Point of No Return (1993)

Director:

John Badham

Writers (WGA):

Luc Besson (film La Femme Nikita)
Robert Getchell (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

19 March 1993 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Crime | Drama | Romance | Thriller

Tagline:

The Government gave her a choice. Death. Or life as an assassin. Now, there's no turning back.

Plot:

A gang of armed drug-addicts break into a chemist shop to try and steal drugs to fuel their habit. However...

Plot Keywords:

Assassin | Lethal Injection | Black Belt | Washington D.C. | California

Cast

Bridget Fonda	...	Maggie Hayward - Claudia Anne Doran - Nina
Gabriel Byrne	...	Bob
Dermot Mulroney	...	J.P.
Miguel Ferrer	...	Kaufman
Anne Bancroft	...	Amanda
Olivia d'Abo	...	Angela
Richard Romanus	...	Fahd Bahktiar
Harvey Keitel	...	Victor the Cleaner
Lorraine Toussaint	...	Beth
Geoffrey Lewis	...	Drugstore Owner
Mic Rodgers	...	Cop
Michael Rapaport	...	Big Stan
Ray Oriel	...	Burt
Spike McClure	...	Johnny D
Lieux Dressler	...	Johnny's Mom

Also Known As:

The Assassin (Australia) (International: English title) (UK) (USA) (video title)
Girl No. 5 (USA) (working title)
The Assassin - (Point of No Return) (UK) (DVD box title)
The Specialist (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

109 min | Germany:104 min (TV version) | Turkey:101 min (TV version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English | French

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Certification:

Singapore:NC-16 | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:R (Manitoba/Nova Scotia/Ontario) | Portugal:M/16 | Finland:K-16 (re-rating) (uncut) (1993) | Finland:K-16 (DVD) (cut) (1999) | Finland:K-18 (original rating) (uncut) (1993) | Germany:16 (heavily cut) | Philippines:R-18 | USA:R (certificate #32163) | Argentina:13 | France:-12 | Germany:18 | Norway:15 | South Korea:18 | Spain:18 | Sweden:15 | UK:18 | Australia:M | Iceland:16

Filming Locations:

Bourbon Street, French Quarter, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

Cameo: [Michael W. Watkins]last guard at the gate during the escape.

Goofs:

Factual errors: After putting in the password in the nuclear program on the computer near the ending, the lead character tries to copy over 75 megabytes of data onto a floppy disk. This would be impossible considering floppy disks of 1993 could only carry at most 2.88 megabytes of data.

Quotes:

Bob: You can't just pout and decide you don't want to play anymore.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Touch of Satan (#10.8)" (1998)

Soundtrack:

BLACK IS THE COLOR OF MY TRUE LOVE'S HAIR

Violent, stupid but enjoyable

Yes, it's a bad remake of La Femme Nikita--yes, it's overly violent and amoral (but so was the original)--yes, it's REALLY stupid, but I enjoyed it. It moves quickly, Fonda manages to give out a pretty good performance and it's certainly never boring. If you can turn off your brain, and sit through bursts of graphic violence (and a really sick sequence involving Harvey Keitel as "The Cleaner") you should be able to enjoy it. No great movie, just a really good bad movie. Critics predictably hated this movie. There's a now infamous review from the "New Yorker" magazine that's only 9 words long--"The end of French cinema as we know it." Ignore them--this is lots of fun.