Taglines: The Government gave her a choice. Death. Or life as an assassin. Now, there’s no turning back.
Point of No Return movie storyline. Maggie Hayward (Bridget Fonda) is a violent and unstable drug addict found guilty of murdering a police officer, and is sentenced to death by lethal injection. Her death is faked, and a secret government agent named Bob (Gabriel Byrne) informs her that she is to become an assassin. She is given a makeover and training that transform her into a beautiful woman, and she is also trained as a killer. Her career as an assassin goes well at first. Then, after a mission goes awry, the agency sends in Victor (Harvey Keitel), a “cleaner,” to kill everyone and destroy the bodies.
Point of No Return (also known as The Assassin) is a 1993 American action film directed by John Badham and starring Bridget Fonda, Gabriel Byrne, Dermot Mulroney, Miguel Ferrer, Anne Bancroft, Olivia d’Abo, Richard Romanus, Harvey Keitel and Lorraine Toussaint. It is a remake of Luc Besson’s 1990 film Nikita.
Cast
Bridget Fonda as Maggie Hayward/Claudia Anne Doran/Nina
Gabriel Byrne as Bob
Dermot Mulroney as J.P.
Anne Bancroft as Amanda
Harvey Keitel as Victor
Miguel Ferrer as Kaufman
Olivia d’Abo as Angela
Richard Romanus as Fahd Bakhtiar
Geoffrey Lewis as Drugstore owner
Michael Rapaport as Big Stan
John Badham as Room service waiter
Lorraine Toussaint as Beth
About the Story
Maggie Hayward (Bridget Fonda) is a drug addict found guilty of murdering a cop during a robbery shootout, and is about to get sentenced to death by lethal injection. Her demise is faked and a spy named Bob (Gabriel Byrne) informs her that she has to work for him. Maggie, having little choice, reluctantly agrees to cooperate and she begins a regimen of intensive training that includes not only martial arts and firearms training, but etiquette and computer use.
Senior Operative Amanda (Anne Bancroft) transforms her into a refined, beautiful woman. She is taken on a dinner date with Bob, who informs her about the first job: an assassination of a VIP eating at the same restaurant. Maggie kills the VIP and his bodyguard and then is pursued by a team of the VIP’s bodyguards. She shoots several of the bodyguards and then escapes from the kitchen by jumping down a laundry chute. This task was her final test and she has now completed her training.
The following morning she leaves for Venice, California, where she enters into a romantic relationship with apartment house manager J.P. (Dermot Mulroney). While her first assignments, both hit jobs, are ultimately successful, Maggie quickly comes to hate her work and tries to quit her job as a professional killer. As things progress between her and J.P. and her double life threatens their relationship, she asks for help in leaving the agency. Her request is denied, but Bob agrees to get her out of the agency if she completes the next task.
The new job is to masquerade as Angela (Olivia d’Abo), the girlfriend of Fahd Bakhtiar (Richard Romanus), an Iranian trading in nuclear weapons. As she prepares for the job, J.P. continues to complain about her mysterious friends and mocks the improvised backstory that Bob had provided for himself and Maggie. Maggie is shown watching a scene from Deception, in which a woman kills a former lover in order to keep their past secret from her new husband, reflecting Maggie’s determination to kill her employers if necessary to protect her relationship with J.P.
Taking out Angela proves problematic and results in the deaths of Angela’s two bodyguards and the injury of Maggie’s partner, Beth (Lorraine Toussaint). Director Kaufman then sends in Victor, a ‘cleaner’ (Harvey Keitel) to get rid of the bodies and salvage the mission. Unknown to Maggie, he has also been ordered to kill both agents as well because one failure results in death. After killing the wounded Beth in front of Maggie, he drives her to Fahd’s home. At gunpoint she gets Fahd to unlock his computer and reveal his secrets, but he avoids execution and she is forced to flee.
Point of No Return (1993)
Directed by: John Badham
Starring: Bridget Fonda, Gabriel Byrne, Dermot Mulroney, Miguel Ferrer, Anne Bancroft, Olivia d’Abo, Richard Romanus, Harvey Keitel, Lorraine Toussaint
Screenplay by: Robert Getchell, Alexandra Seros
Production Design by: Philip Harrison
Cinematography by: Michael Ferris, Michael Watkins
Film Editing by: Frank Morriss
Costume Design by: Marlene Stewart
Set Decoration by: Julia Badham
Art Direction by: Sydney Z. Litwack
Music by: Hans Zimmer, Nick Glennie-Smith
MPAA Rating: R for strong violence, and for language and sexuality.
Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures
Release Date: March 19, 1993
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