Movies - No Way Out

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	Movies - No Way Out

The 1987 thriller No Way Out stars Kevin Costner, Gene Hackman, and Sean Young. The supermodel Iman has a role in the film. The supporting cast includes Will Patton, Howard Duff, George Dzundza and Jason Bernard. The film is a remake of The Big Clock
; both movies are based on The Big Clock, a novel by poet and novelist Kenneth Fearing. In addition to the Orion Pictures Corporation studio, filming locations were Annapolis, Maryland, Arlington, Virginia, Baltimore, Maryland, and Washington, DC, USA, as well as Auckland, New Zealand.

Tagline: Is it a crime of passion, or an act of treason?

The film features original music by the Academy Award-winning Maurice Jarre.

Plot summary

No Way Out is a government thriller about an officer wrongly accused of murder when the Secretary of Defense himself is the culprit trying to avoid a scandal by launching a top-secret cover-up.

The story revolves around an attempt by the very successful Defense Secretary, David Brice (Gene Hackman), to cancel a white elephant "Phantom Sub" project that has extremely powerful political backing. 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.

In order to shore up his office's position, Brice hires Lt. Cmdr. Tom Farrell (Kevin Costner), a Naval intelligence officer recently branded a "hero" in a very public fashion for actions at sea. Farrell is charged with liaising with the CIA in order to gather information about whether or not the Soviets really are working on such a project.

While at an official party soon after joining Brice, Farrell meets a beautiful young woman, Susan Atwell (Sean Young), and the two have a torrid affair. It is soon revealed that she has another lover, Brice. When Farrell learns of Atwell's affair with Brice, he comments "I work for him!", to which she sardonically replies "we both do".

Brice also learns of the affair, and accidentally murders Atwell in a fit of passion while trying to learn the name of her new lover. Ready to turn himself in, Brice is persuaded by his aide at the Pentagon to cover everything up and blame someone else.

In an attempt to deflect attention from himself, Brice claims her lover was in fact a Russian sleeper spy code-named "Yuri", thereby focussing all attention on an attempt to capture the spy. The CIA had created "Yuri" for cheap political points, and are quite amused when they learn the Pentagon has "fallen for it". Unknown to them, Brice is cleverly using their fiction to serve his own ends.

Ironically, unaware of his real role, Brice appoints Farrell to lead the investigation to find her lover. Farrell is thus placed in the position of attempting to find evidence that would implicate himself. The only major piece of forensic evidence in the case is the negative of a Polaroid of Farrell and Atwell on holiday together, although it requires lengthy processing to be useful. While this takes place, Farrell sets about re-directing attention back onto Brice. He does this by planting evidence that Brice gave Atwell a gift that was a government-registered present from another country, thereby linking Atwell and Brice.

The climax is a race between two pieces of evidence, the negative implicating Farrell, and a printout of the present's registration implicating Brice. Farrell wins the race, presenting the paper to Brice just as the image is becoming recognizable on the negative in another part of the Pentagon. Brice immediately puts the blame on his long-suffering aide, who commits suicide when he realizes he is being framed.

The movie ends with an extremely surprising plot twist, which is not even hinted at during the film.

After Brice's (unseen) downfall, Farrell is seen mourning at Atwell's grave when two "g-men" arrive and take him away for questioning. One of the interogators is, oddly, Farrell's landlord. After a few moments he starts talking to Farrell in Russian, and Farrell responds fluently. Farrell is, in fact, "Yuri", his landlord is his handler.

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Movies - No Way Out

Plot summary

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