Body Heat (1981)
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A low-rent lawyer and a wealthy woman's wife embark on a dangerous affair in sultry South Florida.
The story
In sultry South Florida, womanizing low-rent lawyer Ned Racine begins an affair with Matty Walker, the young wife of shady businessman Edmund Walker. The affair becomes a consuming passion, but the two keep it secret. When Matty expresses a desire for a divorce, she faces the hurdle of a prenuptial agreement that would leave her without her husband's fortune. Desperate, she turns to Ned to help her secure her future. The plot thickens as the pair contemplates a murder to bypass legal hurdles, leading to a dangerous game of deception and risk in the Florida heat.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
In sultry South Florida, lawyer Ned Racine and Matty Walker, the wife of businessman Edmund Walker, begin a passionate affair. To secure Matty's freedom from a restrictive prenuptial agreement, Ned suggests murdering her husband. They plot a scheme involving a forged will and a staged explosion. After Ned kills Edmund and they move his body to an abandoned building, Ned sets a bomb to destroy the evidence. However, Matty's actions regarding the will lead to legal complications. As the police, including detective Oscar Grace, begin to investigate, they notice inconsistencies in Ned's alibi and Matty's story. The tension peaks when Ned discovers Matty's willingness to manipulate the legal process. In a final confrontation at a boathouse, a bomb explodes. Ned is imprisoned, where he realizes that Matty survived by assuming a different identity, while the body in the boathouse was actually a woman named Mary Ann Simpson, who had been blackmailing her.
- First release year
- 1981
- Runtime (minutes)
- 113
- Production countries
- United States
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Lawrence Kasdan
- Writers
- Lawrence Kasdan · writer
- Cast and characters
- William Hurt · Ned Racine; Kathleen Turner · Matty Walker; Richard Crenna; Ted Danson; J. A. Preston; Mickey Rourke
- Genres
- neo-noir; erotic thriller
- Themes
- Adultery; Crime; Deception
- Tone and mood
- Sultry; Atmospheric
- Premise and plot tags
- Noir; Thriller; Crime
- Source material / true-story basis
- Inspired by the 1944 film noir Double Indemnity, based on the 1943 novel.
- Content notes
- Sex
- Reception
- The film was a commercial success and received generally favorable reviews, being praised for its style and performances, particularly by Mickey Rourke.
- Reported review scores
- Rotten Tomatoes · score: 8.1 · scale: 10 · review count: 50; Metacritic · score: 77 · scale: 100 · review count: 11
- Production trivia
- The film was inspired by the 1944 film noir Double Indemnity.; George Lucas acted as uncredited executive producer.; Christopher Reeve turned down the role of Ned Racine.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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