Into the Night (film)

Infobox Film | name =Into the Night


caption = "Into the Night" movie poster
director = John Landis
producer = George Folsey Jr.
Ron Koslow
writer = Ron Koslow
starring =Jeff Goldblum
Michelle Pfeiffer
music = Ira Newborn
cinematography = Robert Paynter
editing = Malcolm Campbell
distributor = Universal Pictures
released = February 15, 1985 (U.S. release)
runtime = 115 min.
language = English
country = USA
budget =
imdb_id = 0089346

"Into the Night" is a 1985 comedy/adventure movie. It stars Jeff Goldblum and Michelle Pfeiffer and was directed by John Landis. It is notable for its plethora of cameos, especially from other notable filmmakers — Amy Heckerling, Jim Henson, Paul Mazursky, Roger Vadim, David Bowie, etc.

Overview

Ed Okin (Goldblum) can't sleep. His life is unsatisfying and his job is dull. All this changes when he runs into Diana (Pfeiffer) at the airport. Suddenly he's in the middle of an international scandal and is unable to escape.

Plot

Ed has an unsatisfying job and suspects his wife may be cheating on him, and does, in fact, catch her in the act. In short, he has an unsatisfying life.

One night, still unable to sleep, on the suggestion of a friend, he goes to the airport in order to fly out to Las Vegas and engage in a liaison with a prostitute recommended him by the friend. After he reaches the airport, he has a change of heart and starts to leave.

Suddenly, a girl fleeing pursuers jumps on the hood of his car and pleads for help. Diana jumps in his car and suddenly Ed is embroiled in a high-speed chase, still unaware of who the girl in his car is or who is chasing them.

Diana persuades Ed to drive her from one location to another, to his growing annoyance. It's late, he's tired and isn't really responsible for this woman or her predicament.

Finally Ed delivers Diana to the set of a television show. Once she contacts her friend, she brushes him off. Unable to locate a phone to get a ride, Ed waits for Diana outside her friend's trailer. Eventually they're kicked off the lot, but not before Diana is able to pass on some valuable items to her friend for safekeeping.

The items she handed over are priceless emeralds from the fallen Shah of Iran's treasury which Diana has just successfully smuggled into the country. Unfortunately, at least two parties know of her operation and are trying to obtain the jewels, former SAVAK agents and a mysterious Frenchman.

These parties have tracked the couple's movement and are ransacking every place they've visited and terrorizing everyone they came in contact with.

Eventually the couple makes their way to the mansion of Diana's friend, Jack (Richard Farnsworth), a millionaire. Sneaking onto his estate, they are greeted warmly by Jack, who is apparently near death and on dialysis. Diana was Jack's mistress, but just recently cut off by Jack's until-recently estranged wife. The couple tells Jack of their strife, but he is unable to help them.

Escorted by the Frenchman, the couple visit Diana's friend's home to retrieve the jewels. Though Diana doesn't realize it, her friend has been murdered, but she is still able to retrieve the emeralds. Returning to the Frenchman's limousine, Diana is able to successfully ditch him and escapes with Ed.

At this point, the couple devises a plan to hand over the jewels to the leader of the SAVAK agents, in a manner that guarantees their own safety. After the handover is complete, the couple successfully has her arrested for the numerous murders her thugs have committed the past day and night while searching for the jewels.

However, Diana is successfully taken as hostage by one of the thugs at the airport. Ed manages to talk to the thug as he holds a gun to Diana's head. Ed opens up to the thug about his own life, and in doing so, somehow correctly guesses that the thug's wife has also been unfaithful, prompting the thug to kill himself, which is surprising since until now, it appeared as if he didn't understand English.

Immediately afterwards, the FBI takes Diana and Ed into custody and whisks them off to a Ramada Inn, where they're given a very large sum of cash by a field agent. He says that it's clean, but from an unidentified source, though Diana suspects it is from her former lover, Jack. After taking a few wads of cash for himself, the agent leaves them alone in the room, telling them they can leave in the morning.

Diana takes the opportunity to shower, washing being something she's been unable to do for at least two days. Ed lays on the bed and switches on the TV. By the time Diana finishes showering, Ed is fast asleep. Apparently, the events of the past few days have given him the balance he's needed to release himself from the grips of insomnia. Diana lets him sleep.

When he awakes in the morning, Diana is gone, but has left a large portion of the cash for him. As he is leaving, Diana meets him in the corridor and asks him for a ride to the airport. It is apparent that they are going to run away together.

Trivia

*B.B. King contributed several songs to the film's soundtrack.
*Michelle Pfeiffer is a passenger in a Cadillac Eldorado convertible (a 1959 model); in a previous film, "Scarface", she refuses to become a passenger in a similar Eldorado.
*David Bowie and Carl Perkins fight to the backdrop of Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. Cast members of that film receive credits in this one.

Cameos

Eighteen film directors, one make-up artist and one screenwriter have cameos in the film:
*Paul Mazursky co-stars as beachhouse owner and accused drug dealer Bud Herman.
*Roger Vadim also co-stars as Monsieur Melville, the French kidnapper.
*The man on the elevator with the "nice dog" is played by Jack Arnold.
*The top-hatted doorman at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel is Paul Bartel.
*Ed's boardroom supervisor is played by David Cronenberg.
*The aerospace engineer sitting next to Herb (Dan Aykroyd) in the cafeteria is played by Richard Franklin.
*Amy, the clumsy waitress in Ship's Restaurant, is Amy Heckerling.
*Mr. Williams (Carl Perkins) instructs a man to get off of the phone. The man is Jim Henson. Incidentally, the person Henson is talking to is named "Bernie", after Henson's agent Bernie Brillstein.
*The actor playing the terrorist at a beauty concert is Colin Higgins.
*The script clerk on the hostage film is played by Jonathan Kaufer ("Soup for One" (1982)).
*The director of the hostage film, up on the crane, is played by Daniel Petrie.
*The police detective who interrogates Bud Herman at his beachhouse is Lawrence Kasdan.
*The tailor who fits the SAVAK agents is Jonathan Lynn.
*The driver ogling dirty pictures in the traffic jam at the start of the film is Andrew Marton ("King Solomon's Mines" (1950), "The Longest Day" (1962)).
*The man caught with a girl in the bathroom of the Beverly Wilshire Hotel is Don Siegel.
*At the end, two Secret Service agents argue with the head agent (Clu Gulager) in Ed's hotel room. The thin one with the glasses is Jonathan Demme and the larger one with the moustache is Carl Gottlieb.
*John Landis himself appears as the mute member of the quartet of Iranian hitmen.Other cameos:
*The drug dealer who tries to sell to Ed and Diana in their car is played by Academy-Award-winning make-up artist Rick Baker.
*The hooker who appears just before Baker is played by Michelle Pfeiffer's sister, Dedee Pfeiffer.
*Screenwriter Waldo Salt plays the derelict who tells Ed that his car has been towed away by the cops.
*Landis often casts musicians in his film. In this one, David Bowie fights Carl Perkins to the death.
*Dan Aykroyd, the star of Landis' earlier film "The Blues Brothers", plays Ed's co-worker, Herb.
*Bruce McGill, the co-star of Landis' "National Lampoon's Animal House" plays Diana's Elvis-impersonator brother, Charlie.
*At the airport, a "Frank Oznowicz" is being paged on the intercom in the background. This is the full last name of Frank Oz.

External links

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