No Way Out is a 1987 thriller film about a U.S. Naval officer investigating a Washington, D.C. murder. It stars Kevin Costner, Gene Hackman and Sean Young. It is a remake of The Big Clock; both films are based on The Big Clock, a novel by Kenneth Fearing.
The supporting cast includes Will Patton, Howard Duff, George Dzundza, Jason Bernard, Fred Thompson and Iman. Brad Pitt appears (uncredited) as an officer at a party; this was Pitt's first movie role.
In addition to the Orion Pictures Corporation studio, filming locations were Annapolis, Maryland; Arlington, Virginia; Baltimore, Maryland and Washington, D.C., as well as Auckland, New Zealand.
The film features original music by the Academy Award-winning Maurice Jarre.
Plot
At a Presidential inaugural ball, U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander Tom Farrell meets a young woman, Susan Atwell. The two immediately plunge into a sexual encounter in a moving limousine in Washington, D.C. and subsequently begin an affair, although Atwell is involved with someone else.
During his next Naval deployment to the Pacific, Farrell rescues a sailor from his ship during a storm and becomes the hero of the hour. He is brought back to Washington to work for David Brice, the U.S. Secretary of Defense, who is aware that his aide Scott Pritchard is an old friend of Farrell's.
Brice is attempting to cancel a white elephant "Phantom Sub" project that has powerful political backing, particularly from Senator Billy Duvall. The primary reason the project has lasted as long as it has are continuing stories that the Soviets are working on a similar project. Brice considers the stories to be fabrications made solely to keep the project alive, along with the pork barrel money it creates.
Brice decides that Farrell should act as his liaison between the CIA and Secretary of Defense's office. The real purpose is to gather information about whether the Soviets really are working on such a project.
Farrell finds out that the other man in Atwood's life is Brice. When he comments, "I work for him!" she sardonically replies, "Then that makes two of us."
Brice in turn learns of Atwell's infidelity. While demanding the name of her new lover, he slaps Atwell in a fit of rage and accidentally kills her by knocking her off a balcony.
Ready to turn himself in, Brice is persuaded by Pritchard to cover up everything and blame it on someone else. They concoct a story that claims her lover was in fact a KGB "mole" (a sleeper agent) code-named "Yuri," thereby focusing all attention on an attempt to capture him.
Confident that "Yuri" doesn't exist, CIA Director Marshall dismisses the possibility of it being Pritchard having an affair with Atwell, aware that Pritchard is gay.
Brice appoints Farrell to lead the investigation to find her lover. Farrell is thus placed in the position of attempting to find evidence that could implicate himself.
The only major piece of forensic evidence in the case is a badly damaged Polaroid negative recovered from Atwell's house, which requires lengthy computerized digital processing to become useful. While the processing takes place, Farrell sets about re-directing attention back onto Brice. He does this by searching government printouts for evidence that Brice gave Atwell a gift that was a government-registered gift from another country.
Farrell pleads with systems analyst Sam Hesselman, an old friend, to slow down the processing and confides in him. A suspicious Sam goes to Pritchard with concerns about what Farrell told him. Pritchard promptly kills the analyst. He also harasses Nina Beka, a friend of Atwell's, by threatening deportation back to South Africa and sending covert security officers to "take care of" her. Farrell comes to Nina's rescue just in time.
A race develops between two pieces of evidence —- the processing of the picture implicating Farrell and a printout of the gift's registration implicating Brice. Farrell obtains the printout and presents the evidence to Brice just as his likeness becomes recognizable on the computer screens. Brice, unaware of this last fact, shifts the blame to Pritchard, arguing that Pritchard was "jealous" of Atwell (thus implying that Pritchard was in love with Brice). Pritchard, feeling betrayed, commits suicide with a pistol shot to his head.
The story ends with a surprising plot twist. Farrell is seen mourning at Atwell's grave when two unknown men arrive and take him away for questioning. One of the interrogators is, oddly, Farrell's landlord. After a few moments he starts talking to Farrell in Russian and Farrell responds in kind. Farrell is, in fact, the real "Yuri," and his landlord is his KGB supervisor and handler. Yuri/Farrell was planted in the U.S. as a young man, attended college there, and received an officer's commission as a US Naval officer. There, he became the "mole" in the Department of Defense.
It turns out the KGB was aware of the ongoing affair between Brice and Atwell. In response, Farrell was assigned to seduce Atwell, hoping to gather intelligence from the Secretary of Defense's mistress.
Cast
Edits
The original working title of the movie was Deceit.
In dismissing the suggestion that Scott Pritchard was the one having the affair with Susan Atwell, CIA Director Marshall states that Pritchard is a homosexual, to which someone says, “I’ll be damned” and Marshall replies, “So is he, if you believe in the Bible.” This statement was later edited so that Marshall says, “So is he, if you believe in the Old Testament.”
References in popular culture
- In the Family Guy episode "To Love and Die in Dixie", Chris Griffin remarks that he, "hasn't been [this] confused since the end of No Way Out," at which point it cuts to a scene where Chris is exiting a theater with No Way Out on the marquee, and Chris remarks, "How does Kevin Costner keep getting work?"
- In the NCIS episode "Faking It", Special Agent Tony DiNozzo compares the convoluted plot of the criminal to that of No Way Out, by suggesting that Officer Ziva David rent the film after she expresses admiration for the deftness of his manipulation of the situation.
External links
