Michael Caine’s 1987 film Surrender drew a sharp backlash in America after his character and Sally Field’s character have sex on their first date, a storyline that collided with public panic over the AIDS epidemic. Caine later said the reaction was, “How shocking, how irresponsible,”.
He added, “Over there, people are having blood tests before they even consider going on a first date,” and said, “I’m middle-aged. It’s a problem that hasn’t really affected my generation.” He had reunited with Field in Surrender after Beyond the Poseidon Adventure, and praised their easy rapport, saying, “The great thing was to work with Sally and have a relationship with her, which was so easy, playing off each other,”. He added that he could remember only one other screen partnership like it, with Sean Connery.
At the time, Caine expected the film to be a hit. He said Surrender “will be the biggest box office hit I have done.” Instead, it failed to recoup even a third of its budget from cinemas. The disappointment was part of a wider slide in 1987, which the story frames as a disaster for his career.
That year had already gone badly. In 1986, Caine had starred in five films, including Hannah and Her Sisters, Mona Lisa, Sweet Liberty and The Whistle Blower, and he won an Academy Award for Hannah and Her Sisters. But he missed collecting the Oscar because he was shooting Jaws: The Revenge, and before The Fourth Protocol was released he was told it would bomb. It did.
Surrender was supposed to be the bright spot, but it became another reminder of how quickly the ground shifted under Caine in 1987. The film’s sex scene was not just a plot point; in America, during AIDS-era anxiety, it became the reason the movie stalled, and the box office result answered the question Caine did not get right at the time.
