Against All Odds (1984)

A gangster hires an ex-football player to find his girlfriend. When he finds her, they fall in love, and the twists start to appear.

Director:

Taylor Hackford

Writers:

Eric Hughes, Daniel Mainwaring

Stars:

Rachel Ward, Jeff Bridges, James Woods

Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 2 wins & 2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Rachel Ward	...	Jessie Wyler
Jeff Bridges	...	Terry Brogan
James Woods	...	Jake Wise
Alex Karras	...	Hank Sully
Jane Greer	...	Mrs. Wyler
Richard Widmark	...	Ben Caxton
Dorian Harewood	...	Tommy
Swoosie Kurtz	...	Edie
Saul Rubinek	...	Steve Kirsch
Pat Corley	...	Ed Phillips
Bill McKinney	...	Head Coach
Allen Williams	...	Bob Soames
Sam Scarber	...	Assistant Coach
Jon St. Elwood	...	Ahmad Cooper
Tamara Stafford	...	Kirsch's Girlfriend

Storyline

Terry Brogan, an aging football player in L.A., is cut early in the season; he needs money, so he takes a job from a shady friend of his, Jake Wise, to track down Wise's girlfriend, Jessie, who's somewhere in Mexico. She's also the daughter of a very wealthy land developer, who owns Terry's team. He heads for Cozumel, finds Jessie, and promptly falls in love with her. He thinks it's mutual, then without warning, she heads back to L.A. and Jake. What's going on with her, and what's the connection between Jake's hold on Jessie and the various politicians, lawyers, and environmentalists who seem to be converging on some sort of land deal? Terry keeps looking for answers.

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Plot Keywords:

gangster | remake | femme fatale | american football | obsessive love | 

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Taglines:

From the director of "An Officer and A Gentleman" comes a different kind of film.

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Crime | Drama | Romance | Thriller

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

2 March 1984 (USA)

Also Known As:

El poder y la pasión

Filming Locations:

Chichén Itzá, Yucatán, Mexico

Box Office

Budget:

$13,000,000 (estimated)

Gross:

$25,100,000 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Columbia Pictures Corporation, New Visions Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

128 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Jeff Bridges was initially director Taylor Hackford's preferred choice for the lead in An Officer and a Gentleman, but Bridges had a packed schedule that particular year (he starred in three big movies) and had to turn it down. Hackford kept Bridges in mind when creating the character of 'Terry Brogan' for this movie.

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Goofs

When Brogan finds Kirsch lying dead in the shower the camera zooms in on a close-up of Kirsch's face. You can see that Kirsch's pupils are constricted by the bright light. A real corpse's eyes would be fully dilated.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Terry Brogan: Señor! Have you, uh, seen this woman?
Taxi driver: Oh - no, sir.
Terry Brogan: Gracias.

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Connections

Referenced in Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film (2006)

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Soundtracks

"WALK THROUGH THE FIRE"
Written and Performed by Peter Gabriel
Courtesy of Geffen Records/Charisma Records

User Reviews

remake of "Out of the Past"

"Against all Odds" is a 1974 moody remake of the noir classic "Out of the Past" and ultimately less successful. This time around, it's not Robert Mitchum and Jane Greer (though Greer appears in this films as the owner of a football team) but Jeff Bridges and Rachel Ward. The film also stars James Woods, Alex Karras, Swoozie Kurtz and Richard Widmark. Ward plays Greer's daughter, who runs away from her boyfriend (Woods). When Bridges is cut from the football team, bookie Wood hires him to find his girlfriend. Trouble follows.

Somewhere post-Thornbirds, the beautiful Ward started playing bad girls. Here she's not so much bad, as Greer's character was in the original, but more of a brat and an ingrate. Totally unlikable. The cast is very good, but too much to type so that there were no surprises in the story. Ward usually plays a user, Woods someone snarky, Widmark bad guys, Greer cold as ice. So after meeting everyone, it wasn't hard to figure out that Bridges was asking for trouble. Oh, and did I mention that Saul Rubinek often plays slime and Pat Corley is usually a crooked politician? It was almost paint by numbers.

Despite some beautiful scenery, some good scenes and good acting, Against All Odds left me disappointed. The plot, as in Out of the Past, is a little convoluted, which would be okay if, at the end, you cared. I didn't.