When There's No Way Out: A Most Unusual Episode Of The Politicrat
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Welcome to The Politocrat. I'm Omar Moore. It is Wednesday, December the 25th, 2024. On this edition of The Politocrat, a most unusual episode. You have to hear it to believe it. A Merry Christmas, coming up next.

Dear listener, on this very unusual edition of the Politocrat Daily Podcast for Christmas Day, I hope you are enjoying Christmas, you are about to hear the feature-length audio commentary that I recorded for the film No Way Out. The film was released in 1987. It is a political drama, a thriller, and, well, well, you'll have to hear the rest of it.

The film stars Kevin Costner, Gene Hackman, Sean Young, Iman and Will Patton. It's a film that you really should see if you haven't already done so. If you have seen the film, I think you might enjoy this commentary even more. And maybe you'll want to put the film on and sync it with the start of this audio commentary that you're about to hear.

for the next one hour and 53 minutes. No way out. With yours truly describing and characterizing what is going on in that film. Merry Christmas. If only you knew how many times I've tried to record this audio commentary. If only you knew.

Oh dear, oh dear. Well, here is the opening shot of No Way Out, which is an excellent film and an excellent opening shot. The U.S. Capitol Building, the Washington Mall, and the Washington Monument can be seen in this shot. It's a great tracking shot to start. This film, directed by Roger Donaldson, that was released in 1987 in the United States in cinemas...

And, wow, what a film it was. I hope you've seen it, because if you haven't, well, I'm going to spoil it for you over the next hour and 52 minutes. Kevin Costner and Gene Hackman and Sean Young and No Way Out. Not to be confused with the film No Way Out from 1950, which starred Sidney Poitier and Richard Widmark. Sidney Poitier was a doctor in...

experiencing racism at the hands of the white patients that he was treating who didn't want him to treat them. No Way Out is a film where everything is not what it seems, where the people are not who they seem to be. Everyone is carrying a secret. Everyone, it seems, is carrying multiple identities. And in Washington, D.C., where...

secrets can only be kept if you kill people that you tell the secret to. I think this is the ripe atmosphere. It really is ripe for what you're going to be seeing here for the next hour and 50 minutes plus. There's the Pentagon, and we still see in this excellent shot the Washington Monument

the U.S. Capitol building, and I think you'll also see the Lincoln Memorial as well in this shot somewhere. But the bottom line is that cinematographer John Alcott does a really good job with this shot. It's, again, an excellent shot. So kudos to now the late, great John Alcott.

This film was based on a novel, yep, The Big Clock, which was written by Kenneth Fearing in the 1940s. The movie The Big Clock was out around the same time, if not into the 1950s, starring Ray Milland. Great film. You really have to see that. Robert Garland wrote the screenplay for No Way Out. And there's Roger Donaldson, the director. And now we...

At the end of this three-minute shot, see this house secluded. It seems a rather nondescript little house. And we are about to find out who is in that house. And Kevin Costner, sitting there in a naval outfit, which he wears almost entirely throughout this movie, sits there and he is seemingly dazed, exasperated, whatever you want to call it.

And I can't say I blame him. He's been through a lot. Now, what we're going to find out is that everybody has a role to play. And this film is about a lot of things, including...

role-playing. This film is a lot of things. It also is a critique of Washington, D.C. and the insiders. It is a critique of politics in some ways, and it is also a take, a parody of the culture of politics in Washington, D.C.,

And there is a lot of satirizing and tongue-in-cheek that goes on throughout this movie. And yeah, it's quite a film to watch.

And I'm glad that you are getting the chance now to watch it. That mirror that we just saw Kevin Costner staring into is going to be a constant theme throughout the movie. It's a character unto itself for that character reveals dualities. It's a cinematic device that gives us an insight into the fact that

There are multiple identities within these characters. Look, we all have multiple facets to us. I'm not saying that we are multiple personalities per se, but we do behave differently around different types of people and we have different sides to us. And I think that this film illustrates that, although I think in some ways somewhat more coarsely and more crudely.

I love that line from Sean Young there. You see her looking back and she has just said, luckily this is not a bullshit detector or else none of us would be able to get in. And she's right. We're going to see Will Patton here shaking the hand of Kevin Costner and Will Patton plays Pritchard, who of course is one of the insiders. He is the right-hand man to the Gene Hackman character you are about to see. And Gene Hackman plays someone called David Bryce. He's the Secretary of Defense.

And the band to hear between these two shows us some of the ironies and lines of foreshadowing that we get to hear. I love this scene because what you're going to see now is the woman in the blue dress look straight into the camera right there very quickly. It's this kind of awareness amongst the performers that we aren't quite being as serious as we could be.

But we are going to proceed nonetheless. And there is an attempted breaking of the fourth wall a number of times in this film. And that was one of them with the woman who is the wife of the Gene Hackman character. I forget her name. Who looks into the camera briefly, ever so quickly, ever so fleetingly.

I love this foreshadowing again here. If it came down to it, I'd give my life for him, lay down my life for him. That's what Pritchard says. And he is a Will Patton who's playing Pritchard. And you know by now, if you've seen this film, that he's absolutely true to his word. Sean Young and Kevin Costner are definitely attracted to each other. Breaking news. And so it's only a matter of time before they end up in the back of a limousine.

Because that's what two people who are attracted to each other end up doing. Making it into the back of a limo. In Washington, D.C. Or anywhere. But especially in Washington, D.C. Oh, dear. Well, again, this film does like to poke fun. Not really at itself, but so much at Washington insiders and the political scene and all the rest. But I think it's done in good taste and good humor and...

People in Washington who are really Washington insiders should not be offended. This is a complete takeoff of To Have and Have Not, Lauren Bacall and Bogey with the light and all the rest of it. And yeah, there's a little joke about if you want to look down my dress, you should grow a few inches. Sean Young impeccably with the witty one-liners and great comic timing.

These two are absolutely very much acquainted and very much attracted and the dance is being danced and you don't need music to dance to what it is that Sean Young and Kevin Costner are dancing to because they are the music.

I love how Sean Young says, well, make it two. And she doesn't even know what drink it was that Kevin Costner ordered. And I kind of get myself back to the film When Harry Met Sally, which came out roughly around the same time, maybe a year after, maybe that same year. I don't remember. Maybe it was in 1989. It was around that same time frame where, of course, the infamous or the famous scene in the deli.

you know, with Meg Ryan and the woman across from her saying, I'll have what she's having, which was in that film, an orgasm in a deli in New York City. You just saw the black woman on stage dancing really wildly and that was a parody as well. You know, that's just absolutely exaggerated. And again, this is all...

This idea that everything that you're seeing is kind of just a little bit off kilter, just a little bit. And that is very deliberate and very calculated on the part of the director, Roger Donaldson. Now, of course, the dancing stops and the playing ends, as Stevie Wonder would say, and the serious begins. And that's what you're about to see here. Some of the serious stuff. And the limo driver gets an eyeful too.

Oh, he's going to be so disappointed in about 5.6 seconds. That limo driver is going to just have the voyeuristic experience grounded to a halt right around, well, it's coming. You'll see in a moment or two, but he'll have his fun while he can. Now, of course, this limousine isn't really moving at this point. When you see the two of them, it's stationary and it's being gently rocked.

and then we're going to get shots of the limo on an exterior. But obviously, that limo is not moving at full tilt. I'm not saying people can't have sex in cars while they are driving because, of course, we know that that happens. But what's going to happen here, what you're going to see here is that limo, you're going to see if you move that camera from left to right, you'd see that there's lots of people outside there. But the point is that now you're going to see

racy scene and we just saw the Washington Monument there, the phallic symbol that it is, obviously it's a double entendre to stand in for what would be an erect penis, right? I'm sure that you have gathered that from that shot of the Washington Monument and it's a very cheeky, calculated thing. It's intended as some satire and also some parody and it's a light touch to

to an intense scene. You see the Lincoln Memorial right there. And this is a racy scene that was really racy back in 1987. But I don't know if it would be considered very racy now. I guess it would be, although these days in the movies, you don't see these kinds of scenes, really, unless it's in the context of sex or if it's just one scene. But you don't really see these scenes as much now in the movies.

