No Way Out (1987)

Tom Farrell is offered a job within the Defence department under Brice, the secretary of defence. When the two begin seeing the same woman, Farrell is forced to do so quietly so that Brice doesn't know. When Brice finds that Susan is seeing another woman he accidentally kills her. In order to cover up Brice's involvement, his aide Pritchard engineers a theory that the "other man" in Susan's life was the one that killed her and that he is a legendary Russian spy. In order to keep control of the investigation, Farrell is put in charge of the investigation and is faced with clues that he knows will eventually lead to him. With the set-up closing in on him he must race against time to find a way out.

This is a remake of The Big Clock, with a modern political set-up. The story is well set-up with only some misgivings in the first 30 minutes where the roots for the story are developed. Once the real story starts it is very good and it moves with a real thrilling pace, building to two endings one very powerful and with a feeling of being trapped, and the second being a clever if not totally convincing twist. The feeling of being trapped and closed in on is very palatable and is very well conveyed for most of the film.

Costner is excellent here (a long time before his bubble burst) and Hackman brings his usual class. The standout role is Patton's smarmy, spin doctor homosexual Pritchard, he is truly excellent and manages to bring a sense of menace to a quite feminine role.

Overall an excellent thriller that is slow to start and has a low-key ending. The only problems are the slightly stretched plot and some of the action being unexplained (why do the covert-ops guys keep chasing Costner? I understood why for one of the chases but other ones just seem to happen for no reason). But 7 out of 10.

Fmovies: I've just hauled this off the shelf and watched it for the umpteenth time. Flawed though it is, I love it. The controversy amid reviewers is surprising to me; but perhaps I don't watch sufficient "thrillers" to have a list of expectations--which several folks seem to have found unfulfilled.

Spoilers: "No Way Out" is composed of one surprise after another...a series of surprises, if you will. From learning that Tom and Susan's original meeting was contrived by others to the shock of her murder, to the reappearance of the forgotten Polaroid negative, to the murder of the IT man and the final scene, with its suspense-filled last scene, I--as a repeat viewer--was constantly aware of Tom's reaction to every incident in the light of what the ending revealed to us....as well as what it did not. The last line, "let him go. He'll be back. He has nowhere else to go" is so poignant.

This is very early Costner. The work of a business administration major who suddenly decided he wanted to act. The subtleties in what I understand was only his second performance are astonishing. If you didn't like it, forget it. but if you did, I strongly recommend watching it at least three times.

No Way Out is a suspense movie set during the cold war. Political intrigue within the US government is the focus of the film. The politically powerful Brice accidentally kills his mistress. Things get out of hand and he decides to frame her other lover as a spy. He knows that she is seeing someone else but has no idea who. Farrel, her other lover, is the man assigned to her case. He realizes that the investigation will eventually expose him, and when the investigators begin using a computer to restore a partially developed polaroid of Farrel found in the dead girlÕs things he has a good idea of how much time he has. There are some tense moments as Farrel trys to expose Brice before he is caught. Also there are a string of neat twists at the end, which succeed in not being corny.

This is worth your time. I definitely recommend it for fans of military suspense or cold war movies.

No Way Out fmovies. I remember being in the theater with my friend, and she turned to me and said about Costner "He is just so good in this film" and I replied "He will be somebody someday." This was that kind of film. You felt the performances in your bones.

The film had that type of chemistry between all the major players. The plot would just seem like it was going to lag and then you get twisted around again. Three years later I went out and bought the script with a month's worth of money from my first job. I still have that script on my bookshelf. I also have had a copy of this film in my collection for the last 10 years.

Sean Young was still at her peak and the limousine scene is unforgettable. It is also proof that you can add sex in a movie without making the audience think they will be taking time away from the theme and plot of the movie. Will Patton of Remember the Titans was also starting his movie career and played his character of a "protect the Director at any cost" to a "T". Gene Hackman was Brice in this movie.

George Dzundza as the loyal friend, Iman as the South African caught in the middle of her friend's indiscretion and Chris D. as one of the "Contras" helped round out the supporting cast.

Roger Donaldson's direction really helped you feel the tense pace and the closed in feelings in the Pentagon.

I gave this film a 9 because it may be seen as outdated due to some cold war references.

