'No Way Out'
The Ringer's Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Sean Fennessey have no idea what men of power can do after rewatching the 1987 neo-noir action thriller 'No Way Out,' starring Kevin Costner, Gene Hackman, Sean Young, and Will Patton.
Cast
Kevin Costner as Tom Farrell / Yuri
Gene Hackman as David Bryce
Sean Young as Susan Atwell
Will Patton as Scott Pritchard
Iman as Nina
Fred Dalton Thompson as Senator Marshall
George Dzundza as Sam Hesselman
Directed by: Roger Donaldson
Written by: Robert Garland
Cinematography by: John Alcott
Music by: Maurice Jarre
Notes
- Costner's incredible 10-month run: he headlined 'The Untouchables', 'No Way Out', and Bull Durham in 10 months (1987-88), going from nobody to one of the eight biggest stars in Hollywood.
- All three hosts put the twist in the top tier of movie twists alongside 'The Sixth Sense', 'The Usual Suspects', and 'Primal Fear'. Sean argues it's the best because it completely reframes the movie on rewatch.
- 'Horny Hackman' is identified as a recurring character type across The Firm, 'No Way Out', Night Moves, Absolute Power, and Heartbreakers.
- Sean Young's tragic career arc is discussed – she was poised for major stardom after Stripes, Blade Runner, Dune, and 'Wall Street', but feuds with Beatty, Weinstein, and James Woods derailed her career.
- The Stoli clue: on rewatch, Costner's character ordering Stoli (a Russian vodka) straight up is an obvious hint at the twist that audiences missed in 1987.
- The podcast was partly inspired by a friend randomly watching 'No Way Out' on Tubi and texting Bill in real time, culminating with 'Whoa, he was a Russian.'
Categories
Quote from Rog's review:
“The more we know, the less we understand... that's the test of a good thriller.”
Ebert called it 'a superior example of the genre' and 'a terrifying jigsaw puzzle'
- The last 20 minutes – the Pentagon spy hunt leading to the reveal/twist ending
- The Hackman/Patton/Costner confrontation where Scott kills himself
- Polaroids as a major plot device
- Credit card records taking days to come back
- No surveillance video on streets
- The twist that the landlord is the Russian spymaster
- The slow-developing Polaroid as the countdown clock
- Costner and Young's chemistry
- Fred Dalton Thompson playing military-industrial complex characters
- The hysterical queer-coded villain trope with Will Patton's Scott Pritchard
- Sean Young's and Costner's haircuts
- The limo sex scene – corny music and confusing logistics
- The Manila bar sequence – 10 minutes that don't advance the plot
- Costner running down the checkerboard floor hallway of the Pentagon being chased
- The rack focus from Hackman to Costner waiting outside at night
Rod Stewart 'Do You Think I'm Sexy' cover at the first party
- The two assassins/henchmen – introduced as Delta Force but look like guys at a BBQ
- Scott shooting the wheelchair guy in the Pentagon gym – 'Nobody's hearing the gunshots in the Pentagon?'
- Sean: No Way Out has the superior movie twist of the 80s/90s – it's the daddy of Usual Suspects, Sixth Sense, Primal Fear
- Bill misses Russian spies as clearly identifiable movie villains
- Michelle Pfeiffer turned down Susan Atwell
- Mel Gibson and Patrick Swayze allegedly turned down Tom Farrell
- Gary Oldman, Alec Baldwin, James Spader considered for Scott Pritchard
Will Patton as Scott Pritchard – 'You have no idea what men of power can do!' They discuss renaming the overacting award after him.
- Iman – striking, works at a mall, in three scenes, no real reason to be in the movie
- Fred Dalton Thompson
- Dennis Burkley as the boat rental guy
- DC film noir – yes, probably apex mountain
- Kevin Costner – no, this is part of his incredible 86-93 run but not the peak
- Will Patton – no, Remember the Titans is his apex
Two chase scenes, sprinting, throwing himself onto a car hood – Costner wore Navy whites 5 years before Cruise did in A Few Good Men
- Susan breaks her neck and dies instantly from an 8-foot fall into a coffee table
- The Polaroid shows Tom's arms in a different position than during the actual scene
- The Yuri framing plan is cooked up impossibly fast
- The limo sex scene was somewhat improvised; the window-up moment was improvised by the driver
- Costner rolled over the hood of a moving car and got yelled at by everyone
- Susan's house is on the corner of Queen and Union streets in Alexandria, VA
- All agree it would make a really good prestige TV show, compared to the Presumed Innocent TV adaptation
- Chris pitches a sequel: Yuri living in America after the Soviet Union falls in 1991
- American Flyers first, then No Way Out – the before-and-after of Costner as a star
- The Big Clock (1948 original) or Presumed Innocent (1990)
- Why didn't the Russians extract Tom once he's compromised?
- Why didn't Iman just rat out Tom?
The jewel box that Hackman's character gives Susan
- Don't have a gumar
- Don't trust anyone who might seem like a Russian – 'Has Kevin Costner ever in his life seemed like a Russian? That's why the movie's great.'
Kevin Costner – unanimously
Craig was blown away by the twist, found Sean Young to be a weak point ('zero appeal'), thought the first 30 minutes were 'actively bad' but the movie gets better every minute. Believes Will Patton 'could have been the Joker.'