As the film winds toward its bloody climax, it’s unclear what the point of it all was. There is a bit of Sartre’s trademark existentialism, with Darby taking charge of her own fate, but this “No Exit” reeks more of nihilism. Between Darby’s fraught relationship with her family and her isolation with a violent criminal, human connection is largely absent here. Director Damien Power occasionally tilts the movie into horror territory, with some particularly grisly violence that might shock viewers who think they know where it’s going.Īdapted from Taylor Adams’ novel, “No Exit” evinces no connection with Jean-Paul Sartre’s play of the same name, but both center on the idea that hell is other people. Produced by Scott Frank, this film shares DNA with grim thrillers penned by the filmmaker like “The Lookout” and “A Walk Among the Tombstones,” though it’s never quite on that level. “No Exit” reveals their (somewhat predictable) identity well before the climax, but there are several surprises still in store. Darby discovers a young girl tied up in a van in the parking lot, and she isn’t sure which of the people she is snowed in with is a kidnapper. Inside are some vending machines, a coffee maker, and four complete strangers.

With the roads impassable, she’s forced to wait out the storm at a remote highway rest stop. Darby is stuck there with four others: charming Ash (Danny Ramirez) squirrelly Lars (David Rysdahl) and married couple Ed (Dennis Haysbert) and Sandy (Dale Dickey). On her way to Utah to see her dying mother, college student Darby Thorne gets caught in a fierce blizzard in the mountains of Colorado.

Darby (Havana Rose Liu) escapes from court-mandated drug rehab to visit her mother in the hospital, but a blizzard stops her progress at a remote park‘s visitor center.

Initially, “No Exit” looks like another iteration of Agatha Christie’s “And Then There Were None” with its group of stranded strangers and an unknown criminal in their midst.

No exit taylor adams summary