Against All Odds (1984 film)

Against All Odds is a 1984 American neo-noir romantic thriller film directed by Taylor Hackford and starring Rachel Ward, Jeff Bridges and James Woods alongside Jane Greer, Alex Karras, Richard Widmark and Dorian Harewood. A remake of Out of the Past (1947), a film in which Greer played the femme fatale, this film's plot is about an aging American football star who is hired by a mobster to find his girlfriend.

Against All Odds
Theatrical release poster
Directed byTaylor Hackford
Screenplay byEric Hughes
Based onOut of the Past
by Daniel Mainwaring
Produced by
  • William S. Gilmore
  • Taylor Hackford
Starring
CinematographyDonald E. Thorin
Edited by
Music byMichel Colombier
Larry Carlton
Production
companies
New Visions
Columbia-Delphi Productions
Distributed byColumbia Pictures
Release date
  • March 2, 1984 (1984-03-02)
Running time
121 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$13 million
Box office$21.7 million (domestic only)

The film's soundtrack, nominated for a Grammy Award, featured songs from Big Country, Kid Creole & the Coconuts, Stevie Nicks and Genesis breakout stars Mike Rutherford, Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins; the last wrote and performed the title song, which was nominated for an Academy Award[1] as Best Original Song[2] and for a Golden Globe Award[3] as Best Original Song, as well as winning the Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male.[4][5]

Plot

Professional football player Terry Brogan is released by his team, the Outlaws. Aging, injured and in need of money, he is contacted by an old acquaintance, gambler and nightclub owner Jake Wise. Jake wants Terry to locate his girlfriend, Jessie Wyler, who also happens to be the daughter of the Outlaws' owner. Terry is reluctant to take on the job, but needs the money and knows Wise is capable of blackmailing him for a point-shaving incident.

Terry contacts Jessie's mother, but ends up mostly trying to convince Mrs. Wyler and her business partner Ben Caxton to reinstate him on the team. While she expresses no interest in his football career, she will pay him more than Jake would if he will instead find Jessie for her.

Hank Sully, the Outlaws team trainer, strongly advises Terry to stay away from Jake and offers to help Terry land a coaching job. Terry is convinced his days as a player are not over and decides to work for Jake to tide him over until he can try to continue his playing career.

Terry finds Jessie living in Cozumel, Mexico. He makes multiple attempts to approach her, but she rebuffs him, as she believes that he has been sent by either Jake or her mother. Terry tires of pursuing her and packs to leave, but Jessie appreciates that he has not revealed her whereabouts. She invites him to see where she is staying and they become lovers. Terry confides to her the leverage Jake has over him.

Terry and Jessie remain happily together for a few weeks. Meanwhile, Terry continues to tell Jake he has been unable to locate Jessie. Jake sends Sully to investigate. He catches the lovers alone at the ruins of Chichen Itza. After a confrontation and ensuing struggle between Terry and Hank, Jessie fatally shoots Sully. She wants to flee, as the two will be unable to offer an explanation that will allow them to avoid jail. Terry refuses and Jessie quickly abandons him.

After disposing of Sully's body, Terry returns to Los Angeles. There he is astonished to discover that Jessie has returned to Jake. Jake invites Terry to his nightclub where he tells him that he wants him to break into the office of Steve Kirsch, the Outlaw’s corrupt lawyer, who is also involved in Jake's gambling operation. After leaving the nightclub, Terry goes to Jake's house to see Jessie. After a desperate confrontation, she admits both her love for him and the hold Jake now has over her after learning she was directly involved in Sully's death.

Terry breaks into the office only to find Kirsch dead. Terry fights off a security guard, then hides Kirsch's body. He tracks down Kirsch's secretary, Edie, tells her what has happened, and warns that she is also in danger. Edie tells him about a secret box that contains the information to bring down the entire syndicate and local politicians. They return to the office to retrieve the box.

Jake tells Jessie that he's had Kirsch killed and framed Terry for the murder. She goes to her mother's house and informs Caxton that Jake has been handling bets on his old football team using information he had been given by Sully and Kirsch. What she doesn't know is that Caxton is actually Jake's boss at the syndicate.