Now, of course, they're going to introduce themselves by name after they've introduced themselves by their bodies and with their bodies. Oh, it's so much more time efficient, right? To just introduce yourself with your body. Now, this is a gratuitous moment here. And I'm no prude by any stretch of the imagination. But I have to say, this is a gratuitous moment. You're going to see, and Iman is absolutely...

stupendous she is so beautiful and so hot here really really electric look at how beautiful Iman is but you're going to see this very gratuitous moment this film does objectify women which is the one thing I don't like about this film right there's one or two things I don't like about this film but one of them is this blatant objectifying of women and that is not needed right I mean Sean Young yes she's got a nice body and she's got nice breasts and

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I get it. But really, is it necessary to just drop your mink coat, your fur coat? Again, I'm no prude, but I'm just calling out what I see as a problem, which is you are showing us Sean Young's naked body for the sake of the male gaze. And, you know, that's...

that's not something that we needed to have there. I just got to be honest. I just don't think that we have the sex scene, which is good enough. And we, you know, why do we now need to see her taking off her clothes and just walking in? I don't know. I, maybe it's because I'm older than I care to remember. Again, I'm no prude at all. I am no prude. This is a scene that

is a parody in some ways as well. You know, that kind of long goodbye, the idea that, um, that Kevin Costner's off to a port of call as a Naval officer and, and, you know, Sean Young, they're kind of crying a little bit and Kevin Costner's winking back at her. And I don't know if that's all fake. It just doesn't feel quite, uh, quite as authentic as it perhaps should. And there we go with the, uh,

the ship that is at sea. And I just don't know, quite frankly, if that scene with the ship at the sea belongs either. But I think the reason why it does is because it's part of the doubling. We need to see Kevin Costner in an environment to get to know who his character is. And if he is a naval officer, well, then damn it, we need to see him at sea. And so I think that's what Roger Donaldson gets at here, I think. And...

The other reason why we're seeing this scene that seems seemingly unconnected is because there's going to be a scene later on where Kevin Costner and Sean Young are on a boat at sea. And of course, it's going to be a smaller boat than this big ship. And it's also going to be a more calmer and peaceful waters, the water that we're going to be seeing them navigate. So there's this doubling here.

what his occupation is now as a military officer versus what he's going to be doing in recreational time on a boat with Sean Young. It's so interesting, this scene, because it just seems so clumsy, the circumstances in which this person has been caught off the edge of the ship and he's dangling upside down. And it's, I'm not saying that it's laughable, but I am saying that it is pretty wild. Yeah.

There's no sun up in the sky, stormy weather, since my man and I together keeps raining all the time. An ode to Billy, Lady Day. I couldn't resist. I really could not resist. Stormy weather. I mean, that's what you're seeing right here. And yeah, Tom Farrell, played by Kevin Costner, is...

among other people there, experiencing stormy weather. And he's become a hero here now because he's now saved the life of this hapless soul who managed to get himself caught upside down on the edge of a ship, for goodness sakes. This is the very pastoral part of D.C. there in some ways. It's behind the

Washington Monument, it's behind the Lincoln Memorial, it's behind the Capitol Building. So one thing that I find very interesting here is

This sense of kind of duplicity in a way. Gene Hackman tells Scott Pritchard, Will Patton's character, to get some breakfast in you, order some breakfast, right? And then literally about 35 seconds after he's told Pritchard to order some breakfast, he says to Pritchard, let's go.

So you know that there's a comedy that's going on in this movie and that really does continue to inform the melody of this film. It plays as a tragic comedy. It actually plays much more as a farcical comedy than it does a political drama about power and power brokers and power players. And see, they're already up and leaving. I mean, didn't,

David Bryce just tell Scott Pritchard to order breakfast like 20 seconds ago? So this is the big time senator in the bow tie there and he's obviously at odds there with Gene Hackman's character, David Bryce, who is the Secretary of Defense.

And you're going to see Gene Hackman promise to inform this senator of whatever moves he's about to make. And of course, this is all lies. This illustrates the kind of facile and very superficial nature of things in D.C. and the lies and the nonsense, the false promises. So much so that the senator who's been around the block talks to Fred Dalton Thompson there, who actually was a U.S. senator there.

before he passed away years ago. And of course, Fred Dalton Thompson's character, who is the CIA director Marshall, says, no, I don't believe a word of it. Gene Hackman's lying. Now, it's really interesting because Gene Hackman pretends he doesn't remember the name of the officer that Scott Pritchard introduced him to. And yet at the beginning of this scene, you saw Gene Hackman reading about

Tom Farrell and the rescue that you saw a few moments ago on that ship. And now Gene Hackman's pretending that he doesn't remember the guy's name. Oh, what's his name? And yet you just saw him read the name in the newspaper that was shown to us. So again, everything here is not as it seems. People are having a laugh.

Like here, for example, this boy, and they're in the Philippines now in this scene, and he's about to run away with this bag, and they make out that he's going to steal something. He's going to steal something really big, and so now they're running after him. And it's the first of the triangulations that we're going to be seeing throughout this movie. There's always these three characters involved in something. We already actually saw it in the opening scene.

scene of any real consequence when Kevin Costner's character is sitting there and there's two men questioning him. Well, this is the second triangulation, right? And I really might say, well, what is this scene doing here? But this scene is doing here because it's just to give us a more exposition about who Kevin Costner's character really is. But then there's an excuse for us to see more bare-breasted women.

And again, it's, yeah, it's one of those kinds of bars you'd go into in any country, including in the United States, where you might see some topless women. But it's also another excuse for engaging the male gaze, you know. And, you know, like I say, yes, do they look good? Yeah, of course they do. You know, of course they do. Wonderful breasts? Yes, that's obvious. We see that. But is it absolutely necessary? I say no, it's not.

And I also say again, I'm not a prude. And Noah is Sean Young. She's going to pull the cord of that telephone. And you see that Kevin Costner's character is trying to call her. And she hangs up because, of course, she knows that she has company. So she can't be affording to speak to Kevin Costner right now because she is indisposed, shall we say. And then...

This is really crazy. He rips the phone off the wall. And that's just a really bizarre thing. And I just don't understand why he's done that. I think it's going to set up perhaps what we see later. His temperament is going to be something that is at issue. And we see Gene Hackman here. Obviously, this is a relationship that he's having outside of his marriage. And so we are going to see...

The identities play out throughout this movie. And Kevin Costner was in his heyday here. You have to know that from the mid-1980s through the mid-1990s, Kevin Costner had a really good run in the movies, in Hollywood movies in particular. He had a really good run. And this guy here, you sit and you wonder, who on earth is this guy?

And we don't know about, okay, manager. Hmm, okay. And they're talking here and there's a slight accent that you can pick up, perhaps maybe Eastern Europe. But we just don't know who he is. At least not yet. Kevin Costner had this really good run in the movies. If you look back to 1986 or so, 87, 88 was Bull Durham. 87, of course, was obviously this film, No Way Out.

And of course, he went on to do such films as Dances with Wolves, which he won a ton of Oscars for in 1990. He did that film. It won the next year. He was in a film, of course, called The Untouchables as well. He was in Field of Dreams in 1990. He was in JFK.

