No Way Out (1987)

In Australian director Roger Donaldson's suspenseful, twisting political thriller - the neo-noir action film was an update of the 1946 Kenneth Fearing potboiler novel The Big Clock, originally adapted for the big screen as the suspenseful The Big Clock (1948) that was set in NYC and starred Ray Milland and Charles Laughton. For this film, the screen story and screenplay were created by Robert Garland.

Its plot themes included murder, a secret affair and semi-love triangle, political intrigue, suspicions of a Russian KGB mole, an innocent man wrongly-accused on a manhunt for himself, and an intense cover-up, with an out-of-the-blue, slightly preposterous plot twist to conclude the film.

Original music in the film was scored by Maurice Jarre. At a budget of $15 million, it successfully grossed $35.5 million (domestic revenue). Its tagline asked: "Is it a Crime of Passion or an Act of Murder?"

• under the title credits in the film's opening, a lengthy backward tracking shot began at Capitol Hill and reversed itself all the way out of the city, passing by the Pentagon, and reaching a suburban safehouse in a wooded area; it was the location of an interrogation-debriefing of Navy Lieutenant Commander Tom Farrell (Kevin Costner in a star-making role) by two associates (Nicholas Worth and John Cedar), questioning him about his interactions with his boss, Secretary of Defense David Brice (Gene Hackman)

Debriefing-Interrogation of Navy Lt. Commander Tom Farrell (Kevin Costner) by Two Soviet Operatives (Nicholas Worth and John Cedar)

• Farrell stood up, and revealed a bloody, bandaged right forearm and blood splatter on his uniform before the flashback began (the film's storyline); the opening scene was bookended by the concluding scene; Farrell explained how six months earlier in Washington DC, he was introduced to Secretary of Defense Brice, by Brice's own scheming, ruthless yet ultra-loyal aide General Counsel Scott Pritchard (Will Patton), his former college buddy
• Pritchard had invited naval attache Lt. Cmdr. Tom Farrell to attend a Presidential Inaugural Ball in DC (at Christmastime) at the Omni Shoreham Hotel; Farrell met up with Pritchard (who claimed about his boss: "I'd lay down my life for him"), who then introduced Farrell to his boss - an abrupt and unfriendly Sec. of State David Brice
• during the evening's ball, Farrell kept noticing a high-class mistress-escort Susan Atwell (Sean Young) wearing a low-cut evening gown, and flirted with her; he ordered a "Stoli" at the bar (a clue to his Russian connections) and momentarily was startled when she asked: "Are you one of them?" (she was referring to the political "hypocrites" in the room)
• at the start of a torrid, hot and passionate evening, after some small talk at the bar, he suggested: "Let's get outta here"; she replied: "My date's not gonna like that very much" to which he replied: "But, what the hell? His wife'll be delighted"; Farrell was not aware that she was Brice's date-mistress

Sex in the Back of a Chauffeured Limousine with Susan Atwell (Sean Young)

• to the tune of Paul Anka's "No Way Out" - the title song, Farrell seduced her into having sexual intercourse with him in the back seat of a moving stretch limousine (chauffeured by an inquisitive driver named Bill (Gordon Needham/Boyd) watching them through the rear-view mirror) during a tour of DC's monuments and on the way to a Georgetown apartment; he kissed her, unzipped her dress to reveal a black bra, touched her breast's nipple with two fingers, and then pulled off her dress; she offered him her panties; from the car, a phallic-related view of the erect and tall Washington Monument passed by; he then unfastened her lacy garter straps as she reached to help undress him before having sex; post-coitus, he introduced himself: "My name's Tom," and she replied: "I'm Susan"

Susan to Her Apartment Friend Nina: "We need your bed"

• at her party girl friend Nina Beka's (Iman) apartment door, she stood naked after removing her fur coat as she waved goodbye, laughed, and borrowed Nina's apartment bed for the evening: "We need your bed"
• the next morning, Commander Farrell was dropped off by taxi at the airport, with a sad goodbye from Susan; he shipped out for the Philippines on the USS Billings battleship in pursuit of a Russian sub; he received the Navy Cross and became a national hero after rescuing Seaman Dufor (Peter Bell) on the "forward lookout" during a fierce nighttime storm

Secretary of Defense David Brice (Gene Hackman)

Brice's Gen. Counsel Scott Pritchard (Will Patton)

