June 26, 2023

Day: 26. Movie: 26

The twenty-sixth movie of the June Swoon 2 was found on Hulu and it was a thriller called No Exit. Dennis Haysbert, formerly President Palmer on 24, was the only actor I recognized from the cast, although I discovered that Danny Ramirez was Joaquin from the Falcon and the Winter Soldier Marvel + series.

Our main protagonist though was Darby (Havana Rose Liu). Darby was in rehab when she received a phone message that her mother was in the hospital with a brain aneurysm. Darby was not allowed to make a phone call without the doctor’s permission, and the doctor was out of touch for the weekend. Darby broke out of the hospital and started for Salt Lake City, where her mother was.

However, there was a huge snow storm and the roads were impassable. Darby was redirected to a mountain rest stop where several people were also waiting out the storm. As she was out trying to get reception on her cell, Darby stumbled across a little girl who was tied up in the back of a van. This was when Darby realized one of the people at the rest stop was a kidnapper.

No Exit had some good excitement and some moments of thrills. Overall, it was a decent flick. However, there were plenty of plot holes or events that were either incredibly coincidental or very hard to believe. I do believe that if you choose to do so, you could pick apart this movie fairly easily.

Despite those problems, Havana Rose Liu was extremely likable and easy to root for, even with the errors that she had clearly made in her life. The other people in the rest stop were also a nice mix of characters, especially Ed (Dennis Haysbert), a former Marine.

Is any of this likely? It certainly stretches credibility in several moments, but director Damien Power knows the strength of this film is in his small cast and the claustrophobic setting and both of those work very well.