In 1991, he was in Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves, I think in the same year. And he was in that disastrous film, Waterworld, I think in 1993 or thereabouts, or 1995 or thereabouts. But he had this whole stretch of films where he top-lined. And most of those films were very successful. And a few of them were good, including this one.

And what you see here, you know, you see the kind of the parody of the little homage to Gone With The Wind where Kevin Costner carries Sean Young up the steps, up the stairs. Now she pulls out the phone cord again and then hits the, and then throws the phone on the floor. I mean...

Again, everything is not what it seems, right? Everyone has secrets or multiple identities. An image is everything, to borrow a phrase from Andre Agassi from the late 1980s and early 1990s. This is not a Canon camera, though. It's a Polaroid. You remember the Polaroids if you are old enough to remember those.

They are making a comeback. They certainly are making a comeback. And Kevin Costner's trying to destroy this Polaroid image of himself. And that image is going to be a very important part of this film later on. And now we're back to the Pentagon. Isn't that lovely? That is a huge-ass building. I'm sorry. It's a huge-ass building. The Pentagon is as much a character in this film as anyone or anything is.

this labyrinthian place. This scene is going to be the first of what will be a number of triangulations between these three men. Now, I've already told you about the triangulations that we've seen earlier in the film. I told you about the one in the Philippines with the little boy who ran away with Kevin Costner's handbag or his bag. And we're going to see this

triangulation here and look at the angles the way that they're standing and the way the camera swivels here and you're going to see two and then you're going to see him and then you're going to see all three of them in a shot together I love the way this scene is shot Olcott does a really good job of it right he gets the positions and then he's going to get

This triangulation right here, boom. Kevin Costner's back is to us and these two guys are facing us and then there's an American flag. And so it's kind of like this foreshadowing already because we don't even see Kevin Costner's face in that shot that we just looked at. And yet he's hemmed in between these two guys who we do see. And then there's talk about the Russians. So there's this very intentional beat. And I know the script supervisor had to plan this out really well

you really get a sense of how this movie is orchestrating itself before you. Two people who are working for the American government and a third person who is working for, well, we think the American government, but his back is to us and they show his back to us. And I think that that's not an accident either. It's not just an obligatory camera shot. I think there's more to it than that. There again is the shot.

I think that's very interesting that since Kevin Costner is the lead of the film, that we only see him from the back in a lot of these particular shots. And I think that that's really telling. It's not a two-shot so much as... It is a two-shot, but it's not a one-shot and a one-shot, an A to B. It's an A-B in the same shot. It's a two-shot, but we only see the back of Kevin Costner for the most of it. And that's very intentional.

And there's something else about this shot and this scene. Note that Kevin Costner's character is often being trailed or followed, either by Scott Pritchard or by someone else, or by, you know, I just can't help but notice what that is. Costner does a really good job in this film. He has to underplay his character perfectly.

because he cannot really get too far ahead of his character, but he's also got to play along just enough to be someone who you wouldn't suspect is somehow someone that he's not, if I can make sense out of what I'm saying. If you can make sense out of what I'm saying. That's George Zunza, who plays Sam, a company man,

at the Pentagon, who's been there for a while. And there's obviously a rapport between the two of them. They've known each other for a while. Tom, meet Kevin. Or Kevin, meet Kevin. This guy here in the middle, a triangulation again. And here he is, right? Kevin Costas, back as two hours. And then there's a shot with him with the ship that he was on, probably, and that artwork. And it looks like these two, not him, but Kevin...

and Kevin have somehow met each other before. I don't know. But you can just see there's a look on the face as if there's something else that's about to be said, but it's not said. Visitor, he's a visitor like Costner is. He's got that visitor's tag on. And it looks like they're speaking in language to each other with their eyes, their facial expression. And I really think that those two know what is up.

That's all I'll say for now. Yeah, it was deftly handled, Pritchard. And Kevin Costner really deftly handles his performance throughout this movie. Will Patton as Scott Pritchard is excellent as well. We're going to see a reflection in a mirror. And there it is with Sean Young. But watch what happens when Kevin Costner comes up. No reflection. He's right by the mirror. No reflection.

Isn't that interesting? His hand, his arm crosses there, but no reflection. Isn't that interesting how that happens? That too is intentional, as is everything in this film. There is going to be a lot of claustrophobia in this movie and you're gonna see that it becomes more and more claustrophobic as it goes along. And as Sean Young gets dressed here and they get closer,

There's going to be a conversation about the man that she is seeing, of course. And of course, we're going to find out that it is David Bryce, Gene Hackman's character. And now that shows you, introduces the jealousy angle for Kevin Costner's character, Tom Farrell. And now there is a triangulation, even without...

David Bryce being in the room. And so there's this incestuousness there. And speaking of which, the next shot is a David Bryce looking into a what? A mirror and another mirror. There we go again. It's that mirror. It's that reflection. It's that duality, the two-ness. They're these multiple identities or aspects to a person and cinematically is rendered absolutely impeccably.

This woman can do things for me like no woman I've ever met. Not even your wife? Really? In this movie? Really, David? And he winks at Scott Pritchard, right? The same way Kevin Costner winked at Sean Young when he was departing for the Philippines. Oh, he just does not like it. He doesn't like it. When a woman is autonomous and wants to go out. See, now you understand how a woman feels when...

A man walks out and has fun and the woman's at home, perhaps with her kids. I don't know. Your kids? And of course, I'm not saying that a woman should be doing that all the time. I happen to disagree with the idea that they should be doing that all the time. It should be a shared responsibility. But that's just me. I like the shot that's behind Kevin Costner. You see those two women walking out on the street through that door, the window rather, behind him. I love that shot.

He is burning with jealousy here. I just love how unserious Gene Hackman's character is. In fact, for that matter, how unserious his spouse is. She just walks out of the shot in a way. She kind of plays along while the mistress is rolling her eyes. And there are men like this. And there are men like this in power who will have their ornament, the objectification of it,

in terms of Sean Young in this case, sitting close by while he can just gaze at her. I mean, it's really this objectification of women that I've got a huge problem with. It's just, you know, again, I'm no prude or anything like that, but I'm going to call it as I see it. And this is what happens. You don't have this go the other way around. You do not have powerful women

putting men in a place that they can just stare at the man during a conversation at a high-powered gala. It just doesn't happen. It really doesn't. And if it does, it's very rare. Very rare indeed. Oh, he couldn't stay away. He couldn't stay away. Couldn't stay away. Could he now? Oh my goodness me. I've got to come to the gala just to see what's going on.

And he sees what's going on because what's going on is looking straight at him. And that would be Sean Young because she is going on. So much so that there's an interception on the one yard line by Gene Hackman. No touchdown on this occasion, Kevin. He just goes looking around. Kevin Costas' performance, so much of it is eyebrows, eyes.

blank stares, eyes being really discerning. I mean, it's just very buttoned down. And he does it so well for the most part until he loses cool when that happens. But look, look at that. It's all this very subtle, very with the eyes, a little nod of the head, a little toss of the head to the side.

You know, it's remote control and the gesture has now made her move. The gesture has made her, meaning made Sean Young, move. And this is a Maori dance, Maori chant. And I think the director put it in here because I think he is from New Zealand, didn't I? Maybe I said that before, maybe I didn't. And boom, we end there on that. And next shot here, Kevin Costner's character down the stairs.

And he is about to embark on a journey of a lifetime. Not really. But we do have this guy again for comic relief. Who is he? Who is this guy? Who, who the, is this guy? You know, again, there's some real parody here, right? Some kind of comic thing going on. Tell me that this love will never die. And we know what's going to happen to Sean Young in 10 minutes from now, right?

