Synopsis

Three friends leave Malaysia after a carefree vacation, but one remains behind and is arrested for a crime connected to their abandoned drugs. Two years later, an attorney tells the others that their friend will be executed unless they return and accept shared responsibility. Facing an agonizing moral choice, they must decide how much they are willing to sacrifice for someone they left behind.

Factoids & Trivia

• The film is an American remake of the 1989 French drama Force majeure, written by Pierre Jolivet and Olivier Schatzky.

• Principal photography began on November 9, 1997. Filming took place in New York City, Philadelphia, Hong Kong, Phuket, and Macau.

• Several prison sequences were filmed at Philadelphia's Eastern State Penitentiary, the former prison complex known for its imposing stone architecture.

• The film marked Vera Farmiga's feature-film debut.

• The movie was released in the United States on August 14, 1998. Made for approximately $14 million, it earned about $8.3 million domestically.

• It was the first of two 1998 screen collaborations between Vince Vaughn and Anne Heche, followed later that year by Psycho.