Film Facts:

Cast: Russell Crowe, Helen Slater, Etsuschi Toyokawa, Michael Lerner, Kelly Hu, Ian Ziering

Shooting Schedule: November 1994, approximately one month shooting

Location: Crescent City, California, Los Angeles, California

Awards:

Plot Summary:

The career of hotshot LA-based FBI agent Zack Grant (Russell Crowe) is jeopardized when he entrusts a skinhead sting operation to neophyte agent Seiko (Kelly Hu). Instead of entrapping the bigots, Seiko obliterates the entire neo-Nazi contingent, including Victor Serlano (Ian Ziering), before throwing herself out a window. Unaware that Seiko's father was beaten to death by these organized thugs, Zack tries to take the heat off his botched operation by linking Seiko to a Yakuza connection, Yuji Kobayashi (Etsushi Toyokawa), in NYC. This lead's Victor's grieving papa, Frank Serlano (Michael Lerner), to kidnap Zack's son, Eric (Andrew Ferchland), in order to persuade Zack to turn Yuji over to the vengeful Mob, instead of to the FBI.

In New York, Zack captures Yuji and boards a plane to LA with his prisoner. Aware that Zack will sacrifice him to save Eric's life, Yuji hijacks the plane, forces it to crash land in Arizona, and temporarily takes chipper stewardess Mary (Helen Slater) as a hostage. Zack recaptures--and loses--Yuji several more times, until a skeptical highway patrolman arrests Zack, Yuji, and Mary. But when Serlano's assassins ambush and kill the cop, the three escape.

Caught in an ethical dilemma about turning in Yuji, Zack decides to trust him after Yuji reveals that he is Seiko's brother, not her employer. At a lakeside rendezvous, Mary distracts Serlano's men, as Zack swims toward a rowboat where Frank Serlano holds Eric. During the ensuing fight, a mortally wounded Yuji wounds Frank Serlano, who falls overboard with Eric. But Zack stops Serlano from drowning the boy, and the reunited father and son turn to Mary as love interest and new mother, respectively. (TV Guide Movies)

Trivia:

The film premiered on HBO and made its home-video debut shortly thereafter.

No Way Back was the first film in which Russell played a dad; semi-sequel to American Yakuza; the gun smuggled on board the airliner by Mr. Contingency is the same non-metallic weapon used by Booth, the would-be presidential assassin in the Clint Eastwood movie, In the Line of Fire (1993).

Favorite Scenes:

The entire first segment involving Seiko was exciting and very well done; the heart-wrenching hospital scene; the “car” sequence with Zack, Mary and Yuji was hilarious; the segment near the end when Zack, Mary and Yuji find Zack’s son.

Comments about Russell:

For the first two weeks of shooting we'd pass each other on the set growling back and forth. Then we did our first scene together in the apartment and I remember him walking up to me very straight faced and saying, 'Do ya know your lines, mate?' And I said, 'Ya.' And then he said, 'Well,then don't screw up 'cause I don't know mine.' Then he burst into laughter and so did I." – Christian Keiber (FBI Agent Carl Dundreff) – Maximum Russell Crowe

Reviews:

Amazon.com video review: The FBI, the Mafia, and the Yakuza (Japanese gangsters) fight to the death in this nonstop action thriller starring Russell Crowe (Gladiator). FBI agent Zack Grant (Crowe) sends beautiful rookie operative Seiko (Kelly Hu) on a sting operation against the depraved, skinhead son of a Mafia kingpin. Little does he know that Seiko is on a revenge mission of her own. This bloody situation escalates into all-out war, as the Mafia kingpin, Frank Serlano (Michael Lerner), and the head Yakuza, Yuji (Etsushi Toyokawa), get into the act. Grant is forced to go renegade from the bureau when Serlano kidnaps his young son, a plot point that certainly raises the story's emotional stakes. During an exciting airplane hijacking sequence, we meet Mary (Helen Slater), a dizzy blonde flight attendant who introduces an unexpected note of comic relief to the proceedings (along with a touch of romance). Crowe is convincing in Dirty Harry mode, bringing his characteristic intensity and empathy to the role. It's fun to watch a former Miss Hawaii, Kelly Hu, display her martial arts mastery, and the performances of Slater and Toyokawa are a cut above the action-genre norm. Still and all, No Way Back falls squarely into the "guilty pleasure" movie category. Writer-director Frank A. Cappello (American Yakuza), provides plenty of slam-bang, shoot-'em-up action, plus enough nail-biting suspense to keep you on the edge of your seat. --Laura Mirsky

A Film Review
Copyright Dragan Antulov 2003

Russell Crowe, before becoming one of the hottest Hollywood stars, had to pass through usual purgatory reserved for all those with stellar ambitions - smaller roles in big movies and big roles in small movies. Russell Crowe's appearance in NO WAY BACK, 1995 action comedy written and directed by Frank A. Cappello, fits the description of the latter.

In this movie Crowe plays Zack Grant, FBI agent who is trying to put behind bars gang of vicious white supremacists who are currently at war with Japanese yakuzas. Grant's efforts are foiled when it turns out that he is not the only one being fooled in a sting operation conducted against the supremacist gang. Seiko Kobayashi (played by Kelly Hu), his undercover agent, reveals herself to be in service of yakuzas and uses sting operation to assassinate supremacist leader Victor Serlano (played by Ian Ziering). Grant is humiliated and decides to track down and arrest her yakuza boss Yuji Kobayashi (played by Etsushi Toyokawa). But this is just the start of his problems - murdered racist happened to be son of mafia boss Frank Serlano (played by Michael Lerner). Mobster kidnaps Zack's seven- year old son Eric (played by Andrew J. Ferchland) and demands the handover of Yuji.

Crowe is not the only star that appears in this obscure little film. The cast of NO WAY BACK features some actors who showed great potential in the past (Helen Slater, Ian Ziering of BEVERLY HILLS 92100 fame) and some who might have it in the future (Kelly Hu of SCORPIO KING). Presence of those actors, however, wouldn't matter much if not for Frank Cappello showing great skill in handling some of the inadequacies of his own script. The plot, full of various motives, cartoonish villains and holes, somehow manages to work because Cappello gracefully shifts between action and comedy, and somewhere along the way he even has time to explore same themes that he had dealt with in his earlier work, AMERICAN YAKUZA - cultural clash and old-fashioned values of loyalty, friendship and honour in modern, globalised world. NO WAY BACK in most likelihood won't enter film histories, but it represent quite fitting title for the real start for Russell Crowe's career.

Web Related Links:

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Maximum Russell Crowe

No Way Back page and pictures