And then you've got him eating bugs, not berries, right? He's going to eat another bug. I mean, yeah, this is really romantic or really disgusting, as Sean Young, I think, says there. Tell me you believe in you and I. Now, that's the song Say It from Paul Anka. And tell me that you believe in you and I. Well, the question is, who is you and I?

So you can't believe in you and I if you don't know who you and I are. And we don't know who you and I are in the context of Sean Young and Kevin Costner. We don't really know. I mean, we have an idea of Sean Young, but we don't still have yet an idea of Kevin Costner's character. Again, a lot of this film, as far as I can see it, is parody and very tongue-in-cheek and very comedic.

You know, the idea that these men want to stick around every time Kevin Costner and Sean Young are about to have sex, you know. Kevin Costner has to dismiss them, whether it's the bellhop or whether it is the limo driver. You want to get that slide, Bill?

It's like there's this potential. Again, it's all this triangulation, even with the limo driver there. That's another triangulation. And it's kind of like this threesome that is waiting to happen but doesn't ever happen. And there's another thing here. When Kevin Cousins says, no, we don't want a plastic toy. It's like...

The innuendo abounds, doesn't it? We don't want a plastic toy. I mean, the whole thing is full of innuendo and sexual innuendo and all the rest. Again, it's one big comedy, this movie is. It really is. And as I promised you from earlier, here's the secondary boat where we had the giant ship earlier. And this is the...

The duality of being on the sea this time is much more relaxed. Kevin Costner's not trying to save someone's life. He is very calm and relaxed with Sean Young. And the seas are a lot less choppy. And there is Sean Young dancing her tush off there. And she's wearing all white.

And now we see as the sun sets there a really nice shot, by the way, of the two of them again. I thought that was a really nice shot. And it looks quite relaxed and comfortable and romantic, unlike that limo interaction, which was all about the bump and the grind of things. And there's nothing wrong with that. Don't get me wrong. Who doesn't like a good bump and grind in the back of a limo?

All right, all right. Let me not go down. Let me not go down that road. Let's get back to the movie, shall we? Oh, dear. Here we go again now. So now the jealousy angle. You see, he's clearly jealous. Tom Farrell right there. And you can see it all over his face. And again, he's kind of the thing about this performance. You can see he's thinking, right? He's thinking and thinking he's brooding.

And this scene is very interesting because it cast me back to the film Body Heat from 1982. And you see that Sean Young has just exposed her underwear. And in 1982, in Body Heat, Kathleen Turner wore a white blouse and a red dress. Her red dress was a lot shorter than Sean Young's. And in that scene in Body Heat in 1982, where William Hurt and her, that means Kathleen Turner and William Hurt,

are going at it kissing and he lifts up her skirt lifts up her skirt and reveals her underwear while they're kissing and having foreplay so i kind of found that interesting that sean young made the choice to do what she did there triangulation again because guess who's outside coming to dinner oh it's mr bryce he is ready for another round with sean young and tom farrell

has had enough of it he is really pissed off here and you can see it the anger you know he's got an anger control anger management issue you know forever however mild-mannered or how calm and cool he seems to be and how confident he seems to be he can easily lose his cool very susceptible to that you see it again here he lost his cool in the bar in the philippines where he ripped the

telephone out of the wall that telephone box and now he's kicking up a stink here and Sean Young is glad to see him out of there and this look here look at this he is a real mystery man oh boy I gotta tell you that look and you're gonna see him be a mystery man again here now Tom Farrell is gonna be the mystery man again look at this and look at that

Oh, my goodness me. They must not be standing more than 50 feet away from each other. Got to be about 50 feet, maybe even 30 feet. And he just can't make out who that is. We know who he is. And the jealousy is also there, too. He suspects probably that the man that he has just seen is the man who probably came out from her house here.

Oh, and whom, with whom did you get this son? You know, this is the role of 20 questions and jealous men ask 20 questions of a woman that they are jealous about. And then they become very violent, some of these men with their toxic masculinity BS.

who want to find out where the woman they're having the affair with, it's not even their spouse, by the way, but yet they feel entitled to ask 20 questions. Hey, look, we know that men, some men who are married feel the need to ask their spouse 50 questions as if a woman isn't entitled to do what she chooses to do with her day.

You know, she's entitled to go out. She's entitled to go out without you sometimes. A lot of times. She's entitled to go out with her friends. She's entitled to go out and have a drink if she wants to. You know? It only becomes your business if you're the spouse and you or your spouse cheats. And this guy isn't even her spouse. He's not even her husband and he's ticked off. I think if anyone should be ticked off, it should be David Bryce's wife. I think that's the person who should be ticked off.

But be that as it may, you've got a toxically masculine and toxically violent man who is about to end the life of the woman that he is jealous of. And you're sitting there going, would this really happen in real life? And of course I tell you, yes, it happens every day in real life. And so much so that his jealousy and rage, and a lot of men in this film are very angry, you'll notice that, has cost him life.

a chance to see the woman that he loves alive ever again because he is someone who is self-destructive and he's a murderer. He's clearly a killer. And his temperament gets the better of him. And this is where the movie really starts. This is really the second part of this movie. It really is. "I think I killed Susan." No shit, Sherlock. You did kill Susan.

And he admits as much. Now, this is, as I said, the second section of this movie really in earnest begins here or begins with the killing by Gene Hackman of Sean Young's character. And so Pritchard now is at home, obviously, in his bedroom.

you know, his bathrobe, his dressing gown, whatever you want to call it. And he's now going to be the comforter. Now, the most powerful person in this movie, in my view, is Scott Pritchard, who is leaning over there and putting his hand on the shoulder of Gene Hackman's character. Now, even though Gene Hackman's character is a Secretary of Defense, as I said, the most powerful man is his right-hand man there, Scott Pritchard. And Scott Pritchard now is going to come up with this plan

to make it seem that someone other than the Secretary of Defense killed Susan, played by Sean Young. So this is all a clean-up-on-Aisle-5 operation that you're seeing right now. Scott Pritchard is kind of the cinematic equivalent of Karl Rove, I guess. If you don't know who Karl Rove is, make sure you use the internet to find out.

telephone telephone there he is again with a telephone trying to get through to susan every time he's tried to call her he's never been able to get through to her dead or alive well the dead part we understand but this is the second or third time he's tried to reach her and he can't reach it by phone that camera polaroid camera that polaroid shot there that print that picture is a very important part of this film as i've mentioned before

And what you've got here now is a father-son relationship all of a sudden. You know, David Bryce has been shouting at Scott Pritchard and ordering him around a lot. And he'll shout at him again before this movie's over. And now you've got Gene Hackman curled up on a sofa or whatever that is there. And he is now the little boy and Scott Pritchard is the man. And you get this switching back and forth of...

father and son types between these two. I think there's a really good relationship as sketched out by Robert Garland in the script. And again, the beauty of this relationship is that it does switch. Sometimes Gene Hackman is the father. Sometimes Gene Hackman is the son. Sometimes Scott Pritchard, played by Will Patton, is the father. Sometimes Will Patton, who plays Scott Pritchard, is the son. And that's, I guess, the...

the duality of human beings and the duality that takes place throughout this movie in a million characters. I mean, almost every character in this film has a multiple identity or a duality of some kind, right? Or a contradiction of some kind. The main characters really do have that. And I think that the actors who play them do a really great job of bringing that duality to the fore and stifling it when necessary. There's Jason Bernard.

One of the only two black people who feature prominently in this film. I've already spotlighted Iman as the other black person who plays a pretty significant role at times in the few scenes that she's in. Now, I love this here. There's this shot here of three people. And right now you think it's just two people in the room, but there is a third. And that shot is like, what? We never knew that Kevin Costner was even in the room.