Caxton takes charge. He arranges to meet Terry at the site of a new construction project that he and Mrs. Wyler are backing. Terry is able to disarm Caxton's henchman Tommy. He says his price for turning over the files is that Caxton must take down Jake. Caxton indicates he is receptive to that idea, whereupon Jake pulls his own gun and threatens to kill Jessie, forcing Terry to drop his weapon. While the men have their attention focused on each other, Jessie retrieves the dropped gun and shoots Jake, killing him.

Having killed both Jake and Sully, she must agree to terms set by Caxton to avoid going to jail. Caxton's terms include Jessie returning to her estranged mother's side and ending her relationship with Terry.

Months later, Terry stays in the background while attending a publicity function for Caxton's and Mrs. Wyler's construction project. He just wants a last look at Jessie before leaving Los Angeles to resume his football career in Miami. Forced to acknowledge he is no longer a part of Jessie's life, Terry predicts that one day Jessie will break free of the hold that Caxton and Mrs. Wyler have on her. In the meantime, all Terry and Jessie can do is stare at one another from a distance.

Cast

Soundtrack
Main article: Against All Odds (soundtrack)

Production notes
  • The film featured two cameo appearances by stars of Out of the Past on which the film is based: Jane Greer, who played Kathie Moffat in the first movie, plays Rachel Ward's mother (Greer held the infant Jeff Bridges in 1951's The Company She Keeps in a scene with his real life mother, Dorothy Bridges), and Paul Valentine, who played hood Joe Stephanos in the first movie, played a councilman in Against All Odds.
  • Jeff Bridges' age and appearance in this film was used as a reference to re-create a 35-year-old version of him for the characters of Kevin Flynn and CLU in the film Tron: Legacy (2010).[6]

Reception

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 64% of 14 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.2/10.[7] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 42 out of 100, based on 10 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.[8]

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 3 out of 4 stars, saying it dragged in places due to "a lot of plot", but was redeemed by the subtle use of "social criticism".[9] Janet Maslin of The New York Times highlights the effective contrast of Woods and Bridges.[10]

Box office

In the United States and Canada, Against All Odds finished No. 2 at the box office in its opening weekend, staying in the top 10 through its first five weeks; overall, it grossed (domestically) $21.7 million at the box office.[11]

Accolades
Award Category Nominee(s) Result Ref.
Academy Awards Best Original Song "Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)"
Music and Lyrics by Phil Collins		 Nominated [12]
Golden Globe Awards Best Original Song Nominated [13]
Grammy Awards Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or a Television Special Against All Odds – Phil Collins, Stevie Nicks, Peter Gabriel, Stuart Adamson,
Mike Rutherford, August Darnell, Larry Carlton and Michel Colombier		 Nominated [14]
Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male Phil Collins – "Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)" Won [14]

See also

References
  1. "I Just Called To Say I Love You" winning Best Original Song Oscar®-Oscars on YouTube
  2. 1985|Oscars.org
  3. Golden Globes
  4. Take A Look At Phil Collins Now|GRAMMY.com
  5. Phil Collins|Artist|www.grammy.com
  6. "We used Jeff's performance of CLU and remapped it onto a digital version of himself at 35 years old. I used the movie Against All Odds as a reference for CLU's appearance." – Tron: Legacy Director Joseph Kosinski Forces of Geek: Celebrate Your Pop Culture Obsessions1: FOG! Chats With TRON: Evolution Director Joseph Kosinski
  7. "Against All Odds". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved 2023-06-28.
  8. "Against All Odds". Metacritic. Fandom, Inc. Retrieved 2023-06-28.
  9. Ebert, Roger (1984-01-01). "Reviews | Against All Odds". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 2021-10-06 – via RogerEbert.com.
  10. Maslin, Janet (1984-03-02). "Screen: 'Against All Odds'". The New York Times. p. C-14. Archived from the original on 2015-05-24. Retrieved 2021-10-09.
  11. "Against All Odds". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved 2023-06-28.
  12. "The 57th Academy Awards (1985) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Archived from the original on 2011-12-28. Retrieved 2011-10-13.
  13. "Against All Odds – Golden Globes". HFPA. Retrieved June 3, 2021.
  14. "1984 Grammy Award Winners". Grammy.com. Retrieved 1 May 2011.
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