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No Way Out (1987)
In Roger Donaldson's suspenseful, twisting political
thriller (an update of the 1946 Kenneth Fearing potboiler The
Big Clock, originally adapted for the big screen as The Big
Clock (1948) and starring Ray Milland):
- the hot and passionate love affair between Pentagon
naval attache Lt. Commander Tom Farrell (Kevin Costner) and the
Defense Secretary David Brice's (Gene Hackman) mistress Susan Atwell
(Sean Young); he met her wearing a low-cut evening gown at a Presidential
Inaugural Ball in Washington DC, and after some small talk, 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 seduced her into having
sexual intercourse with him in the back seat of a moving stretch
limousine (chauffeured by an inquisitive driver named Bill) 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"; 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's bed for the evening: "We
need your bed"
Sex in the Back of a Chauffeured Limousine
with Susan Atwell (Sean Young)
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- the scene of Brice's accidental murder of Atwell
who fell from her second floor balcony; Farrell was gathering intelligence
from Atwell (since she was also the mistress of Secretary of Defense
David Brice) when she shockingly turned up dead; the murder was
committed during a jealous rage by the suspicious Brice who brutally
slapped Susan Atwell when questioning her about another lover ("Who
were you with this weekend?" to which she replied: "Why
worry? There's plenty left"); when Brice struck her after
she called him a "pig," she toppled backwards from her
upstairs balcony onto a glass dining room table on the first floor
Susan Atwell's Accidental Murder
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- to cover up, Brice then assigned Farrell with "direct
orders" to investigate and discover Atwell's lover and supposed
DC murderer (a fictional and rumored KGB spy named 'Yuri' who was
seen leaving Atwell's house) -- himself!; Brice's own scheming,
ruthless yet loyal aide General Counsel Scott Pritchard (Will Patton)
described the scandalous problem to Farrell: "Do you realize
the magnitude of the scandal? The Secretary of Defense and a Soviet
agent sharing the favors of a murdered whore"
- Farrell furiously raced against time to find blame
elsewhere during an investigation that might have falsely implicated
him as Atwell's killer, and exposed his real identity; he only had
a few hours to name the killer before a Polaroid negative found at
Atwell's place could place him there and make him a suspect; Farrell
successfully exposed Brice as the actual killer (he proved Brice's
involvement with a computer printout, showing a government-registered
gift of a 'gold jewelry box' given by Brice to Atwell)
- in one of the last startling scenes in the Secretary's
office, Pritchard wanted to pin the murder on Farrell, 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";
feeling threatened, Pritchard - with his gun at Farrell's throat
- then boldy asserted: "You have no idea what men of power can
do"
- then, when Pritchard's superior Brice shifted the
blame from himself to make Pritchard the fall guy in the murder of
Atwell, Pritchard committed suicide (he shot himself in the head)
in their presence (Brice was planning to claim that Pritchard was "fiercely
jealous" of his relationship with Susan, and therefore killed
her)
- the devious trick-surprise ending revealed Farrell's
true loyalty (to the KGB) as the fabled, never-seen mole/spy 'Yuri'
- Farrell, while innocent of murdering high-class mistress-escort
Susan Atwell, was really a KGB sleeper agent who had infiltrated
the Pentagon; the entire film, revealed at the end, was told as a
flashback during Farrell's debriefing at a safehouse with his Soviet
superiors who had commissioned him to seduce Atwell in order to blackmail
Brice; his bosses criticized Farrell 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." A Soviet official
spoke to Farrell (Russian name: Yevgeny Alexeyevich) - in Russian,
seen in English subtitles: "Couldn't you have managed this better?" Farrell
was told that it wasn't possible for him to remain in the US, and
that he must return to Russia: "This bizarre incident has given
them their 'Yuri.'"; but Farrell was reluctant: "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," Farrell
was allowed to leave, although one of the officials 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
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Farrell (Kevin Costner) Assigned to Investigate Susan
Atwell's Lover and Supposed DC Murderer Yuri - Himself!
Pritchard's (Will Patton) Suicide
Reveal in Ending: Lt. Cmdr. Farrell (aka Yuri) with
Soviet Officials
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