But you see, there is a really deft sleight of hand there by the director because you're thinking it's just going to be Pritchard and Bryce. And then you see Farrell sitting there in the corner. And that's another tell that something just ain't right. Something's just a little off, just a bit outside. By the way, I wonder if Kevin Costner...

is thinking here. Well, I think we know what he's thinking now when he looks here. We don't have to see what he's looking at. We know from his facial expression what he knows in that instant. That's good acting. And it's also smart directing because we don't have to see the shot because his facial expression should convey to you what he's looking at. And this is the restraint

that the director shows for all of the comedy in this movie and the restraint that Kevin Costner shows as an actor, where he now is really up against it. He's under the cosh now because he knows, he knows that this is going to be a problem, real problem for him, a real problem for him. He realizes that it is Sean Young who was killed

And he is beside himself. We're going to see a mirror in a moment. He looks into it. The duality again, this double identity, this doubling that goes on.

And he's trying to restrain himself. There we go, the mirror. And he just doesn't know how to deal with this piece of information. And he's grieving and he has to still stay very much in the moment because if he ever gets out of character here, it's over. He cannot break his own facade.

And this film is about the avoidance of breaking facades to a point. And Kevin Costner is trying to keep it together here as Tom Farrell. Here is Major Donovan again, here Jason Bernard. And it's very interesting how this scene will play out later. Because I think that Major Donovan suspects Kevin Costner is not real.

who he's all cracked up to be, and yet there's a potential reveal, but then that reveal gets constantly frustrated by the director and the screenwriter. I love how they keep doing this, where they've got these characters constantly going to places where Kevin Costner's character will have his cover blown. We know now that they're going to be heading to Iman's apartment

the bottom line is that the crazy thing is that Major Donovan already has men who are in position to go ahead and go to Nina's house. That's Iman's house. But we know now that Kevin Costa needs to get ahead of that because if he is not at that house, Nina is going to blow his cover. And so...

It's so important that he actually does get ahead of this. You'll see that they will eventually go to Nina's apartment. And look at this evidence plant here. Don't you know you're not supposed to plant evidence, Scott? Oh, what's this? Look, looky here, looky here. Look what I found. It's something I just planted two seconds ago. And of course, oh yes, there's the infamous Polaroid. Look at Scott Pritchard. Look at him. He knows. Look at him. His eyes are wide open.

I tell you, Will Patton does a really good job in this film. And look at Kevin Costner. He's got to play this off. He really has to play that off. But he's got to show the audience enough that the audience knows the dilemma, but no one else really does. Although there are suspects. And more triangulation here again, right? Three people in a shot. I really do think that these two men, the Kevins, Kevin...

and Kevin Costner, the Tom Farrell, who is played by Tom Farrell, who is Tom Farrell in this film. I think they know something. I just get that feeling about the two of them. Look at the way they look at each other. Look at this. When you get more time, give me a call. I think he's an operative. I really do think he's a stone-cold operative. And then you've got Pritchett going, what was that supposed to be? I mean, I thought I might get something out of him about Yuri. Well, again...

There's the clue that Kevin is someone who is probably working in tandem with Kevin Costner. And you know the end of this movie already, so I think that these two are...

brought in as plants from the outset. And so I think that that's where that's going. And they look like they know each other. It's so layered and it's not explained. It doesn't have to be. You can surmise it from the way that they are looking at each other. It's the body language or the eye contact language that gets put there for you to surmise.

Who are these goons? And it's, again, the comedy, right? Like, who are these two people? Like, Laurel and Hardy or Abbott and Costello or, you know, whoever. Whomever. And it's kind of funny. It's like this breaking of the fourth wall in a way. Because we're asking who the hell they are as well, and Kevin Costner's character is saying the same thing.

Leave us, please. And we don't even see the guy's face barely. We know he's a black man. And I think that's what the movie says. Leave us, please, black man. We don't know. We don't want you in our movie. Well, you know, again, there are two black people in the movie of any real consequence. And there are a few others, but on the sidelines or the periphery of the movie. Everything that Scott Pritchard is saying here is true. He just doesn't know how true it is. But Kevin Costner's character does.

I mean, that's what this is. Both of these men are working from two different jigsaw puzzles. That's the thing. They're working on a jigsaw puzzle, but they're not working on the same jigsaw puzzle. And the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle that each of them are working on are part of the other person's jigsaw puzzle.

And if they would rearrange the pieces from each other's puzzles, they might actually get the whole full truth. And I think the thing is that Scott Pritchard, as powerful as he is, is slightly behind Tom Farrell in terms of trying to solve this jigsaw puzzle.

But there will be a time where Scott Pritchard's character, Scott Pritchard, played by Will Patton, gets slightly ahead of Costner. It's really a delicate balance. Very delicate balance. Now he's sending this fire warning shot across the bow at Tom Farrell. I will not let you get away with trying to put David Bryce in a box.

I'll let you know that right now. So he's establishing that if you're trying to put the kibosh on David Bryce, I won't let you. And that's coming from a loyal right-hand man, right? That's what the right-hand man should be saying, quite frankly. I don't know if I'd view Scott Pritchett as a villain. I would view him as someone who's very loyal to a corrupt person and a killer. But does that make him a villain necessarily? It depends on...

Who's being killed? Perhaps. Or perhaps not. There's this wry comedy here too. Fred Dalton Thompson, the former senator and former actor, he's passed away now. And Fred Dalton Thompson was in many movies, including the 1991 edition of Cape Fear.

And look at this guy again. This is Kevin. And again, I swear this guy is someone who is working on the outside against the interests of the United States. Why would this scene be here otherwise? You know what I mean? You don't put a scene in the movie without it having some connective tissue later. And I've had some questions about why some of the scenes are here in this film. But believe me, I'm beginning to see now that they do relate to later events.

Yeah, look at this. And Kevin Costner's on the phone. And the really interesting thing here is that you might make a case about Marshall, the CIA guy. That's who Fred Dalton Thompson's playing. And you've got to wonder, what is going on here? And you've got Kevin Costner on two phones here at the same time. Or one phone at the same time. Triangulation. Kevin Costner in the background. These two guys in the foreground with Gene Hackman right up close to us.

And again, more triangulation. There's always a shadowing. There's always someone following Kevin Costner or right by his side. It's kind of this idea that someone who is anathema to the United States is hiding in plain sight. Now, you're going to see Sam here, who, by the way, George Zunza, who was in Basic Instinct back in 1992, is going to reveal an image, but it's not the image that

is going to be a reveal it's obviously a training tape and we're going to see this baboon and we can see the memory and i don't think that that even needed to be there really but i think it's there to remind us more than it is to remind kevin costa's character i have a feeling that might even have been a reshoot who knows just to put that insert in there to remind people that hey look yeah the polaroid picture that sean young took

Here we go. Here's where Nina comes in. Oh, yes. Oh, I need to go and see her. Yeah, yeah. Then he goes, and he goes, I was just about to send my men. Well, yeah, well, your men aren't going to be the ones to be going here. Because if he had sent his men, Kevin Costner would be in some deep doo-doo. And here, this is one of the scenes I really love.

And I love how these two actors, Iman and Kevin Costner, really play this off without really saying a word to each other for the most of this scene. Look at this. Look at the eyes. Look at the way that, listen to how Kevin Costner's speaking. She's already picked up on it, what's going on, and she plays along with him. Look at the way he's looking at her, Kevin Costner, that is. Iman is playing this off really well, and she just looks at him. Look at that. And then she looks back at Pritchard.

