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Blow Out
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Blow Out
Blow Out is a 1981 American neo-noir mystery thriller film written and directed by Brian De Palma. It stars John Travolta as a sound technician from Philadelphia who, while recording sounds for a low-budget slasher film, unintentionally captures audio evidence of an assassination. Nancy Allen stars as Sally Bedina, a young woman involved in the crime. The supporting cast includes John Lithgow and Dennis Franz.
Based on Michelangelo Antonioni's 1966 film Blowup, Blow Out replaces the medium of photography with audio recording. The concept of Blow Out came to De Palma while he was working on the thriller Dressed to Kill (1980). Independently produced and distributed by Filmways Pictures, the film was shot in late 1980 in various Philadelphia locations on a budget of $18 million.
Blow Out opened to little audience interest but mostly positive reviews. The performances of Travolta and Allen, the direction and the visual style were cited as the strongest points. Critics also recognized the stylistic and narrative connection to the work of Alfred Hitchcock, whom De Palma admires, and giallo films. It has developed status as a cult film.
While in post-production on the low-budget slasher film Co-ed Frenzy, Philadelphia sound technician Jack Terry is instructed by his producer Sam to obtain a more realistic-sounding scream and better wind effects. As he records potential sound effects at a local park, Jack sees a car careen off the road and plunge into a creek. The male driver is killed, but Jack manages to rescue a young woman named Sally Bedina and accompanies her to a hospital. There, a detective interviews Jack about the accident, and Jack asks Sally out for a drink. He learns that Governor George McRyan, a presidential hopeful, was driving the car and that Sally was his escort. An associate of McRyan, Lawrence Henry, persuades Jack to conceal her involvement by smuggling her out of the hospital.
Listening to his recorded audio of the accident, Jack hears a gunshot just before the tire blow-out, suspecting that it was actually an assassination. He learns from a news report that, seemingly coincidentally, a man named Manny Karp filmed the accident with a motion picture camera. When Karp sells stills from his film to a local tabloid, News Today Magazine, Jack splices them together into a crude movie, syncs them with his recorded audio and finds a visible flash and smoke from the fired gun. Though initially reluctant, Sally eventually agrees to help Jack privately investigate the incident. Over a drink, Jack reveals how he left his prior career as part of a government commission to root out police corruption after a wiretap operation he was involved in led to the death of an undercover cop named Freddie Corso.
Unbeknownst to Jack, Sally and Karp, both frequent blackmail co-conspirators, were hired as part of a larger plot against McRyan. A rival candidate had hired an operative named Burke to hook McRyan with Sally posing as a prostitute, take unflattering pictures of the pair, and publish them to expedite McRyan's withdrawal. However, Burke decided to blow out the tire of McRyan's car with a gunshot, thereby causing the accident. After botching the cover-up of Sally by murdering a look-alike, Burke murders two more look-alike women with piano wire and attributes the deaths to a fictional serial killer, "the Liberty Bell Strangler," so that he can cover up the cover-up when she is successfully murdered.
To help Jack investigate McRyan's murder, Sally steals Karp's film, which, when synced to Jack's audio, clearly reveals the gunshot that precipitated the blow-out. Nevertheless, nobody believes Jack's story and a seemingly widespread conspiracy immediately silences his every move. Local talk-show host Frank Donahue asks to interview Jack on air and release his tapes, to which Jack eventually agrees. Burke follows the development by tapping Jack's phone, calls Sally as Donahue, and asks her to meet him at a train station with the tapes. When Sally tells Jack about Donahue's call, he becomes suspicious. He copies the audio tapes, but is unable to copy the film before Sally's meeting.
Shadowing a wired Sally from a distance, Jack is alarmed to see that his supposed contact is actually Burke. Immediately realizing that she is in danger, Jack attempts to warn her, but she and Burke slip out of range and into a parade. Jack manically dashes across the city, attempting to head them off and rescue her, but crashes his Jeep into the window of a department store and is incapacitated. By the time he awakens in a parked ambulance, Burke has stolen the film from Sally and thrown it into a river. Still listening in on his earpiece, Jack spots Burke attacking her on a rooftop, startles him and ultimately stabs him to death with his own weapon, but shockingly discovers that Sally has already been strangled, cradling her lifeless corpse in his arms.
