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Released
1981 · FILM

Blow Out

Sound technician Jack Terry races to prove a deadly political assassination he accidentally recorded, while protecting the mysterious woman who witnessed it, before powerful forces silence both the evidence and him forever.

“Murder has a sound all of its own.”

Directed by
Brian De Palma, Lewis Gould
Written by
Brian De Palma, Bill Mesce Jr
Rated
MPA · R
Runtime
108 min
CrimeDramaMystery

Synopsis

While recording sound effects for a slasher film, Jack Terry witnesses a real-life horror when he sees a car plunge off a bridge into a river. He jumps into the water and rescues Sally from the vehicle, but the other passenger has already died — a governor with presidential ambitions. As Jack reviews his recordings and begins a dangerous romance with Sally, he uncovers a complex conspiracy that could cost him his life.

Credits

Actors
Editor
Production Designer
Director of Photography
Writers
Directors

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How many hands made this film

The scale of the collaboration

A crew of 318+ credited

Why a floor?

This is a minimum, not a total. We only count the credits we’ve captured so far, and coverage is uneven — a blockbuster might show a few hundred names while another of the same size shows a couple dozen. The real crews all ran into the thousands. The number here only grows as full credits are enriched — so we frame it as a floor, never a headcount.

Craft leads on file

Edited by Paul HirschShot by Vilmos ZsigmondScored by Pino DonaggioDesigned by Paul SylbertSound by Dan SableCostumes by Ann RothStunts by Carey Loftin

Box Office

1981 · Box office

📉 Underperformed — grossed 0.7× its budget

Why 2.5×?

Cinemas keep roughly half of every ticket sold, and a wide release’s marketing often costs about as much again as the film — so a movie needs to gross around 2.5× its production budget just to break even theatrically. It’s a rule of thumb, not the studio’s ledger (home video and streaming come later).

Worldwide gross

$12.0M

Budget$18.0M
Worldwide gross$12.0M
break-even (2.5×)

Also known as

  • Blow Out – Der Tod löscht alle Spurende

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