And she's clear on what needs to be done here. She's very adept, very smart. Obviously, she's very perceptive. And I tend to believe that most women are. And a lot of men are not as perceptive as a lot of women are. And I just think that women in general are much more perceptive and intuitive. Men are less so. And in this moment, in this film...

Nina, played by Iman, shows us how she plays this off. And Kevin Costner has to go and intervene. You can see what he's doing. You know, if Pritchard ever turned around and saw that, I mean, the movie would be over. Now, Scott Pritchard knows how to wield power. And so he's going to threaten Iman, Nina, with extradition, deportation to South Africa.

And this is all in the service of trying to get her to spill the beans or at least be more direct and forthcoming with the information that Kevin Costner does not want her giving out.

Here's the triangulation. Look at the claustrophobic moment. He's inserted there, Kevin Costner, between Iman and Will Patton, and it's a real tight angle. You see it. Look at that. Look at that. You want to talk about some claustrophobia right there. He's boxed in. And look, he has got that vase that he's about to... Look at this. He's about... Look, he's holding onto that vase. You know, if this scene goes on for another...

minute and a half, two minutes, I would swear to you that Costa's going to waylay, absolutely waylay Pritchard. But he puts that vase down because he knows that she's talking her way out of it. Look, wow. Close, close, close. Look at that look on Iman's face. Yeah, she absolutely played along and played it off very well there. I think to some degree when you were

running some kind of counterintelligence, you know that there isn't, it's not even to some degree, it's to any degree, you know that it's not just one person who's in on it. There has to be a whole load of people in on this for it to work intrinsically. There is no way that you could have some kind of counterintelligence operation where only one person knows what's going on. Kevin Costner is studying this gift and obviously he has a flashback.

right here, right, to that moment. And again, I'm not so sure that that needs to be there other than the reminder to the audience, but audiences are sophisticated enough to know what that is, right? I mean, that's really what I think is going on here. And now you've got the tantrum again. Gene Hackman goes into a tantrum. You've got these angry white men who are just shouting and screaming at each other.

And Gene Hackman is now going to be put in his place by the senator that he's sparring with. And you're going to see Gene Hackman get ticked off at Pritchard. Pritchard is trying to appease the senator, allay his fears. And, you know, you're going to see Gene Hackman throw the book at Scott Pritchard after the senator leaves.

I just think it's funny he's reading a top secret document and it looks like the pages are blank. Look. It looks like all those pages that he's flicking through are blank. I mean, you only see the backs of them, but it looks like they're, oh, they're not. Okay. I was about to have a field day with that. Watch this. Again, the comic relief. It's a comedy. I insist that No Way Out is a comedy.

And I guarantee you that it is. I defy you to tell me otherwise. I think that Gene Hackman is struggling for relevance. I think his character is trapped between the old school Washington, D.C. ways and the ways of the 1980s D.C. I think that

It was really crude in the 1980s in terms of D.C. Now, there's been a lot of crude things about Washington, D.C. in terms of politics way before 1980s ever showed up on the calendar, but

But I think that Gene Hackman's character, David Bryce, is at the tail end of his career. He's a lifer in politics. You just get this biographical sketch in your mind. He's been around the block. He probably served in Nixon's administration, and now he's in this administration, which would have been Reagan, Ronald Reagan, in the 80s. We don't see who the president is in this movie, but it would have been Reagan at the time of this movie. And so he's...

kind of at a point now where he feels particularly sensitive to the idea that he could be lodged out of power and sensitive to the idea that some senator is going to try to bully him. Now, this scene is farcical in some ways. It's another tone shift in the film because now we're going to go on an action chase, car chase here, and Kevin Costner's going to be chasing after these two men whom he calls the Death Squad.

Yet that does not allay his fears about them or anything else. And so he's going to speed after them here. Hi. Hello. And then they speed off. So he's chasing them. And what we're going to end up seeing here in a moment is them chasing him. So instead of he's chasing them and instead of him going after them, he's chasing them. But now they're coming after him on foot.

It's just crazy. It's just farcical. And we can see there's a stuntman there. Not Kevin Costner in the trees, right? That's clearly not Kevin Costner there. And then, of course, he's going to fall. And then it is Kevin Costner there. That's a long drop, even though it doesn't seem that way. And now what they're going to do is keep chasing. And this chase goes on and on. It's very funny how this scene...

ends up, I'll talk about it in a few minutes. But if you want a bit of exercise, try this, you know, try running full tilt like this. Keep yourself going and then it's a good workout. And Kevin Costner and his chasers are getting a really good workout here. This is one of the parts of the film that I think is really funny in some ways.

Look at this. He's going down an escalator, going down the banister of the escalator, and then he's going to jump. And he's going to jump over the turnstile. So he's going to be a fair beater. And then he's going to try to, you know, knock people out of his way. And he's going to end up jumping into this Washington, D.C. metro.

And they're all looking at him like, what the hell is this guy doing? And look at this guy. He knocks one of the people right over the banister. And watch this. Just as the doors are closing. Yeah, they're going to get you, motherfucker. And then he just lets

And then look at that. You've seen that scene in the movie many a time, right? Where they get right close to the person and then the doors close on them. And he's like looking at them through the glass. You've seen that many times. Look at that sister there, that black woman looking up at him. Like, yeah, like what? Ha ha ha ha.

Funny stuff, funny stuff, funny. But again, this chase is not over yet, though. See, that's the thing. You would have thought, that's why I keep saying this movie is not what it seems. You would have thought that the chase would be over there. Ah, he got away in the train. But no, he's still running. He's now chasing himself, right? He's creating the chase of no one because now he's running for no reason. Well, actually, there is a reason. He's running.

Because he's looking to contact Nina because Nina's life is in danger. So he knew how to instinctively pluck her from. Of all the places in that mall, he knew instinctively where to go, right? Okay. Yeah, right. You don't mean to say that, huh? So now he's saying to her, you got to get out of here. Get lost. Go, go, go, right? Now these guys are still chasing him. So they went to the mall. And now not only that, it's going to look as if

Kevin Costner's trying to give the guy a blowjob. Look at this. His face is right in his crotch right here. Look at this. Look at this. What is he doing? What is he doing? And then he's zipping up his fly, which just makes it just... I'll keep telling you this is a comedy. I'll keep telling you this is a comedy. And I'm not being made out in a liar. Oh, he's real all right. This Yuri fella? Oh, he's real all right. And of course, that's another in-joke, right?

And all of these guys are losing their lunch. Pritchard is shouting now. You know, it's so interesting because these two started out as friends in this movie. And now they're turning into mortal enemies. And now look at that. I'm going to just now knock all the papers off the desk. And, you know, again, these two are angry men.

And these two guys that he just was chasing and just chased him, they're not coming to get him. They're just standing there and he just pushes them out the way. Why isn't he running away from them? It just doesn't make any sense. They're chasing, but they're not apprehending. This is a foreshadowing. Well, I don't give a shit about Big Brother. Isn't that interesting? And now nobody gives a shit about Big Brother. And I'm not talking about the TV series.

A gift to a true friend. Good boy, you can come back now. Okay, so who is he talking to? Who is he talking to? That's the key. Now, what's interesting here is that we can see that that Polaroid image, which is on that screen that we've been looking at for a moment there, is going to eventually come in.

But what this is about is Kevin Costner trying to, and we see a brief reflection there of him, is trying to buy time because he knows what that Polaroid's going to show. So he's going to tell Sam to slow things down and to do this and do that and forestall it and all the rest of it. And then here they are again, these two. And there's going to be this apology here, you know, this apology tour.

