arrest.

Nighthawks is a 1942 painting by Edward Hopper that portrays people sitting in a downtown diner late at night. It is Hopper's most famous work and is one of the most recognizable paintings in American art. Within months of its completion, it was sold to the Art Institute of Chicago for $3,000, and has remained there ever since.

Starting shortly after their marriage in 1924, Edward Hopper and his wife, Josephine (Jo), kept a journal in which he would, using a pencil, make a sketch-drawing of each of his paintings, along with a precise description of certain technical details. Jo Hopper would then add additional information in which the themes of the painting are, to some degree, illuminated.

A review of the page on which ‘’Nighthawks’’ is entered shows (in Edward Hopper’s handwriting) that the intended name of the work was actually ‘’Night Hawks’’, and that the painting was completed on January 21, 1942.

Jo’s handwritten notes about the painting give considerably more detail, including the interesting possibility that the painting's evocative title may have had its origins as a reference to the beak-shaped nose of the man at the bar:

A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects. The process of filmmaking has developed into an art form and industry.

Films are cultural artifacts created by specific cultures, which reflect those cultures, and, in turn, affect them. Film is considered to be an important art form, a source of popular entertainment and a powerful method for educating – or indoctrinating – citizens. The visual elements of cinema give motion pictures a universal power of communication. Some films have become popular worldwide attractions by using dubbing or subtitles that translate the dialogue into the language of the viewer.

Films are made up of a series of individual images called frames. When these images are shown rapidly in succession, a viewer has the illusion that motion is occurring. The viewer cannot see the flickering between frames due to an effect known as persistence of vision, whereby the eye retains a visual image for a fraction of a second after the source has been removed. Viewers perceive motion due to a psychological effect called beta movement.

Keith Noel Emerson (born 2 November 1944, Todmorden, West Yorkshire) is an English keyboard player and composer. Formerly a member of the Keith Emerson Trio, John Brown's Bodies, The T-Bones, The V.I.P.'s, P.P. Arnold's backing band, and The Nice (which evolved from P.P. Arnold's band), he was a founder of Emerson, Lake & Palmer (ELP), one of the early supergroups, in 1970. Following the breakup of ELP, circa 1979, Emerson had modest success with Emerson, Lake & Powell in the 1980s as well as with 3, with the album To the Power of Three. ELP reunited during the early 1990s, releasing the album Black Moon. Emerson also reunited The Nice in 2002 for a tour. His latest album, Keith Emerson Band featuring Marc Bonilla, was released in 2008.

Along with contemporaries Richard Wright of Pink Floyd, Tony Banks of Genesis, and Rick Wakeman of Yes, Emerson is widely regarded as one of the top keyboard players of the progressive rock era. Allmusic refers to Emerson as "perhaps the greatest, most technically accomplished keyboardist in rock history".

Jeffrey Jason "Jeff" Garcia (born February 24, 1970) is an American football quarterback who is currently a free agent. He played college football at San Jose State University.

A four-time CFL All-Star and four-time NFL Pro Bowl selection, Garcia began his professional football career with the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League (CFL) as an undrafted free agent in 1994. In 1999, Garcia debuted with the National Football League's San Francisco 49ers. Since 2003, he has also played for the Cleveland Browns, Detroit Lions, Philadelphia Eagles, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Oakland Raiders. In 2010, Garcia played for the Omaha Nighthawks of the United Football League.

Garcia attended Gilroy High School in Gilroy, California and was a letterman in football and basketball.

Garcia is one of only nine quarterbacks in NFL history who have achieved two consecutive thirty-touchdown passing seasons (2000 and 2001) at least one time in their career. The others are Steve Bartkowski, Drew Brees, Peyton Manning, Brett Favre, Dan Fouts, Dan Marino, Tom Brady and Y.A. Tittle. He is also one of only twelve quarterbacks to throw a 99 yard touchdown pass.