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:

nightclub | mexico | gangster | sex scene | los angeles california | 

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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

Official Sites:

Sony Movie Channel [United States]

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

2 March 1984 (USA)

Also Known As:

Out of the Past

Filming Locations:

Riviera Country Club - 1250 Capri Drive, Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$13,000,000 (estimated)

Gross USA:

$25,100,000

Company Credits

Production Co:

Columbia Pictures Corporation, Columbia-Delphi Productions, New Visions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

128 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

One of three movies directed by Taylor Hackford in the 1980's with a hit song associated with the movie. In this film , the song was "Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)" sung by Phil Collins whereas in Hackford's previous picture An Officer and a Gentleman (1982) the song was "Up Where We Belong" sung by Joe Cocker and in White Nights (1985) the songs were "Say You, Say Me" written and performed by Lionel Richie and "Separate Lives" written by Stephen Bishop and with Collins again as performer along with Marilyn Martin. All of those tunes were Oscar nominated for the Best Song Academy Award, the ones performed by Collins did not win but the Cocker and Richie song did take home the gold statuette.

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Goofs

Jeff Bridges,while definitely in excellent physical shape for the film, clearly could only be a place kicker or a safety on a professional team. His build and size were just not those of a professional football player.

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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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Alternate Versions

CBS edited 9 minutes from this film for its 1986 network television premiere.

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Connections

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

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Soundtracks

BALCONY
Written by Stuart Adamson (as Stewart Adamson)
Performed by Big Country
Produced by Chris Thomas
Courtesy of Phonogram Records Ltd. (London) & Polygram Records

User Reviews

This film does not work. Why not? Now there's a question...

This is the sort of film that you leave, recognizing that the film as a whole never "came together", but trying to figure out just WHERE it went wrong. The script was (or at least should have been) intelligent, the actors were competent... so what went wrong?

The best answer I could come up with (and heaven knows I'm no big shot Hollywood critic) was the way James Woods portrayed the character of Jake. This guy should have come off as a bigger-than-life, high-level Mafioso type; I got the impression of a cheap hood who tried to make himself look big as the front man for the real boss. When Jake orders the ex-football player to do a routine murder and the jock goes along with it, it doesn't underscore what a big man Jake is; it cheapens the lead character to think that he'd take orders to commit murder from the weaselly underling.

It didn't help this movie in the long run - okay, maybe its box office - that the continuous play of Phil Collins' "Against All Odds" on radio and MTV effectively made this movie a must-see... and regardless of how good the tune was and what it was nominated for, the lyrics had NOTHING WHATSOEVER to do with what happened in the course of the movie.