And I just think that this scene also is a little bit off. I just find those two characters to be very interesting. I think what Kevin Costner's character is trying to do here is some research while also trying to come up with a counter strategy on absolving himself but also solving this crime. And he obviously knows who did it.

surmises who did it and now he's got to try to come up with the goods that will be good enough to establish who the killer of Sean Young's character is. He looks like he just stepped out of a band box. You're actually enjoying this, aren't you? Oh, this is funny stuff. Again, look at these two. These two, I mean, really this is all a parody. It's all one big joke.

Really, it is. And I mean, I'm not saying that the film is an absolute joke. It's not. It's a very well-crafted film. But I'm simply saying that what it depicts, a lot of it is just absolutely comical and farcical. It truly is. There's an absurdity of trying to guess, right?

What move to make next on the chessboard and both Pritchard and Farrell are playing chess But there's an absurdity about the chess they're playing but they're playing two different types of chess as I said earlier Except two different types of jigsaw puzzle. They're trying to solve but I think it's each other's jigsaw puzzle Not their own these two are so funny Hans and Franz. Oh my gosh You've got to stick them in a Saturday Night Live sketch. Those two would do just fine. Oh

Now the confession, and there's going to be some confessionals. Here it is, the first real confessional, I guess. I'm the one in the picture, Sam, and look at George Zunza. There's kind of this over-dramatization. You? And his eyes are all, look at, look at, watch this, look. Watch it, watch it. George Zunza, look, look at him. Look at his eyes, Sam.

And it's just really sad. I mean, again, these actors are just slightly... There's an extra beat to what they do with their eyes and with their vocals. It's just... I don't know. I think the director did a really good job with this. He told them to act it out, but not too much, but just a little beat where you can see something is not quite on. Look.

And if they hold that gaze for another three or four seconds, they'll burst out into laughter. That's what you sense with some of these interactions. And you can see it here. It is farcical. By its very nature, it's farcical. Look at that look on George Zunza's face. Then he has to come over to David Pamer, who, of course, is in such films as Mr. Saturday Night. And he blows up at David Pamer.

Just do what I want, okay? Everybody turns around and looks at him. I mean, if you look at the back of that wheelchair, it says, oh, of course I'm not a stunt driver, I'm drunk. Or, of course I'm drunk, I'm not a stunt driver. I mean, that's, again, another little thing in there that shows that things are just a little off. Yeah, the goon squad is continuing to shadow him. Look. Look at, he's being shadowed again. Look. Again, I keep telling you, there are these moments, a lot of moments in this movie where he's being followed.

as if they know something about him. I would rather do this myself. I mean, there's this undercurrent of homoeroticism in the movie. There just is. You know, the fact that Bill is deprived of his voyeuristic endeavor, the fact that the bellboy has to be kicked out of the hotel room after he's been tipped as if he wants a piece of the action. Now you've got this guy following Kevin Costa to the bathroom,

And Kevin Costner says, you can listen if you want. I mean, yeah, there's this. It's just really funny. I just find this every time. It just gets funnier and funnier. Now, he's making a phone call here to someone. And I suspect it's someone that he is in league with. I think that's what's going on. Another person who somehow is on the outside looking in or on the inside looking out.

I'll get there as soon as I can come away. See? Of course, the question is, where is there? Oh, baby, he's been made. And now he has to get the fuck out. Well, what are my orders? Close all the exits, Major. It's just really, I mean, again, it's kind of comical, isn't it? This guy's a chief inspector in the investigative officer division. He's asking Tom Farrell what the orders are and...

Of course, Tom Fowle's going to send him on another wild goose chase. That image is taking shape. The absurdity here of this, you know, tall or short, light or dark. Oh, let's go find this average son of a... Oh, my Lord. I mean, here's the bellhop, right? Here's the, you know, the valet. I mean, he's just... They're all there. It's like a fancy dress party, isn't it? The bellhop and the bellboy is kind of, oh, baby, baby.

Now you're in the shit. See, there's this plan that Pritchard thinks is coming together and he's got this real confidence about it. And David is sitting there like the child who needs to be reassured by his dad that everything's going to be all right. Yeah, well, to a point, it will be all right. To a point. So all of this information is being...

revealed in this printout. Remember those printouts from back in the day? Now what we are going to be able to see is some of the evidence that obviously Tom Farrell needs to take himself out of contention for guilty, guilty, guilty. And it's really funny to see all of this happens. It's just really remarkable how much you can actually get away with

when you're searching a building that's the largest building in the world by sheer area. I mean, it's really amazing. The more people that are around, the more you can probably get away with, even in a building like the Pentagon. It's just so massive a space. And I love how Major Donovan is telling all these people, hey, look, you're going to have to search every inch of this place. And we're going to start from the bottom all the way up. And they're all following him. Look,

And he thinks he's got this licked, like Pritchard thinks he's got it licked. But neither of them really does. Now we're going to see more conversation between Tom and Sam. You can see that Tom is getting a bit more urgent and desperate. So he is trying to resort to desperate measures to avoid his cover being blown in any way. You wonder whether or not

Sam is going to believe and trust Tom Farrell. And the answer to that is going to be revealed here in the not too distant future about Sam. Sam's a company man, which means he's probably an institutionalist, which means he's very loyal, not just to his job, but he's very loyal also to the hierarchy and how it operates. And so in that spirit, for better or worse than for him, it will be worse.

He thinks that the best thing to do with the information he's being asked to obtain or asked to restrain is to tell the conflicted soul to fess up to this and do so in front of someone who is really duplicitous. And that person would, of course, be Pritchard. And you'll see a scene in the next five minutes or so that features Pritchard.

And I just find this all to be quite funny. Again, you know, you could easily be forgiven for thinking this is a 1940s film because a lot of this kind of stuff happened in 1940s films. There's very farcical elements to it with these big crowds of people. And now Kevin Costner thinks it's a good idea to get himself stained with coffee and

And look, even see that, even that quick look there by Major Donovan suggests a whole lot more than what we're seeing. He obviously knows that Costner is not on the level. Yeah, Sam is really having a crisis of confidence. And so he is going to make a deal with the devil here. Really, it's a deal that he is not going to bear any of the fruits of. I can guarantee you that.

This is the kind of thing that institutions do to people. Some people are so wedded to institutions that they don't utilize their common sense or their safety. And we're going to see in a few short moments just how risk averse all of that will prove to be or risk indulging. And now we've got Kevin Costner on the run again from people chasing him. Of course, this time it's the feds.

Look at how Kevin Constance is just about to close up shop here. And he even, I mean, this guy here is searching and he's even looking up. And look at this. This is really crazy. Look at that. Here we go in a gym at night. And this is not good news for Sam. And you know what's going to happen here. And he thinks, Sam does, that he's made the right call with Pritchard.

And it's just the two of them and the rule in Washington, D.C. or anywhere else, never meet with someone at an indoor gym at an ungodly hour of the night to talk about loyalty. Because I think there's really some theme to be learned from that. And Sam learns it oh so late and too late to really have it register with him.

Now, this information has been given to Pritchard by Sam about Tom Farrell, and he's just spilling his guts to the wrong guy. He was better off saying all this to a therapist. But Scott Farrell will have to do, except for what he's about to do to Sam Hesselman. Oh, gosh. Three bullet holes. Oh, my God. So we know where Pritchard is and what he stands for and how much of a scumbag he is.

At this point, I think he would be fair to say that he's a villain, but I do actually see something about Pritchard that's very tragic, apart from the obvious, is that he's someone who is living his life the way he wants to. Yes, he is revealed to be a gay man, and in the 1980s, that was really frowned upon in this country. It still is frowned upon in this country in certain quarters, but...

But in the 1980s, especially under Ronald Reagan, being gay in the United States was something that you didn't tell everybody. And there were obvious reasons why people didn't do that, especially in 1980. It's a world of difference now, though, for the most part, that...

