| Native Name: | Alarm für Cobra 11 – Die Autobahnpolizei |
| Genre: | Action, crime drama, police procedural |
| Runtime: | 45 minutes 90 minutes (pilot movies) |
| 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 |
| Composer: | Reinhard Scheuregger Klaus Garternicht Nik Reich & Jaro Messerschmidt Kay Skerra Daniel Freundlieb Frederik Wiedmann Justin Burnett Maximilian Nieberle |
| Country: | Germany |
| Network: | RTL Television |
| Last Aired: | present |
| Language: | German |
| Num Seasons: | 50 |
| Num Episodes: | 387(list of episodes) |
(pronounced as /de/; "Alarm for Cobra 11 – The Highway Police") is a long-running, popular German television series about a two-man team of highway police (Autobahnpolizei), originally set in Berlin and since 1999 in the area of Cologne. 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 the COVID-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 performed stuntwork, 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 Autobahn). 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 in Berlin, notably in the site of the former Checkpoint Bravo and in the surrounding state of Brandenburg.[2] In 1998, Action Concept took over as the sole production company and shifted all filming/production work to its headquarters in Hürth just south of Cologne. Since then, episodes have been shot in and around Cologne and Düsseldorf 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 of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW).
See main article: List of Alarm für Cobra 11 – Die Autobahnpolizei characters.
See main article: List of Alarm für Cobra 11 – Die Autobahnpolizei episodes.
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 is Crash Time 5: Undercover. Crash Time was also dubbed into English and sold in many other markets worldwide.
In 2002, a spin-off named (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 show World's Wildest Police Videos, alongside Der Clown and one crash from Die Wache.