Against All Odds (1984) is an American neo-noir romantic thriller directed by Taylor Hackford, starring Jeff Bridges, Rachel Ward and James Woods. The film follows Terry Brogan, a former professional football player who is hired by nightclub owner and criminal figure Jake Wise to find his missing girlfriend, Jessie Wyler. What begins as a paid search turns into a dangerous romantic obsession when Terry finds Jessie in Mexico and becomes involved with her himself. The film is a loose remake of Out of the Past (1947), with Jane Greer, who starred in the earlier film, appearing here in a different role. Against All Odds mixes 1980s Los Angeles, professional sport, corruption, romance and tropical escape, and is also remembered for Phil Collins’ title song, which became one of the major soundtrack hits of the decade.
Against All Odds was filmed in California and Mexico, with the locations helping divide the film between Los Angeles power games and the more sensual, isolated world Terry enters while searching for Jessie. In Los Angeles, the film uses real coastal and city locations including Manhattan Beach, where Terry meets Jessie at the beach, and the Sunset Strip area, which is connected to the film’s nightclub and car-race material. The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum is tied to Terry’s football background, while other California locations give the film its world of sports, wealth, nightclubs and development schemes. Mexico provides the film’s most visually striking material, especially the Yucatán Peninsula. Cozumel and Quintana Roo are used for the island and coastal sections where Terry finds Jessie, while Tulum appears in the scenes among the coastal Maya ruins. Chichén Itzá is also used prominently, including El Castillo, the ancient ball court and the Sacred Cenote. These Mexican locations give the film a very different texture from the Los Angeles scenes: open water, archaeological ruins, heat, stone temples and tropical distance from the corruption Terry is trying to escape. The film’s location identity is therefore built around contrast, moving from modern Los Angeles money and crime to the ruins, beaches and islands of Mexico, before the story pulls its characters back into the consequences of both worlds.