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Blow Out
Blow Out is a 1981 American neo-noir mystery thriller film written and directed by Brian De Palma. It stars John Travolta as a sound technician from Philadelphia who, while recording sounds for a low-budget slasher film, unintentionally captures audio evidence of an assassination. Nancy Allen stars as Sally Bedina, a young woman involved in the crime. The supporting cast includes John Lithgow and Dennis Franz.
Based on Michelangelo Antonioni's 1966 film Blowup, Blow Out replaces the medium of photography with audio recording. The concept of Blow Out came to De Palma while he was working on the thriller Dressed to Kill (1980). Independently produced and distributed by Filmways Pictures, the film was shot in late 1980 in various Philadelphia locations on a budget of $18 million.
Blow Out opened to little audience interest but mostly positive reviews. The performances of Travolta and Allen, the direction and the visual style were cited as the strongest points. Critics also recognized the stylistic and narrative connection to the work of Alfred Hitchcock, whom De Palma admires, and giallo films. It has developed status as a cult film.
While in post-production on the low-budget slasher film Co-ed Frenzy, Philadelphia sound technician Jack Terry is instructed by his producer Sam to obtain a more realistic-sounding scream and better wind effects. As he records potential sound effects at a local park, Jack sees a car careen off the road and plunge into a creek. The male driver is killed, but Jack manages to rescue a young woman named Sally Bedina and accompanies her to a hospital. There, a detective interviews Jack about the accident, and Jack asks Sally out for a drink. He learns that Governor George McRyan, a presidential hopeful, was driving the car and that Sally was his escort. An associate of McRyan, Lawrence Henry, persuades Jack to conceal her involvement by smuggling her out of the hospital.
Listening to his recorded audio of the accident, Jack hears a gunshot just before the tire blow-out, suspecting that it was actually an assassination. He learns from a news report that, seemingly coincidentally, a man named Manny Karp filmed the accident with a motion picture camera. When Karp sells stills from his film to a local tabloid, News Today Magazine, Jack splices them together into a crude movie, syncs them with his recorded audio and finds a visible flash and smoke from the fired gun. Though initially reluctant, Sally eventually agrees to help Jack privately investigate the incident. Over a drink, Jack reveals how he left his prior career as part of a government commission to root out police corruption after a wiretap operation he was involved in led to the death of an undercover cop named Freddie Corso.
Unbeknownst to Jack, Sally and Karp, both frequent blackmail co-conspirators, were hired as part of a larger plot against McRyan. A rival candidate had hired an operative named Burke to hook McRyan with Sally posing as a prostitute, take unflattering pictures of the pair, and publish them to expedite McRyan's withdrawal. However, Burke decided to blow out the tire of McRyan's car with a gunshot, thereby causing the accident. After botching the cover-up of Sally by murdering a look-alike, Burke murders two more look-alike women with piano wire and attributes the deaths to a fictional serial killer, "the Liberty Bell Strangler," so that he can cover up the cover-up when she is successfully murdered.
To help Jack investigate McRyan's murder, Sally steals Karp's film, which, when synced to Jack's audio, clearly reveals the gunshot that precipitated the blow-out. Nevertheless, nobody believes Jack's story and a seemingly widespread conspiracy immediately silences his every move. Local talk-show host Frank Donahue asks to interview Jack on air and release his tapes, to which Jack eventually agrees. Burke follows the development by tapping Jack's phone, calls Sally as Donahue, and asks her to meet him at a train station with the tapes. When Sally tells Jack about Donahue's call, he becomes suspicious. He copies the audio tapes, but is unable to copy the film before Sally's meeting.
Shadowing a wired Sally from a distance, Jack is alarmed to see that his supposed contact is actually Burke. Immediately realizing that she is in danger, Jack attempts to warn her, but she and Burke slip out of range and into a parade. Jack manically dashes across the city, attempting to head them off and rescue her, but crashes his Jeep into the window of a department store and is incapacitated. By the time he awakens in a parked ambulance, Burke has stolen the film from Sally and thrown it into a river. Still listening in on his earpiece, Jack spots Burke attacking her on a rooftop, startles him and ultimately stabs him to death with his own weapon, but shockingly discovers that Sally has already been strangled, cradling her lifeless corpse in his arms.