After Hours (1985)
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An office worker's night in Manhattan spirals into a series of bizarre misadventures after a chance encounter at a café.
The story
Late one evening, mild-mannered New York computer clerk Paul Hackett strikes up a conversation with Marcy Franklin at a café. Paul is intrigued by the quirky stranger and accepts her phone number. Later, Paul takes a taxi to her SoHo apartment, but his only $20 bill flies out the taxi window, leaving him virtually penniless and earning the driver's wrath. At the apartment, he encounters a sculptor named Kiki. When Marcy returns, her erratic behavior and Paul's discovery of burn cream and ominous photos convince him that she is severely disfigured and unstable. Unnerved, he abandons the date and begins a desperate, surreal journey through the night to find his way home.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
After a bizarre date with Marcy Franklin, Paul Hackett finds himself penniless in SoHo after losing his only $20 bill. His night becomes a gauntlet of escalating absurdity: he is confronted by suspicious residents at a bar, chased by thieves, and branded a burglar by a waitress named Julie. After being chased by a mob and nearly being trapped in a sculpture of a screaming man, Paul is eventually hidden in papier-mâché by a woman named June. He is then mistakenly loaded into a van by thieves who believe him to be a sculpture. The van makes a sharp turn, and Paul tumbles out onto the pavement in front of his office building just before dawn. He staggers inside and sits at his desk as his computer boots up for the new day.
- First release year
- 1985
- Runtime (minutes)
- 97
- Production countries
- United States
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Martin Scorsese
- Writers
- Joseph Minion · writer
- Cast and characters
- Griffin Dunne · Paul Hackett; Rosanna Arquette; Verna Bloom; Thomas Chong; Linda Fiorentino; Teri Garr; John Heard; Richard Cheech Marin; Catherine O'Hara
- Genres
- neo-noir; black comedy
- Themes
- yuppie nightmare cycle; masculinity; mythological symbolism
- Tone and mood
- black humor; paranoia
- Premise and plot tags
- nightmare cycle; survival; urban odyssey
- Source material / true-story basis
- Based on a script by Joseph Minion, originally titled Lies, inspired by a 1982 Joe Frank monologue.
- Reception
- The film was critically acclaimed for its black humor and is considered a cult classic and an underrated entry in Scorsese's filmography.
- Awards and nominations
- Independent Spirit Award · Best Feature · Win; Cannes Film Festival Award · Best Director · Win; Independent Spirit Award · Best Director · Win
- Production trivia
- Originally intended to be directed by Tim Burton.; The script was originally titled 'Lies'.; The film was the first Scorsese film since 1974 not to feature Robert De Niro.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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