by Gill Pringle

Australian director Damien Power was unfamiliar with best-selling author Taylor Adams’ 2017 thriller, No Exit, when his agent sent him Andrew Barrer and Gabriel Ferrari’s (Ant-Man and the Wasp co-writers) script based on the book.

Within 24 hours, he had read both the script and the novel, determined to bring this page-turning story to the screen.

An edgy psychological thriller about four strangers, a blizzard, and a kidnapped child, No Exit is packed with surprising twists as a young woman desperately tries to figure out who is friend or foe.

Forced to wait out the storm while stranded in a snow-packed, impassable mountain range – with no help for miles – she must outwit a vicious psychopath in order to save both herself and the child.

Best known for 2016 horror thriller, Killing Ground, Power took his directorial cues from the master-of-suspense himself, Alfred Hitchcock, in creating No Exit’s twisty world; seeking further inspiration from snowy thrillers such as Fargo and A Simple Plan.

In the vein of Jane Campion’s lauded Power of the Dog, No Exit’s setting of the Colorado Rockies in the US was replicated with the snow-filled mountain landscape in New Zealand – during summer, no less.

Finding a home at Auckland’s Penrose Studio, No Exit’s cast – featuring Havana Rose Liu (Mayday), Danny Ramirez (The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Top Gun: Maverick), David Rysdahl (Nine Days), Dale Dickey (Winter’s Bone, Hell or High Water) and Dennis Haysbert (24, The Dark Tower) – quickly fell in love with New Zealand.

FilmInk chats to No Exit’s partners-in-crime, Danny Ramirez (Ash) and David Rysdahl (Lars):

Without giving away any spoilers, describe your characters?

DANNY RAMIREZ: Ash stays a step ahead of everyone. He is always trying to figure out the power dynamics in a room. I found that fascinating, and I was intrigued by what makes someone want to establish that as their entry point to any situation.

DAVID RYSDAHL: A lot of what the movie is about is how we all tell stories to save ourselves. Lars is living in a fantasy, and that’s his tragic flaw. The movie really makes each character face their own darkness and come to terms with the stories they’ve been telling themselves.

How did you enjoy shooting in New Zealand?

DANNY: I think New Zealand is one of the most beautiful places in the world and my cheeks are hurting because I’m smiling so much just remembering it. It was the dichotomy of where we were shooting in New Zealand and the place that was created in the studio. It was wonderful to be able to tap into such a dark place for the movie and then to be able to go out into what seems to be the closest to utopia that I’ve stepped foot on. And the fact that there were no Covid cases, we were able to brush off all this kinetic energy that was happening when we were working, and then to be able to be loved and accepted by everyone there. Megan was my “Covid assistant” who would drive me to set and – shout out to Megan! – she was the most wonderful person who taught me so much about New Zealand. I could speak about New Zealand forever. It was wonderful.

DAVID: I remember thinking, ‘We’re shooting this movie set in the Rockies, all about snow, in New Zealand?!’ And then I thought it was the mountains down in the South Island or something but then I discovered it was a studio. But it worked and all the local actors from New Zealand nailed the American accent. And they did such a great job of making it look like the Sierra Nevada mountains in America.

And this was at the beginning of the pandemic?

DANNY: It was exactly a year into the pandemic when we flew in. I guess it began March 12, 2020 and then it was March 14, 2021 when we arrived in New Zealand. It was just a relief to be in a space where they had no Covid cases to be honest. I’d lived like a recluse for the past year in the U.S. during the pandemic so just to see people interacting normally felt like traveling back in time.

DAVID: I remember being in a coffee shop after we got out of quarantine and saw these two people hugging, and I got all emotional – just seeing people interacting without masks. I was just so excited, and I think people looked at me like “crazy American guy!” So, it felt like going back to 2019 – but then we were making a movie where we’re all trapped which brings us freedom as actors that we hadn’t felt for a year in the States, and then going into this snow globe of a studio and being trapped… So, it was an interesting juxtaposition of how I was feeling at the time.

And the enforced two week quarantine actually turned out to be a gift?

DANNY: For two weeks, all the source material that Damien had sent me, and everything we had talked about was basically just ruminating in my stomach and cooking up. So then, by the time that we went to go film, it would just all come out. Also, there are some scenes with Dennis [Haysbert] where we got really playful. It felt safe to be our best and our worst selves. Which I think the film definitely required to just find ways to empathise with people that you normally would write off right away. I was a little bit scared sitting in that room for two weeks, and then having to go be a person, but also an actor in the space. But I think in the movie, you’re able to see everyone, and the beautiful work that they did to make really nuanced characters that are usually just a [bad guy] archetype.

Where did you stay in New Zealand?

DANNY: I think I made the right decision staying in the Swiss-Belsuites which was one of the most amazing living experiences that I’ve ever had. This is going to turn into a commercial for them! From morning to sunset, there was just sunshine everywhere and it was beautiful. They gave us the opportunity to pick where we stayed and everyone else stayed a couple of blocks up. So, my advice is to pick the appliances, and not so much the amenities, of the hotel… I loved it. I could live there forever.

DAVID: Havana, Dale and I were all in a hotel in downtown Auckland. We got to explore all of Auckland and every weekend we discovered something new. Dale [Dickey] was really in charge of our weekend getaways and would do research all week and tell us where we would go, and we’d take ferries and go on hiking expeditions and see volcanoes. After we wrapped, I extended my trip an extra week and rented a car and I drove up the coast and had a great time. I learned a lot about the Maori culture. A lot of the crew were Maori including my driver/helper, Bryn. She taught me a lot about the culture and grounded me a lot. It didn’t feel like being just on a regular film set; it felt like we were actually exchanging culture which was such a special part of the experience.

DANNY: We each got gifted a Maori jade Pounamu. You can’t buy one yourself; it has to be gifted. My stuntman gave me one which was a beautiful touch, especially knowing the meaning and how important they are. It did feel like a real exchange of culture and also New Zealand is so far ahead of so many other places in the world in acknowledging their mistakes and giving a platform to the native culture. I took so much away from that and was so impressed how the Maori language is used in newscasts and weather reports. It’s not just like a segment on the side because it’s integrated with the main news source. I thought it was so impressive and gave me hope for the future and things to expect to happen with other countries and their relations.

No Exit speaks to the fear we all have of our car breaking down in the middle of nowhere and being trapped alone. Have you experienced anything similar?

DANNY: I’m so thankful that I’ve never had the experience of being stranded per se.

DAVID: I’m from a small town in Minnesota and I have two younger brothers and we would always explore in a forest close to our house. When I was seven years old there was this time, when we were all in the forest together in March – when it was still cold but getting warmer – when my little brother’s foot went through the ice and his foot got so cold. I was nervous that his whole foot was going to fall off and I went out onto the highway and put my thumb up and an old man stopped, and we all got into his car, and he drove us home. You can imagine my mom’s reaction as this man drives up with her three little boys in his car! But it was all fine. So that was a nice stranger – imagine if it was a No Exit experience instead?!

No Exit debuts February 25 on Disney+ under the Star Banner