Hey, action fans, are you sick of non-stop gunplay in your movies? Love the stunts, hate the gore? Well, your lucky day is here.

Daylight signals the start of a mini-revival for disaster movies, a genre bled dry by rip-offs of The Towering Inferno and The Poseidon Adventure. But this new yarn about survivors of a tunnel collapse shows that it is still possible to deliver heart-stopping action, stunts and special effects without an Uzi in sight.

The movie briefly introduces a dozen or so characters who wind up driving west out of New York when a bizarre accident touches off an explosion that sends a fireball rushing through the tunnel and collapses both openings.

It's a stunner, as gripping as the attack scenes in Independence Day, and it sets the pace for the rest of the film's bang-up action.

Sylvester Stallone plays Kit Latura, a former emergency services chief fired after a fatal misjudgment, who happens to be nearby when the tunnel blows. The confusing story about Kit's disgrace and troubled relations with the powers-that-be is the weakest element of the movie, but it fades after he sells authorities on letting him break into the tunnel.

That feat provides a sequence of astonishing suspense as Kit threads his way through four giant exhaust fans about to trip back to full speed. Throughout the film, such knockout stunts alternate with the survivors' mental fight with despair and panic.

For all his physical derring-do, Kit is so humbled by guilt that he has no taste for combat. When, for various reasons, characters say things along the lines of ''You can't tell us what to do!,'' his response is always ''You're right, you're right, but please just listen.''

It's appealing -- and refreshing -- to see Mr. Stallone play a non-violent character in a story that puts a premium on overcoming fear and discord for the sake of group survival.

The story does slip into some Poseidon-ish cliches (an underwater swim to safety, for example), and the supporting cast could have been a little stronger. But all in all, the movie sets a high standard for disaster flicks yet to come.