Cast and Characters (Blow Out) Blow Out

Principal Cast

Jack Terry — John Travolta

A movie sound-effects technician who accidentally records a political assassination, his microphone gathering wind under a bridge and catching instead a gunshot, a tire blowout, a car plunging into the creek.^b5 Travolta (in Blow Out, as actor) plays Jack as a competent craftsman turned obsessive investigator, a man who believes that capturing truth on tape should make the truth matter. The performance is widely considered Travolta's finest dramatic work, his restraint giving the role a gravity his earlier parts never demanded.

"Travolta finally has a role that allows him to discard his teenage strutting and his slobby accents." — Pauline Kael, The New Yorker (1981)

Sally Bedina — Nancy Allen

A makeup artist and part-time escort caught up in a political dirty trick, her small role in a blackmail scheme crossing paths with an assassination she never saw coming. Allen (in Blow Out, as actor) plays Sally as guileless and well-intentioned, a woman whose childlike quality persists because growing up has never been an option anyone offered her.

"Nancy Allen gives the film its soul." — Pauline Kael, The New Yorker (1981)

Allen channeled specific influences for the performance, reaching back to Italian neorealism for the register she wanted: "I tried to channel things like Giulietta Masina's performance in La Strada for Sally's childlike voice, someone who was 'not so bright, well-intentioned.' People who are really resistant to growing up, keep their childlike quality. It works for them to a point." (money-into-light)

Burke — John Lithgow

The operative who shot out the governor's tire, then methodically murdered young women to bury the evidence beneath a false serial-killer pattern, later impersonating TV reporter Frank Donahue to lure Sally.¹ Lithgow (in Blow Out, as actor) plays Burke as methodical and frictionless, a professional who treats each killing as problem-solving, his affect never rising above the administrative.

Manny Karp — Dennis Franz (Blow Out)

A sleazy freelancer hired into the operation to film Governor McRyan in a compromising setup with Sally, the blackmail scheme he was hired into the catalyst that puts her in the car when the tire blows.² Franz (in Blow Out, as actor) plays Karp as the amoral opportunist he is, a man who stumbled into a murder scene while running one grift and sees no contradiction in trying to profit from both.

Supporting Cast

Actor	Role
Peter Boyden	Sam
Curt May	Frank Donahue
John Aquino	Detective Mackey
John McMartin	Lawrence Henry