• in the meantime, Defense Secretary David Brice was involved in a political feud and ongoing dispute with Senator William 'Billy' Duvall (Howard Duff) serving in the Armed Services Committee, who supported the continuation of a controversial "phantom submarine" project; Brice protested that the military had spent $5 billion over 5 years on a prototype that could evade sonar, and wanted to terminate Congressional funding for the expensive flop: ("The Phantom sub is a sinkhole"); Brice was concerned that the powerful Senator was allied with the current CIA Director Marshall (Fred Dalton Thompson), who would use their combined political clout to push forward the project; in order to combat Senator Duvall, Brice advised Pritchard to bring Farrell back to Washington, due to his experience in naval intelligence: ("We could use a hero. Get him here, will you?")
• meanwhile, Farrell was in a noisy dive bar in Manilla, with topless dancers wearing thongs behind him, as he attempted to call Susan from a payphone - she answered but then hung up; it was revealed that she was in her bedroom in her Alexandria, VA apartment about to have sex with Secretary of State Brice - she was his long-time mistress!
• upon his return to DC to work at the Pentagon, Farrell was dropped off at a residential apartment, where he met the building's manager, his ex-landlord, who was an aspiring painter; the manager-landlord provided Farrell with his mail and would continue to make available for him his former residence [Note: Later, it was revealed in the closing sequence that Farrell's foreign landlord was his handler - a third Russian interrogator.]

Farrell With Susan Upon His Return From Battleship Service

Susan Taking a Polaroid Photo of Farrell in Her Apartment Bedroom

Farrell Prematurely Removing Polariod Photo Backing

• soon after, Farrell also paid a visit to Susan at her place, and she was overjoyed to see him again; he carried her up the stairs to her bedroom where they quickly began undressing for sex and she took a Polaroid photo of him on the bed; however, he removed the paper backing too soon before it fully developed: ("I think I did this way too early"); he crumpled up the picture and threw it aside
• the next day, Pritchard led Farrell to Brice's office, where he was briefed on his duties - he would serve as Brice's personal liaison, supervised by Pritchard, to serve as an intelligence agent to monitor the activities of the CIA (regarding the submarine project), in the hopes of terminating the boondoggle; Farrell was informed that Senator Duvall in Congress would resist, and it was worrisome that Duvall was connected to the CIA; Farrell was to acquire the "raw data" from the CIA upon which the spending decisions were made
• during his tour of the computer operations center in the Pentagon, Farrell met his good friend Dr. Sam Hesselman (George Dzundza), a disabled Pentagon computer IT specialist
• in Susan's bathroom vanity area during their continuing affair, while she prepared to go out to a black-tie reception to honor the Ambassador (Terrance Cooper) of New Zealand (attended by the Brices), Farrell noticed an expensive gold jewelry box and learned it was a gift from her lover; she said he had received it as a present from the foreign minister of the Moroccan government, and she divulged that her prestigious boyfriend was Secretary of State Brice; when Farrell responded: "You know I work for Brice?", she answered: "That makes two of us"
• Farrell also attended the party and whisked Susan away to his place for the night; then the next morning, they drove off in Susan's red convertible sports car for a romantic weekend together at the Calvert Inn in Annapolis, where they pretended to be a loving couple - Mr. and Mrs. Smyth; they spent one day sailing in a luxurious rented yacht
• once they returned to her apartment on Sunday evening, Susan begged a reluctant Tom to exit from the side porch entrance to avoid being seen by Brice who was seen arriving and parking out front, and promised Tom: "I'll leave him, I promise I will"
• as Brice was about to enter the front door, he glanced over at a silhouetted, unidentified male figure standing on the front sidewalk with a small suitcase; he immediately suspected that Susan (with "a pleasant flush") had been out of town with another male lover
• inside Susan's apartment, Brice immediately began to question her about cheating with another man: ("Who were you with this weekend?"), to which she replied: ("Why worry? There's plenty left"); he went into a jealous rage and brutally slapped her, and then kept insisting: "I wanna know who it was. I pay the rent....Tell me who it is!"; she answered: "He's not a pig like you!"; Brice again struck her and she toppled backwards - in slow-motion - from her upstairs balcony onto a glass dining room table on the first floor; shockingly, she turned up dead
• Brice raced over to speak to his own loyal General Counsel Scott Pritchard to admit: "I think I killed Susan," and described how an unknown figure had clearly witnessed him entering Susan's apartment; rather than allow Brice to call the police and confess to the manslaughter crime, Pritchard went over to clean up the crime scene - where he found an unclear film negative from a Polaroid picture taken of Farrell by Susan (the one he had discarded under the bed)

Brice Seeking Advice From Pritchard After the "Accident"

