YMMV / Streets of Fire

• Alternative Character Interpretation: A popular fan theory about McCoy is that she's bisexual or a closeted lesbian, with reviewers noting her tough attitude and backstory about loving a man before she became a soldier could be seen as a euphemism for changing sexual preferences.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: The scenes with the Torchies dancer. There is no purpose in the plot as to why she has camera time. Every scene that shows her is her losing more of her clothes until she is in just her G-string.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: The Sorels are granted this thanks to helping Tom and the gang save Ellen from The Bombers. Billy gives them the opening to the concert in the end to give them a boost in their music careers.
• Evil Is Cool: Raven and the Bombers. Leather and bikes make for a very good combination, as does him being played by a young Willem Dafoe.
• Fashion-Victim Villain: Raven and his gang usually wear decent-looking biker clothes, but in the bar, Raven is wearing leather overalls with thick straps that show off most of his chest. He looks absolutely ridiculous.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: The film was very popular in Japan as the main characters - the wandering mercenary with a Hidden Heart of Gold, the sneering villain who leads an army, the beautiful temptress beloved by her hometown, the Cool Big Sis, The Lad-ette, the weak-yet-courageous tagalong - are uncommon in American fiction, but beloved elements of Japanese culture. A number of video games were inspired by the film, including Streets of Rage. More obviously, every rock and roll Idol Singer in anime is essentially Ellen Aim, the Trope Codifier being Bubblegum Crisis' Priss Asagiri.
• Magnificent Bastard: Tom Cody returns to his hometown of Richmond after receiving word his ex-girlfriend Ellen Aim has been kidnapped by the vicious Bombers gang. Tom gets word that Ellen's manager, her boyfriend Billy Fish, is willing to hire anyone to find her, and Tom accepts the deal. Using the ex-soldier McCoy, Tom tracks down Ellen to where she is being held hostage and saves her with McCoy's help. As he escapes, Tom shoots up the motorcycle gang's gas pumps, not before Raven Shaddock, the Bombers' leader, spots him. Arriving back in Richmond, Tom is given the money Billy promised him but throws it back at Billy's face and is warned by the police that Raven is looking for him. Tom decides to skip town with Ellen and McCoy but decides at the last moment to head back to fight Raven, with Tom coming out as the victor, promising to return should Ellen ever find herself in trouble again.
• Memetic Mutation: The opening Diner Brawl against the Roadmasters, particularly Cody repetitively bitch-slapping their leader. It has been spoofed, edited and simply used as a gif for nearly as long as there is internet.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • About halfway into the sledgehammer fight, the music turns really creepy.
  • Ellen's kidnapping at the beginning of the film has the Bombers storm onstage during the concert and kidnap her in front of the audience, and members who try to help are brutalized as the gang makes their escape and she screams for anyone to help her.
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • Bill Paxton. The film came out one year before his supporting role in Weird Science and two years before his supporting role in Aliens.
  • Deborah Van Valkenburgh, who plays Reva Cody, is Mercy from The Warriors, another Walter Hill film.
  • Robert Townsend. The film came before he struck it big with Hollywood Shuffle.
• Signature Scene: Ellen's stirring recital of "Nowhere Fast,", as the crowd euphorically claps along, oblivious to the ominous arrival of the bikers.
• Special Effect Failure: Clyde the Bartender has a dark front tooth after getting punched out by the bombers. It's apparently supposed to look like it's missing.
• Spiritual Successor: To director Hill's own film The Warriors, another film taking place in a gritty but stylized alternate reality overrun by gangs.
• Tear Jerker:
  • The ending has Tom choosing not to stay with Ellen, but he promises at the same time if she needs him for something, he'll be there. The lyrics of "I Can Dream About You" playing over the scene add to the moment, as do many of Ellen's resigned expressions in "Tonight Is What It Means To Be Young."
  But I can dream about you if I can't hold you tonight...
  • Ellen calling out Tom in the rain as she demands to know what she did to make him leave her the first time.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: The explosions!
• Vindicated by History: The film bombed hard in the box office, along with receiving lukewarm reviews from critics. But over the years, it first became a Cult Classic, and then, eventually, just a classic 80s action romper, with far better reception and recognition a few decades after its release.
• What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: When the movie came out, it was rated PG. In today's era, a movie getting a PG rating is suitable for kids with some material where adults should advise for. However, since the film had a later change to Rated R, it leads to this question...
• What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: Because the PG rating was given to the movie at a different time, it would be baffling for parents to show scenes of Torchies to their young kids. The scenes with the Torchies dancer stripping off her clothes to where she wears only a G-string is jaw dropping in itself. The movie rating was changed to Rated R in later years to let parents know this is not suitable for anyone under the age of 17. Though the irony of this is that there are no graphic deaths on screen throughout the whole film.

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