The Making of The Warriors: A Gritty, Nocturnal Odyssey Through 1970s New York
It’s June 26, 1978, and a film crew is preparing for the first night of what will be a gruelling two-month shoot. They aren’t on a Hollywood soundstage, and they haven’t closed off city streets with permits and security. Instead, they are deep in the heart of New York City, moving through real subway stations, dodging gang turf disputes, and working on one of the most challenging night shoots in cinema history.
No one could have predicted that The Warriors—a low-budget film without big-name stars—would become one of the most enduring cult films of all time. But it did, thanks to a combination of a visionary director, a relentless production team, and a cast that became a real gang of sorts. This is the story of The Warriors, a film that captured the raw energy of New York’s streets and turned a simple chase narrative into urban myth.
From a Bargain Bin to the Big Screen
The journey of The Warriors began in an unlikely place: a discount book rack in a second-hand bookstore. Producer Lawrence Gordon stumbled upon a coverless copy of Sol Yurick’s novel The Warriors, a gritty reimagining of Xenophon’s Anabasis—the ancient Greek tale of an army trying to fight its way home after a disastrous military campaign. The book struck a chord with Gordon, and he immediately called the publisher to buy the film rights out of his own pocket.
With the rights secured, Gordon approached Walter Hill, a director known for his love of streamlined action films. Hill was intrigued, seeing it as an opportunity to create a modern-day Western, but he was hesitant. “No studio will greenlight this,” Hill thought, because there were no major star roles. Instead, Hill and Gordon focused on another project, a Western called Last Gun. But when financing collapsed just weeks before production, they pivoted back to The Warriors—and suddenly, it was a go project. The catch? They had to start shooting immediately.
The Creative Vision: From Novel to Mythology
While the film was inspired by Yurick’s novel, Walter Hill didn’t want to make a strictly realistic gang movie. Instead, he wanted to embrace mythology and allegory, stripping away gritty realism in favour of a heightened, almost comic-book-like world.
Hill later explained:
“The novel is a bit more realistic in its portrait of the gang subculture. We essentially converted that realism and used the gang mainly as a convention to tell a different kind of story. The film sets up and works within its own fantasy world.”
This approach gave The Warriors a mythic quality, setting it apart from the traditional gang films of the era. It wasn’t meant to depict real gangs or real violence—it was a tribal adventure, a journey through the dark, neon-lit underworld of the city.
The Making of The Warriors in the Mean Streets of 1970s New York
New York in the late 1970s was a very different city from today. Crime was rampant, the subways were covered in graffiti, and gang culture was a real and dangerous presence. Unlike most Hollywood productions, which built sets for urban films, The Warriors was shot almost entirely on location, meaning the crew had to navigate the real dangers of the city.
Filming was done exclusively at night, a choice that made the film visually striking but physically exhausting. Every evening, the cast and crew gathered at the Gulf & Western Building near Columbus Circle before heading out for a twelve-hour shoot that ran until the early hours of the morning. This took a toll on everyone involved. Marcelino Sánchez, who played Rembrandt, later said:
“Sometimes I wondered if this was a motion picture or a marathon.”
The cinematographer, Andrew Laszlo, faced a unique set of challenges. Night-time shooting required careful lighting, but the city’s infrastructure often worked against them. Streetlights would automatically turn off when the crew’s own lights were set up, so they had to tape over the sensors to keep them illuminated. To create continuity, Laszlo suggested wetting the streets—not only for atmosphere but to avoid inconsistencies if it rained unexpectedly. This gave the film its distinctive reflective, neon-soaked look.
The Gangs of The Warriors
One of The Warriors’ most eye catching features is its gangs, each with its own elaborate look and theme. Walter Hill and producer Frank Marshall, both sports fans, incorporated sports uniforms and comic-book aesthetics into the gang designs.
• The Baseball Furies were inspired by KISS and a real gang called Second Base.
• The Lizzies, an all-female gang, were a nod to future gang culture, as all-female gangs were rare at the time.
• The Turnbull AC’s, with their menacing shaved heads, accidentally scared real New Yorkers when they visited a burger joint during a break in filming.
The opening “conclave” scene, featuring a massive meeting of New York’s gangs, required 1,000 extras, many of whom were real-life gang members. This added authenticity but also created tension on set. Some extras stole their costumes, forcing Paramount to offer a colour TV raffle in exchange for returned wardrobe items.
The scene where Cyrus is shot was particularly chaotic. Assistant director David O. Sosna used a “God microphone” to give instructions to the extras, while a stunt double had to stand in for Cyrus during his death scene because no one was willing to perform the dangerous backwards fall.
Danger on the Set
The Making of The Warriors in real gang territory wasn’t just an aesthetic choice—it was a genuine risk. Gangs in Coney Island, particularly The Homicides, were furious that fictional gangs were filming on their turf. To keep the peace, the crew paid a real gang called The Mongrels $500 a night to “protect” their film trucks.
Some cast members had frightening run-ins with local gangsters. During one scene, a gang watching from an apartment complex began shouting and throwing things at the crew because they hadn’t received a payout. In Harlem, armed guards were hired to protect the cast and crew.
Even nature proved dangerous. During a subway chase scene, Deborah Van Valkenburgh (Mercy) broke her wrist after a fellow actor accidentally held onto her too tightly. Later, Michael Beck unintentionally hit her in the face with a bat, sending her to the hospital for stitches.
The Film’s Controversial Release
When The Warriors was released on February 9, 1979, it opened at number one, outperforming several major studio films. Even President Ronald Reagan called Michael Beck to say how much he enjoyed it.
However, trouble quickly followed. The film’s original poster featured the tagline:
“These are the armies of the night. They are 100,000 strong. They outnumber the cops five to one. They could run New York City.”
This, combined with the film’s gang themes, led to real violence. Rival gangs attended screenings, and several fights and murders were linked to the film. In one week, a teenager was killed in Oxnard, California, another at a drive-in theatre in Palm Springs, and a Boston high school student was killed in a subway station after seeing the film.
Paramount pulled advertising, replaced the poster with a simple white background, and eventually withdrew the film from theatres, cutting its commercial run short. Despite this, it earned $22.5 million.
Despite this, The Warriors endured, becoming a cult classic that still resonates today. Its mix of myth, style, and gritty urban adventure continues to influence filmmakers and attract new fans. For the cast and crew, those 60 sleepless nights on the streets of New York forged a bond, much like the one shared by The Warriors themselves. It was a tough journey, but they made it home.
And, in the end, can you dig it?