Pritchard's probably in the 1980s there living a very good happy life but he's also wondering about what might have been I think and I think some of that bleeds into this film for such a remarkable I mean quite interesting figure I'd say here comes that chase scene again it's like the third or fourth time and again this is very much a red herring because when they if they catch up to him

And they do catch up to him. They're not going to really do anything to him. There is one thing that you'll see happen in the moment. But these chases are really false in some ways, right? They're really false right there. There's this struggle and there's the razor and he's running away and they're chasing again. I mean, how many times are we going to see a chase scene like this one? Look, the...

It's really funny to me. I find this film to be very funny. And look at this. He's fighting to get past him. And then look, he's shouting, arrest this man, arrest him. And he's compelling him to do it. And then he kicks him in the balls, which is just absolutely crazy. Look at this.

Like what? I mean, what is this? This guy is shouting it. I mean, this whole thing is just a theater. It's a circus. It's a total circus. And you got Kevin Costner raging again and shouting. And then you've got this guy. And David is now saying, oh, what are you talking about? Oh, I had no idea that you're talking about me because I know it was me who killed her. But now he sees that there is a computer with his name on it.

kevin costner is so desperate here i'll nail you to the wall like he's got this high moralistic horse that he's clambered onto and it's like oh yeah yuri must be close well yeah he's standing right there it's kind of like the major donovan character is the soundtrack to this whole movie except he's kind of a little bit late and everybody's going

Q Major, thank you so much for your contribution, but you're about three minutes late. Oh dear. And every time he gets closer than three minutes late, they just shove him into the, oh, go continue your search. And it's just, again, it's all these red herrings and tongue in cheek moments that make this movie really worthwhile. And everybody knows Scott Pritchard does. Total.

is not who he thinks he is. Somebody's quoting Latin. You have no idea what men of power can do. And yeah, this is the rejoinder to the triangulation scene earlier in the movie, and now it's a whole lot more intense and claustrophobic. Look how close they are, all three of them. That is a shot and a half, isn't it? Look at them. They're basically dancing together and having an orgy without the clothes coming off. I mean...

I mean, seriously, look at this, how close. I mean, this is some kind of tangled love affair or threesome, but now you see it's these two, right? Now David has to be the father to Scott, and you see that, right? After Scott was trying to bring David Bryce down from the ledge, off the ledge, now you're seeing the opposite way around, and

Yeah, Scott is not dealing with this very well, especially when you have... This is really wild. We see that Scott now is unraveling. You've got these two in the background fighting and fighting, and we now know what's going to happen. We know that Scott's going to make this fateful decision. There we go. I mean, this is it here now. And he's like, no, don't do it. And he does it, right? He ends his own life and...

And really, that's a guy that is conflicted. He's been entrapped and he's been pressured and he's got a bad outcome. So he's going to take himself out of there like a coward. And now everybody's coming in right after the fact. It's all over now. The Lord Mayor's show has already ended. And now you've got your search is over, Major. And I thought that was a smart line from Gene Hackman.

Because Gene Hackman wants to get out of this. He doesn't want to be associated with the murder that he actually committed. So if he tells Major Donovan that, hey, look, your search is over, that absolves both of them. He does Kevin Costner's character a favor as well, right? Because now no one's going to ask about a potential fly in the ointment, for lack of a better word. And no one's going to think to even care to talk about a possible murder, right?

well, an actual murder by David Bryce. That's just not going to be talked about. So there's a twofer going on there. And watch this Marshall CIA. That's the notice, the blood-soaked notice. Costner writes, Marshall, of course, is played by. Yes. And here we are with more of this and real reveal now of Kevin Costner. Finally, fast forward.

approaching the end and we now see, right, that that's him. And we know that now we're gonna see what happens as a result of the revelations. We go to this moment where Costa's character is sitting out in a field near a cemetery and by a cemetery and he's, that's obviously Sean Young's grave. Notice there's no headstone there at all. I wonder if that's deliberate for the purposes of the film.

But you see what's happened here, right? And he reflects before he is told to come in by these two men, the men that we saw at the very beginning of the film. There's the mirror and look at what we're seeing here now, right? And then there's this image on the TV monitor. And here we go. Look, he's looking in that mirror. Now, it's very clear that

We know now that Kevin Costner's character is Yuri, the Russian spy. Wow. I tell you, when I first saw this, I nearly dropped out of my seat. That's how stunned I was. I never guessed in the first viewing of this movie that Kevin Costner was the Russian spy. So Pritchard was right about something after all, even in death. And then the accent comes out too. Wow. Even his hair looks kind of flat on top, right? But it makes...

Costas' performance is even better. And there's the guy that we've seen throughout a couple of times in the movie before, who obviously is Russian, and he's someone who is a point of contact, a facilitator, right? You're a hero of the Soviet Union. And this movie was out before the East German side of, well, East Germany, before that got annexed, right? I mean, that's where we are. I mean, staggering.

I love this triangulation here, right? There's a triangulation there and he gets out of it. You know, he could have been killed, but the guy says he has nowhere to go, right? I guess that's where the title No Way Out comes from. But I think even the title of this film is a bit of a cheat too, because a bit of a conceit, because there is a way out and everybody has a way out.

in this movie. I mean, Sean Young did beyond her control. So did Scott. He chose a way out. Gene Hackman chose a way out. And now Kevin Costner. This film is indeed dedicated to the memory of the cinematographer John Alcott, who did a really good job with this film. And this shot's a terrific one as well as the credits come up here. And Maury Shaw's orchestra, you know, his score is brilliant.

as it was in Fatal Attraction that same year, 1987. And we see these credits and we see this really sweeping one shot and this one unbroken shot that we're going to soon see fade to black. And if you look very carefully in this film, you'll still be able to see the Washington Monument. You'll be able to see

the pentagon and you may even be able to see the united states capitol building all in this shot and that's an absolutely unbelievable feat and it shows you how very good uh the cinematography was from mr alcott john alcott and i and i say rest in power to him

And my deepest condolences to his family. He passed away quite a few years back now. And I must say, his cinematography really made the grade here. I really thought his cinematography was terrific in this film. And now you see everything fade to black. And then you see, of course, the closing credits continue to climb.

I am, you know, Laura Ziskin was one of the producers on this film. She has since passed away. I spoke to her many years ago on an Oscars weekend in Los Angeles, and she couldn't have been nicer. She was a really decent person, a really nice person. And she was a really good producer too, great film producer. And she was one of the producers of this film. So yeah, you know, I give my best to her family. My deepest condolences to her family as well after all these years.

Really good soundtrack and I gotta say No Way Out's a really good film in case you didn't realize that I have said that before. But it's a very clever movie in some ways. Some of it seems a little bit unnecessary but I think the film overall is excellent.

The script is very well done. The performances are very good from top to bottom. Kevin Costner was terrific, as was Will Patton and Gene Hackman as well. All of them were good. Iman, Jason Bernard. Again, a spy in our midst. Who knew? Who knew in 1987 that that would be so true of this day and has been true for quite some time in the United States of America and elsewhere.

My name is Omar Moore. Thank you for listening to this audio commentary for No Way Out. I really appreciate your time and thank you and take care of yourselves. And I can be found on social media, Popcorn R-E-E-L, the popcorn reel. Take care.

So there you have it. That was the entirety of the audio commentary that I did for the film No Way Out, released theatrically in 1987 in the United States. I do hope you enjoyed that. It's a radical departure from what I normally do on the Politocrat Daily Podcast. But then again, it is Christmas, and I do hope that you are enjoying it. Thank you very much for listening to this edition.

Of the Politocrat, I'm Omar Moore.