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| Alarm for Cobra 11 – The Highway Police | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Alarm für Cobra 11 – Die Autobahnpolizei | |
| Genre | Action Crime drama Police procedural |
| Starring | Johannes Brandrup Rainer Strecker Almut Eggert Erdoğan Atalay Mark Keller René Steinke Christian Oliver Gedeon Burkhard Tom Beck Vinzenz Kiefer Daniel Roesner Katja Woywood Katrin Heß Niels Kurvin Daniela Wutte Pia Stutzenstein |
| Composers | Reinhard Scheuregger Klaus Garternicht Nik Reich & Jaro Messerschmidt Kay Skerra Daniel Freundlieb Frederik Wiedmann Justin Burnett Maximilian Nieberle |
| Country of origin | Germany |
| Original language | German |
| No. of seasons | 28 |
| No. of episodes | 381(list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Running time | c. 45 minutes c. 90 minutes (pilot movies) |
| Production companies |
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| Original release | |
| Network | RTL |
| Release | 12 March 1996 (1996-03-12) – present |
Alarm für Cobra 11 – Die Autobahnpolizei (German pronunciation:[aˈlaʁmfyːɐ̯ˌkoːbʁaːˈʔɛlfdiːˈʔaʊtobaːnpoliˌtsaɪ];Alarm for Cobra 11 – The Highway Police) is a long-running, popular German television series about a two-man team ofhighway police (Autobahnpolizei), originally set inBerlin and since 1999 in the area ofCologne. The series has been broadcast in 120 countries worldwide.
The last regular episode "Das Team" aired on 12 August 2021. In an interview, main star Erdoğan Atalay blamed the stoppage on theCOVID-19 pandemic. In 2022, the series returned in the form of 90-minute TV movies.[1]
The tasks of the Cobra 11 team consist primarily in solving crimes and catching the perpetrators. Typical elements of the action genre are mixed, so that there are regular car crashes, shootouts, explosions and fistfights. These action scenes are elaborately produced in most cases, and appropriately presented in a spectacular way. The high number of unrealistic scenes is a common criticism of the series; for example, large explosions often happen after small collisions while people emerge unharmed out of cars which have sustained catastrophic damage.
The series is known for its extremely well performedstuntwork, which features the destruction of various vehicles in every episode. Almost every episode has a distinct structure, with at least one daring action sequence and the pre-title sequence usually consisting of the main event (i.e. a devastating crash on the motorway, a high-speed run before a terrible conflagration, etc...). The stuntwork is often so spectacular that it would not look out of place in a full-fledged movie, with cars commonly reaching implausible heights as they vault through the air.
From 1996 to 1998, the series was produced jointly by Polyphon Film- und Fernsehgesellschaft GmbH (responsible for all other production aspects such as filming/postproduction/location scouting etc.) and ActionConcept (stunts). Those episodes were shot inBerlin, notably in the site of the formerCheckpoint Bravo and in the surrounding state ofBrandenburg.[2] In 1998, Action Concept took over as the sole production company and shifted all filming/production work to its headquarters inHürth just south ofCologne. Since then, episodes have been shot in and around Cologne andDüsseldorf as well as on several major Autobahnen (A540/A44 and now mainly on the Filmautobahn Aldenhoven near Düren[3]) between Cologne and Düsseldorf in the state ofNorth Rhine-Westphalia (NRW).
