Not to mention stopping his shipmate from chasing that kid who took his bag. No way does a real career sailor let that kid take his bag. Which we learned at the end was a handoff.
"A real friend or mentor is not on your payroll."Prince, 1958-2016

At the beginning, it is a mystery what is going on with Costner staring into the mirror and saying when is he coming out?
and why no one connected the beginning with anything that happens later is strange but I didn't either.
Yes it is a beautiful twist.

Leaving aside everything that happened before the last two minutes, how many movies with "great twist endings" are there? Gets a big leg up for that.

Terrible movie with a great twist ending.

yea I totally did not see that one coming at all,, very excellent movie.
are you going to bark all day little doggie,, or are you going to bite

It absolutely stunned me like no other one has. And when I rewatched I couldn't find anything that contradicted the scenario and a few clues as well (like that phone call from the Pentagon).
My hat is off to the writers for both of those.

I sure didn't see it coming , that's for sure,, but I really liked it,, I get tired of all the "happy ending" Hollywood movies.
are you going to bark all day little doggie,, or are you going to bite

Thanks for that tip, will defintley look it up. No Way Out is my favourite movie of the genre (just eding out The Usual Suspects) and I never saw the twist coming.

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Definitely The Usual Suspects ending tops this one!

I agree. The Usual Suspects floored me at the end!

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This and Something Wild with Ray Liota have the best endings.

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One of best ever.

superb!!

Yeah, I absolutely love the ending. And even though I know it's coming, I still watch it.

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Great original stuff.

This ending would have been great if it had any backing or uncertainty from the in depth "reality" that the movie viewer was seeing. But it did not! I felt it was a total ripoff. Like a movie ending with.."it was all a dream."
i

It's not true.
There was at least 3 hints that Tom is actually spy.
1.His first word is nomo,something in russian language
2.When 2 assassins chase Tom, he basically screaming at russian
3.In bar scene, he says I'm American on the phone..
When you watch movie 2nd time, it's pretty clear that Tpm Farrell is Yuri.

The reason you were surprised is because there was absolutely NOTHING in the script that would lead anyone to think this - nothing.

Stoli, the phone call to the handlers, the hand-off in P.I (also used to show Yuri's growing problem) all come out when looked back at after the ending is seen. If anything they're too subtle, but they are there when you look at them knowingly after seeing the ending.

So, we're meant to believe that all he did led to spying on the Russians? That's why he saved a drowning kid, so tha the might be asked to the Pentagon, where he could absurd. That's total rubbish.

No, he was gathering whatever intelligence he could as a naval officer - which allowed him access in the command staff to alot of useful information like ship deployments, training schedules, and/or communications information at the very least. They were probably happy with the position he'd made it to and would probably consider something like him attaining command of a carrier something beyond their wildest dreams. Remember, the Walkers did serious damage spying for the Russians while holding lower positions in the Navy. The incident at sea and subsequent transfer to the pentagon was a fluke, a windfall for the Russians.
No one ever sat in the Kremlin and said "Ivan, what if we plant a mole, get him in the US Navy and after a few years arrange a cyclone to make our man a hero so he can go to work in the pentagon?" Besides, courageous as the act was, it's not normal to reward someone with an assignment to the pentagon afterwards it was his working Pritchard earlier to get a shot into the pentagon that made the SECDEF remember him.

No, it's not idiotic, and it's not too coincidental.
I think "nitejrny282"** explains it all very well that the original "coincidence" appears to be one only until the END, then you realize that it was a planned situation, although the cover-story choice was the real coincidence.
** http://www.imdb.com/board/10093640/board/nest/90129804?d=147755790#138538542

Chipping away at a mountain of pop culture trivia,
Darren Dirt.

I really didn't recognize the actor who played the Russian handler was also the apartment manager / until I watched the movie again. Wouldn't they have talked Russian when they were alone earlier on? I know that would have given the game away for the audience but it is not convincing that two Russians alone would only speak English.