Vitals

Jeff Bridges as Terry Brogan, recently cut football player

Cozumel, Mexico, Fall 1983

Film: Against All Odds
Release Date: March 2, 1984
Director: Taylor Hackford
Costume Designer: Michael Kaplan

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

A loose remake of Jacques Tourneur’s seminal 1947 noir Out of the Past, Against All Odds recasts the typical private eye as Terry Brogan (Jeff Bridges), a pro football player sidelined after a career-ending shoulder injury. Cut from the fictional Los Angeles Outlaws, Terry turns to his shady bookie friend Jake Wise (James Woods), who offers him a job finding his missing girlfriend Jessie (Rachel Ward)—who also happens to be the daughter of the Outlaws’ owner.

Terry’s search leads him to Cozumel, a sun-drenched island off the eastern coast of Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, where Jessie invites him to her secluded tropical refuge. There, amid the crashing surf and flowing tequila, the two plunge headlong into a dangerous affair.

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What’d He Wear?

I never like to overuse the word “timeless” (and, thus, I won’t be searching for how many times I’ve used it in this blog), but that truly does sum up much of Jeff Bridges’ casual wardrobe in Against All Odds. This neo-noir was released in 1984, the same year that Miami Vice debuted, parading the boxy cuts and pastel colors that would become associated with the decade’s menswear. Terry Brogan generally eschews most trendy excesses of the ’80s, such as this simple but striking ensemble of a white cotton shirt, fatigue pants, and sneakers that would be just as effective forty-odd years later.

The way that Terry wears his white shirt could make or break the outfit. On paper, a white cotton long-sleeved shirt could read as overly formal with OG-107s and Nikes, but Terry sports his with some insouciance—gently unpressed for a linen-like casual crimping in the cloth, both sleeves unbuttoned at the cuff and rolled up his forearms, and the top two buttons of the front placket undone.

Whether true mil-spec, deadstock, or replica, OG-107 fatigue pants are my favorite alternatives to jeans when I want casual trousers that offer the rugged resourcefulness of jeans but with a dash more adventure. OG-107 refers to the “olive green #107” color code authorized for the Army’s cotton utility uniforms from the 1950s through the ’70s, when it was replaced by the nearly identical OG-507 code in a “permanent press” polyester and cotton blend.

Terry’s trousers follow the Army’s contemporary design for utility fatigues, with a long rise rigged with belt loops around the waist, front patch pockets with slanted side openings and squared bottoms, back patch pockets covered with single-button flaps, and a straight cut through the legs to plain-hemmed bottoms. Unlike the button-fly OG-107 trousers, Terry’s trousers have a zip-fly like the poly/cotton OG-507 trousers first issued in 1975.

Terry continues wearing his usual Nike sneakers—possibly the Diablo model?—that give his outfit a casual contemporary edge. The stone-colored nylon uppers have coordinated rounded suede toe caps, contrasted with the brand’s signature “swoosh” logos in black leather along each side.

Jeff Bridges likely owned the stainless 40mm Rolex Submariner dressing Terry’s left wrist, as he had previously worn the same watch in the 1976 remake of King Kong. Suggested to be either a ref. 5512 chronometer (by Jake’s Rolex World) or a ref. 5513 non-chronometer (by Danny Milton for Hodinkee), this non-date diver boasts the standard black dial and black bezel insert on a stainless “Oyster”-style three-piece link bracelet.

Terry’s sunglasses are among the sporty variants of the aviator frame that were popularized by Carrera and widely produced through the 1970s and ’80s. His set of shades have dark-brown frames, brown gradient teardrop-shaped lenses, and light-gray metal arms with “TURBO” printed in black along each temple.

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The Car

Terry drives out to Jessie in a yellow-painted 1974 Volkswagen Type 181. This quirky, squared-off four-door convertible was originally developed for the West German Army in the late 1960s, before Volkswagen saw its utili-chic appeal and brought it to civilian buyers for the 1971 model year.

Officially designated the Type 181, Volkswagen’s boxy Bauhaus beach buggy was marketed as the “Kurierwagen” in West Germany, the “Thing” in English-speaking North America, and the “Safari” throughout Mexico and South America.

With its boxy silhouette and modular design, the Type 181 felt like a utilitarian cousin to the open-top beach runabouts that defined ’60s coastal cool, like the Citroën Méhari, Fiat Ghia Jolly, and Mini Moke. All four doors were removable and interchangeable, the windshield folded flat, and the soft convertible top could be detached entirely or swapped for an optional fiberglass roof. The intentionally sparse cabin featured vinyl-covered bucket seats, painted sheet metal, built-in floor drains, and perforated rubber mats.

Like its World War II-era predecessor, the Type 82 Kübelwagen, the Type 181 rode on a rear-engine platform with an air-cooled flat-four and a four-speed manual gearbox—both borrowed from the iconic Type 1 Beetle. The original 1.5-liter engine delivered a modest 46 horsepower, increased to 1.6 liters for 1974—bumping output to a still-anemic 55 horsepower—which would power the Type 181 through the end of its production run in the early 1980s.

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What to Imbibe

Jessie greets Terry by pouring them each a glass of Sauza Commemorativo, its amber glow catching the low Cozumel light. Crafted from 100% blue Weber agave rather than the mixto blends Casa Sauza is often known for, this smooth añejo carries the mark of its oak-barrel aging: touched with vanilla, toasted wood, and a lingering agave heat. It was first bottled in 1963 by Don Francisco Javier Sauza to honor ninety years of his family’s La Perseverancia distillery, hence its celebratory nomenclature.

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How to Get the Look

Terry Brogan’s simple wardrobe of a white long-sleeved shirt tucked into drab fatigue pants through this pivotal sequence recalls Rod Taylor’s “hero outfit” when fighting off the titular attackers in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1963 thriller The Birds. Both times, the ensemble evokes a sense of rugged coastal cool that reflects our protagonist’s resourcefulness, though Terry updates his for the ’80s in post-Vietnam OG-507 trousers, Nike sneakers, and a Rolex.

• White cotton long-sleeved shirt with point collar, front placket, and button cuffs
• Olive-green (OG-507) poly/cotton flat-front fatigue trousers with belt loops, zip fly, front patch pockets with slanted side openings, back patch pockets with single-button flaps, and plain-hemmed bottoms
• Stone nylon Nike sneakers with suede toe-caps and black swoosh logos
• Pale-blue cotton boxer shorts
• Brown plastic-framed oversized sporty aviator sunglasses with brown gradient teardrop lenses and “TURBO”-printed gray metal arms
• Rolex Submariner dive watch with stainless steel 40mm case, black bezel, and black dial on stainless Oyster-style three-piece link bracelet

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Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.