Okay. The plot has more holes than the brain of a cow suffering from bovine spongiform disorder. So what? The whole movie is fast, palatable, and most important of all, not entirely insulting to the viewer. The story has already been described so I won't go into it except to say that it's an improvement over its source, "The Big Clock," and probably the novel that work was based on. It doesn't depend on special effects. There is only one car chase, ending in a foot race, and it's mercifully brief and doesn't end in an exploding fireball. In fact nothing ends in an exploding fireball. Tears of gratitude brim from my eyes, just being able to write that sentence.

There's a completely unnecessary plot twist at the very end that leaves final developments ambiguously open. But, that aside, and given a bit of effort at the suspension of disbelief, events hang together logically and build on one another. And we follow them tensely as one improbability leads to another. The movie has images that impress themselves on the viewer's perception, willy nilly, whole scenes and little bits of business.

We have, first of all, Kevin Costner as a naval officer all of us can identify with -- he's smart, heroic, handsome, virile, important, and looks very spiffy in his immaculate white uniform and shoes as he skips or runs full tilt through the sterile corridors of the Pentagon, pursued by devils or by two brainless thugs in dark suits, one of whom sprints in a more than usually awkward manner, his arms flapping gracelessly at his sides. Costner's acting. It's okay. He still sounds and looks like an innocent all-American surfer but he can't help that. Now and then he actually successfully projects the feelings and thoughts of his character. (I couldn't figure out what the gold badge on his uniform was; it looks like neither a submariner's dolphins nor an aviator's wings.) Sean Young -- wow! Has any body, I mean anybody ever been more classically assembled? Her face is full of good bone structure. It has no quirkiness. She's beautiful in the way a painting of a woman would be beautiful if you took a portrait artist, sat him down, and asked him to dream up a pretty woman and get it down on canvas. Her face is an operational definition of "conventional beauty." And it doesn't stop with her face. She exudes a kind of sensuality that seems unaware of its own appeal, only aware of its own needs. She's foxy in the most negligent kind of way, the kind of woman who might not draw the curtains at night -- not because she enjoys showing off but because she just doesn't care. She may not lay waste the countryside as an actress, but doesn't need to. And what she says is believable enough.

Gene Hackman is supposed to be a misled good guy. Yet he's guilty of, what?, would it be manslaughter? Womanslaughter? First-degree male chauvinist swinery? His character is supposed to be basically sympathetic, and he and the director play it that way, after establishing him as a politician unwilling to play along with the militarists in Congress. But he's pretty weaselly when you come right down to it -- begging Costner not to give him away, promising him anything -- promotions, better jobs, whatever. And in the end he seems willing to let all the blame fall on his assistant, Will Patton.

In many ways, it's Patton's movie. Patton is to Hackman more or less what Martin Landau was to James Mason in "North by Northwest," a jeal

In Washington, the Defense Secretary David Brice (Gene Hackman) has a political dispute with Senator William 'Billy' Duvall (Howard Duff) about the project of a submarine. He asks his adviser Scott Pritchard (Will Patton) to invite the Navy Lieutenant Commander Tom Farrell (Kevin Costner), who has become a national hero after rescuing a sailor during a storm, to join his team. Farrell meets Susan Atwell (Sean Young) in a party and they have a torrid love affair. Farrell learns that Susan is Brice's mistress but he falls in love with her. They spend a weekend together and when they return to Susan's apartment, Brice rings the bell. The upset Farrell leaves the apartment and sees Brice waiting for Susan. Brice has an argument with Susan and pushes her from the balcony. She falls on a glass table and dies. Brice panics and reports the accident to Pritchard. However, the Machiavellian chief of staff accuses the imaginary Soviet mole Yuri of murdering Susan. Farrell is assigned to lead the investigations to find the identity of Yuri, and gets in serious situation with the presence of witnesses of his weekend with Susan and the regeneration of a Polaroid photo that was found in Susan's apartment.

"No Way Out" is an excellent thriller of the 80's even when you see it for the fourth time. The impact of course is reduced, since the plot has one of the most unexpected conclusions, with a twist in the very end that was the motive of several discussions with friends, but it is still a great film. This is one of the best roles of Kevin Costner and Sean Young is incredibly beautiful and sensual. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Sem Saída" ("No Way Out")