Pritchard Cleaning Up the Murder-Crime Scene

Incriminating Polaroid Negative Under Susan's Bed

• after returning to his own place, Pritchard schemed and advised Brice to initiate a top-secret cover-up operation, by aborting any official investigation and conducting their own in-house search for the killer; it was recommended that Brice blame the crime on the person who was seen leaving Atwell's apartment - possibly pictured in the Polaroid negative - a bogus, never-seen ("CIA's wet dream") Russian KGB mole/spy code-named "Yuri" who had been mythically-rumored to be in the Defense Department for four years [Note - Spoiler: Ironically, little did the two know that Atwell's other lover was actually a KGB spy.]
• the next day, Farrell was given "direct orders" to investigate and discover Atwell's secret lover and supposed DC murderer without the involvement of the FBI or the CIA; it was Farrell's first indication that Susan was dead; he excused himself to enter the Secretary's private bathroom where he became nauseous - it was a devastating blow to him since he truly loved her [Note: It would be a bogus investigation since he was actually the suspect!]; the internal military investigation would be conducted by the Army's Criminal Investigation Division (CID) and Major Donovan (Jason Bernard), under the direction of Farrell
• Pritchard placed the photo negative he had found under the bed in a boxed collection of evidence packets found by the CID; it was taken to Dr. Hesselman's Pentagon lab for computer enhancement
• Farrell became understandably suspicious of Pritchard and Brice's top-secret internal investigation, and cornered Pritchard: "You haven't told me everything!"; Pritchard finally divulged the reason for secrecy: "The Atwell woman knew Brice. She was his mistress. Naturally, Brice had no idea of her connection with a Soviet agent. We only found out last night after the murder"; Pritchard described the scandalous problem to Farrell - that Susan was the mistress of both Brice and "Yuri": "Do you realize the magnitude of the scandal? The Secretary of Defense and a Soviet agent sharing the favors of a murdered whore"; Pritchard refused to call in the FBI or CIA and ordered Farrell to obey him: "If it were your intention to do anything to bring down David Brice, then I'd have no choice but to make sure that you didn't get away with it"; Pritchard also lied that Brice was with him at the time of Atwell's murder
• in the Pentagon's computer lab center, Dr. Hesselman described to Farrell and Pritchard that it might take a few days or even a week to attempt photo-enhancement efforts on the processing of the Polaroid negative
• analysis of phone calls to Susan's apartment residence led to Susan's South African friend Nina, who obviously knew of Susan's affairs with both Farrell and Brice; when she was interrogated at her apartment by both Farrell and Pritchard, she only divulged the specific name of Brice who was 'consorting with' Susan, but didn't know the name of a second man "from the Pentagon"
• Farrell was furiously racing against time to find blame elsewhere during an investigation that he knew could falsely implicate him as Atwell's killer and expose his own real identity; meanwhile, pressure was bearing down on Brice by Sen. Duvall for conducting a private Defense Dept. investigation that bypassed the CIA, the FBI, and the Washington Police Department; the wily Duvall suggested that he would ignore what was going on if Brice would change his position on the phantom sub project
• once Farrell took possession of Susan's 'gold jewelry box' gift (from Brice), he knew he could tie it to Brice and incriminate him for the murder, he learned it was a gift from the Moroccan government due to its Arabic engravings
• Farrell also suspected Pritchard's plan to order two ex-Army Special Forces assassins or Contras (Marshall Bell and Chris D.) to kill Nina; he raced in a vehicle to pursue the two killers (he dubbed them "Laurel and Hardy") and blocked their car on their way to her apartment; he then ran away from them on foot through parts of Georgetown and escaped on a Mass Transit Authority train; at the next stop, he entered the Pavilion shopping mall and successfully warned Nina, working in Shalini's Boutique, that she was in danger and must really "get lost"; the two agents caught up to him and wrestled him down, and returned him to the Pentgon
• Farrell confronted Pritchard: "I don't believe there is a Yuri...He has nothing to do with the murder," called him "crazy, f--king cuckoo," and offered his resignation, but was denied; knowing that he only had a few hours to name the killer before the Polaroid negative found at Atwell's place was deciphered and could place him there and make him a suspect, Farrell confessed to Hesselman: "I'm the one in the picture, Sam," but he added that he had nothing to do with Susan's death and that the "spy-hunt" initiated by Pritchard and Brice was phony
• Farrell was able to persuade Hesselman to slow down the processing of the Polaroid picture ("Slow up the resolution on that picture"), to give him more time; Farrell had also asked Hesselman to access a State Department computer registry to provide a printout of registered gifts to US officials by foreign governments; although US gov't officials were required to register gifts, Brice hadn't followed protocol with the Moroccan gift
• in the suspenseful ending of the film, Farrell was racing against the clock when two separate witnesses: a heavy-set Mate (Dennis Burkley) and the Calvert Inn Bellboy (Matthew Barry) were brought to the Pentagon for questioning and to identify Susan's lover-partner - the inn-worker who was well-tipped and the dock worker who rented Farrell and Susan a fancy sailing yacht during their romantic weekend together before she was killed; the CID officers led the two witnesses around the sealed-off Pentagon to try and locate the suspected "Yuri" character; meanwhile, to help establish his case against Brice (Susan's killer), Farrell asked Hesselman for another favor - to register the Moroccan gift item from the foreign ambassador to Brice in order to provide a clear link between Brice and Atwell
• Hesselman felt Farrell was "over his head" and expressed his concerns to Pritchard on the phone; shortly later when they met in private, Hesselman divulged that he knew of Farrell's suspicions about Brice murdering Atwell, Farrell's own love affair and involvement with her, and Farrell's request to reprogram the computers (for Brice's incriminating gift and the Polaroid development process); Pritchard silenced him by shooting him dead
• in one of the last startling scenes, Farrell was pursued from the computer control room by the two assassins, went on the run and ended up in Brice's office, where he successfully threatened to expose Brice as the actual killer by providing a print-out of the damning gift registry; Pritchard entered and confirmed that "Yuri" was Hesselman's (and Susan's) murderer - and then pinned all the murders on Farrell by coincidentally deducing that Farrell was "Yuri"!
  • "Tom is the man who saw you at Susan's. He's known about you all along, isn't that right? Do you know what that means, David? If Commander Farrell is the man who was with Miss Atwell, then Commander Farrell is the man who killed Miss Atwell. And we know that the man who killed Miss Atwell is Yuri. Therefore, Commander Farrell IS Yuri, quod erat demonstrandum"
• Farrell accused Pritchard of murdering Hesselman and slapped him to the floor; feeling threatened, Pritchard - with his gun at Farrell's throat - then boldy asserted: "You have no idea what men of power can do"; but then Pritchard's superior Brice decided on a different strategy - he intervened, disarmed Pritchard, and shifted the blame to accuse his loyal aide of being "Yuri" - and the fall guy for the murder of Atwell; Brice planned to claim that homosexual Pritchard was "fiercely jealous" of Brice's relationship with Susan, and therefore killed her; Farrell was offered a deal by Brice to agree with him, but refused to accept it

