Streets of Fire is a movie which was released in 1984. According to some trivia in Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 1, this "Rock & Roll Fable" had an influence on Final Fight. The film stars Michael Paré (David in The Philadelphia Experiment), Diana Lane (Lorena in Lonesome Dove) and Willen Dafoe (Sergeant Elias in Platoon). Other cast members include Bill Paxton (Hudson in Aliens) and Rick Moranis (Louis in Ghostbusters). The film is a mixture of action, drama, comedy and music.

There aren't that many things to do with Final Fight in this, but there are a couple of things of interest. Both this movie and Final Fight share a similar plot: a gang of criminals captures a woman in a red dress, who is rescued by her lover (or ex in Streets of Fire's case).

The main character of Streets of Fire is Tom Cody, played by Michael Paré. Cody from Final Fight resembles Tom Cody a little bit. But there is one scene in the film which makes it more obvious:

There is a short fight scene near the start of Streets of Fire where Tom manages to take a knife off a punk twice, and spin it around in his hand. He's pretty good with knives. And what is Cody's best weapon in Final Fight? That's right, the knife!

Streets of Fire has a police chief called Ed (played by Richard Lawson) who everyone calls Eddie. In Final Fight, we have Edi. E, the boss of round 3. However, the Eddie in Streets of Fire isn't corrupt, and at the end of the film is rooting for Tom Cody to beat Raven. Meanwhile Edi. E is clearly working for the Mad Gear gang.

The big bad guy of the movie is Raven (played by Willen Dafoe). The outfit he's first seen in could be compared to Bred's clothes from Final Fight, although maybe that's pushing it a little bit.

Streets of Fire didn't do well at the box office, grossing just over $8 million from a budget of almost $15 million. It had been intended to be the first film in a trilogy for the Tom Cody character, but due to the first film not being a success, the sequels -titled The Far City and Cody's Return -were never made. However in 2008 an unofficial sequel, Road to Hell, was released, with Michael Paré once again playing Tom Cody.