| Season | Episodes | Originally released | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First released | Last released | |||
| 1 | 9 | March 12, 1996 (1996-03-12) | May 7, 1996 (1996-05-07) | |
| 2 | 6 | March 11, 1997 (1997-03-11) | April 15, 1997 (1997-04-15) | |
| 3 | 16 | October 14, 1997 (1997-10-14) | June 18, 1998 (1998-06-18) | |
| 4 | 16 | October 1, 1998 (1998-10-01) | May 6, 1999 (1999-05-06) | |
| 5 | 11 | December 16, 1999 (1999-12-16) | March 24, 2000 (2000-03-24) | |
| 6 | 11 | November 9, 2000 (2000-11-09) | May 31, 2001 (2001-05-31) | |
| 7 | 14 | November 8, 2001 (2001-11-08) | May 2, 2002 (2002-05-02) | |
| 8 | 14 | September 5, 2002 (2002-09-05) | April 10, 2003 (2003-04-10) | |
| 9 | 18 | September 11, 2003 (2003-09-11) | May 13, 2004 (2004-05-13) | |
| 10 | 18 | September 9, 2004 (2004-09-09) | March 31, 2005 (2005-03-31) | |
| 11 | 12 | September 15, 2005 (2005-09-15) | May 28, 2006 (2006-05-28) | |
| 12 | 20 | September 7, 2006 (2006-09-07) | May 10, 2007 (2007-05-10) | |
| 13 | 14 | September 20, 2007 (2007-09-20) | April 24, 2008 (2008-04-24) | |
| 14 | 15 | September 4, 2008 (2008-09-04) | April 9, 2009 (2009-04-09) | |
| 15 | 15 | September 3, 2009 (2009-09-03) | April 22, 2010 (2010-04-22) | |
| 16 | 13 | September 2, 2010 (2010-09-02) | April 14, 2011 (2011-04-14) | |
| 17 | 16 | September 15, 2011 (2011-09-15) | April 19, 2012 (2012-04-19) | |
| 18 | 15 | September 6, 2012 (2012-09-06) | April 18, 2013 (2013-04-18) | |
| 19 | 14 | October 17, 2013 (2013-10-17) | May 15, 2014 (2014-05-15) | |
| 20 | 15 | October 9, 2014 (2014-10-09) | April 30, 2015 (2015-04-30) | |
| 21 | 16 | September 10, 2015 (2015-09-10) | May 26, 2016 (2016-05-26) | |
| 22 | 20 | September 1, 2016 (2016-09-01) | May 18, 2017 (2017-05-18) | |
| 23 | 19 | September 14, 2017 (2017-09-14) | May 3, 2018 (2018-05-03) | |
| 24 | 18 | September 13, 2018 (2018-09-13) | June 6, 2019 (2019-06-06) | |
| 25 | 9 | September 12, 2019 (2019-09-12) | November 14, 2019 (2019-11-14) | |
| 26 | 6 | August 20, 2020 (2020-08-20) | September 24, 2020 (2020-09-24) | |
| 27 | 8 | July 29, 2021 (2021-07-29) | August 12, 2021 (2021-08-12) | |
| 28 | 3 | October 20, 2022 (2022-10-20) | November 3, 2022 (2022-11-03) | |
Ihr Revier ist die Autobahn (Their precinct is the motorway)
Ihr Tempo ist mörderisch (They work at break-neck speed)
Ihre Gegner: Autoschieber, Mörder und Erpresser (They're up against car thieves, killers, and extortionists)
Einsatz rund um die Uhr für die Männer von Cobra 11 (They're on call around the clock: the men of Cobra 11)
Unsere Sicherheit ist ihr Job (Our safety is their job).
Ihr Revier ist die Autobahn (Their precinct is the motorway)
Ihr Einsatz heißt: volles Tempo (Their mission: full speed)
Ihre Gegner von heute: extrem schnell und gefährlich (Their enemies today: extremely fast and dangerous)
Verbrechen ohne Limit – Jeder Einsatz volles Risiko (Crimes without limit – every job at full risk)
für die Männer von Cobra 11 (for the men of Cobra 11).
Ihr Revier ist die Autobahn. (Their precinct is the motorway)
Ihre Gegner: extrem schnell und gefährlich. (Their enemies: Extremely quick and dangerous)
Verbrechen ohne Limit. (Crimes without limit)
Jeder Einsatz – volles Risiko (Every job: at full risk)
für die Männer von Cobra 11. (for the men of Cobra 11)
Ihr Revier ist die Autobahn. (Their precinct is the motorway)
Ihre Gegner: extrem schnell und gefährlich. (Their enemies: Extremely quick and dangerous)
Volles Risiko (Extremely risky)
für die Männer von Cobra 11. (for the men of Cobra 11)
Episode 365 onwards features an all-new variation of the theme song, but lacks any opening preamble.
The series has also spawned numerous game releases in Europe, primarily for PC, but they have generally met with mixed receptions. The latest title isCrash Time 5: Undercover.Crash Time was also dubbed into English and sold in many other markets worldwide.
In 2002, a spin-off namedAlarm für Cobra 11 – Einsatz für Team 2 [de] (Alarm for Cobra 11 – Team Mission 2) was started. Because of its limited success, only two seasons were produced.
Some of the clips from season 1 to season 5 were used as crash test footage in the American reality television showWorld's Wildest Police Videos, alongsideDer Clown and one crash fromDie Wache.