After Being Betrayed by His Boss, Pritchard's Shocking Suicide

• devastated by the betrayal by his boss and the new accusation, Pritchard committed suicide (he shot himself in the head) in their presence in the office
• Brice informed investigators that the search for "Yuri" was over - Pritchard had been exposed as the KGB spy; however, Farrell sent the computer printout of registered foreign contributions to the CIA director Marshall to further indict his boss Brice, and was able to escape from the Pentagon before the processed Polaroid negative revealed him with Atwell
• the next morning as Farrell sat by Susan's gravesite, he was picked up by two Russian operatives
• as the flashback ended, the film returned to Farrell's detention and debriefing at a suburban safehouse with the two Soviet operatives (a third agent also emerged from behind a one-way mirror; it was his handler - his landlord); the devious trick-surprise ending revealed Farrell's true loyalty (to the KGB) as the fabled, never-seen mole/spy 'Yuri'; Farrell was innocent of murdering high-class mistress-escort Susan Atwell, but he really was a KGB sleeper agent who had infiltrated the Pentagon
• Farrell-'Yuri' had been commissioned to seduce Atwell in order to blackmail Brice and learn secrets of US intelligence; Farrell was criticized for his "poorly-handled" relationship with Atwell. Farrell argued back: "I did what I was told! You wanted me to be her lover. I was her lover"

The Plot Twist Reveal in the Tacked-On Ending: Lt. Cmdr. Farrell (aka Yuri) At the Debriefing with Soviet Officials, Including His Handler - His Building Manager-Landlord

• the 3rd Soviet official (his landlord) spoke to Farrell (Farrell's Russian name: Yevgeny Alexeyevich) - in Russian, seen in English subtitles: "We thought we'd never see you again....Couldn't you have managed this better?...How thirsty you must be for the sound of our language"; then, the official spoke in English: "Wouldn't you love to be Russian again?"; Farrell was told that it wasn't possible for him to remain in the US, and that he must return to his homeland of Russia: "This bizarre incident has given them their 'Yuri.'"; but Farrell was reluctant and refused to be a Soviet hero: "I came here. I thought I owed you that. But you can't make me go back"
• after telling them that he was ready to quit being "Yuri," guns were drawn on him, but Farrell was allowed to leave, although his handler stated that he would be back: "Let him go. He will return. Where else does he have to go?"
• the film concluded with a claustrophobic spy satellite-view of Farrell/Yuri getting into his car and driving off to an ambiguous and uncertain future