No Way Out (1987 film)

No Way Out is a 1987 American neo-noir action thriller film directed by Roger Donaldson and starring Kevin Costner, Gene Hackman, Will Patton, and Sean Young. Howard Duff, George Dzundza, Jason Bernard, Fred Thompson, and Iman appear in supporting roles. The film is based on the 1946 novel The Big Clock by Kenneth Fearing, previously filmed as The Big Clock (1948) and Police Python 357 (1976).

Plot
In a house near the Pentagon, Lieutenant Commander Tom Farrell of the Office of Naval Intelligence is under interrogation, asked how he came to meet Secretary of Defense David Brice.

Six months earlier, Farrell is invited to an inaugural ball by his college buddy Scott Pritchard, who introduces him to his boss, Secretary Brice. Farrell meets Susan Atwell, and they begin an affair just before he ships out for the Philippines. After Farrell risks his life to save a shipmate at sea, Brice hires him to act as his eyes and ears within the CIA. Returning to Washington, D.C. for his new post, Farrell reunites with his old landlord, and his friend Sam Hesselman, who works in the Pentagon's new computer center.

Atwell and Farrell's affair continues, even after she reveals she is also Brice's mistress. After they return from a romantic weekend, Brice visits unexpectedly, forcing Farrell to slip away. Suspicious that Atwell has another lover, an enraged Brice accidentally pushes her over an upstairs railing to her death. He goes to Pritchard, who removes all evidence of Brice from Atwell's apartment and discovers an indiscernible negative of a photograph she took of Farrell.

Pritchard suggests that Atwell's other lover could be conflated with a long-rumored KGB sleeper agent code-named "Yuri", who could be implicated in her death and killed by Pritchard's operatives, clearing Brice from suspicion. Army CID officers search Atwell's apartment, and Pritchard plants the photo negative among the evidence, which Hesselman attempts to have enhanced by computer, a process that may take days.

Realizing that Brice killed Atwell and Pritchard is covering up the evidence, Farrell assists the bogus investigation, aware that the physical evidence makes himself the prime suspect. He and Pritchard question Atwell's friend Nina, who pretends not to recognize Farrell but reveals that she knew Atwell was seeing Brice. Pritchard sends two assassins to eliminate her, but Farrell intervenes and warns Nina.

Searching for real evidence to implicate Brice, Farrell investigates a jewel box from Morocco that Brice gave Atwell; as foreign gifts must be registered with the State Department, Farrell has Hesselman "raid" the computerized registry. He later convinces Hesselman to delay the photo enhancement by confiding to him that he is the person in the photo, that he was in love with Atwell, and that Brice killed her.

Credit card statements lead the CID to two witnesses who can identify Atwell's mystery lover; one of them spots Farrell at a distance, confirming to the investigators that Yuri is inside the Pentagon, and a room-by-room search begins. Farrell informs Hesselman of Brice's guilt and the incriminating gift, and eludes the search by climbing into a ceiling vent. Concerned, Hesselman tells Pritchard of Farrell's suspicions and his relationship with Atwell, and Pritchard shoots him dead.

Pursued by Pritchard's assassins, Farrell reaches Brice's office and confronts him with a printout of the gift registry. Pritchard prepares to implicate Farrell as Yuri for Atwell's and Hesselman's deaths, but Brice improvises a different story to buy Farrell's silence: that Pritchard, who is infatuated with Brice, killed Atwell out of jealousy. Devastated and betrayed, Pritchard shoots himself, and Brice tells the investigators that Pritchard was Yuri, concluding the search. Farrell sends the printout to the Director of the CIA, Brice's political rival, and leaves as the finished photograph reveals him as Atwell's lover.

Sitting at Atwell's grave, Farrell is picked up by a pair of operatives and interrogated at the house. He is confronted by his landlord, revealed to be his handler — they are all Soviet agents, and Farrell actually is "Yuri", a deep-cover spy raised as an American from a young age to serve as a high-level mole. Having fulfilled his mission, Farrell is warned to return to the Soviet Union, but he refuses, revealing that he genuinely loved Susan Atwell and is finished being a spy. His handler allows him to depart, believing he will eventually return, and Farrell drives away to an uncertain fate.

Writing
The screenplay is based on Kenneth Fearing's 1946 novel The Big Clock.

Filming
Exteriors were shot on location in Baltimore, Annapolis, Arlington, Washington, DC, and Auckland, New Zealand, between April and June 1986. The film is dedicated to the memory of its director of photography John Alcott, who died after principal photography had wrapped in July 1986, over a year prior to the film's eventual release.

Music
The film features original music by Academy Award-winning composer Maurice Jarre. The title song, "No Way Out", was performed by Paul Anka.

Box office
The film debuted at number two at the US box office after Stakeout with $4.3 million. The film's budget was an estimated $15 million; its total U.S. gross was $35.5 million.

Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 92% based on 48 reviews, with an average rating of 7.4/10. The website's critics consensus states: "Roger Donaldson's modern spin on the dense, stylish suspense films of the 1940s features fine work from Gene Hackman and Sean Young, as well as the career-making performance that made Kevin Costner a star." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 77 out of 100, based on 18 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.

Roger Ebert gave the film 4 out of 4 stars, calling it "truly labyrinthine and ingenious." Richard Schickel of Time wrote, "Viewers who arrive at the movie five minutes late and leave five minutes early will avoid the setup and payoff for the preposterous twist that spoils this lively, intelligent remake of 1948's The Big Clock." Desson Thomson of The Washington Post wrote, "The film makes such good use of Washington and builds suspense so well that it transcends a plot bordering on ridiculous."