The Assignment (1997 film)

The film opens to the sounds of a couple having sex. Afterwards, Carlos the Jackal kills a spider in its web with his cigarette and evicts the woman from his room because he claims he has work to do. He is seen donning a disguise, and he walks to a cafe where CIA officer Jack Shaw is sitting at a table outdoors. He recognizes Shaw and asks for a light. Shaw does not recognize Carlos, because of his disguise, but he turns to watch Carlos enter the cafe. He watches as Carlos detonates a grenade, killing dozens of people.

The film shows an attack on the OPEC meeting by the Jackal and his followers in 1975. Shaw is sent by the CIA to identify Carlos, but secretly plans to assassinate him with a concealed pistol. The plan is foiled when his CIA superior stops Shaw from reaching out to shake Carlos' hand (actually to shoot Carlos) because he might be photographed doing so by nearby journalists.

In 1986 a man, looking like Carlos, is apprehended in an open-air market in Jerusalem and brutally interrogated by a Mossad commander named Amos. The man claims to actually be a US Naval officer named Annibal Ramirez whose identification was lost in the chaos of his arrest. Amos confirms his identity and lets him go, stunned that Ramirez looks exactly like Carlos. Back at home, Ramirez is visited by Shaw who tries to recruit him to impersonate the terrorist leader. Ramirez, however, is deeply embittered by his rough treatment at Amos' hands, and threatens to sue.

Shaw persists, turning up at a navy ball and trying various manipulations to goad Ramirez into taking the assignment. He finally succeeds by confronting Ramirez with the human cost of Carlos' terrorism, taking him to Bethesda Naval Hospital where a boy has been crippled by one of Carlos' bombs.

Amos and Shaw train Ramirez at a former prison in Canada. Much of his training is devoted to situational awareness and internalizing details of Carlos' life. His training concludes with Carla, one of Carlos' ex-mistresses, training Ramirez in how to make love like Carlos. The plan revolves around convincing the KGB, which is financing his terrorism, that Carlos has begun selling information to the CIA's Counter-terrorism Division. Shaw lures one of Carlos' girlfriends to Libya, where Ramirez meets up with her, successfully posing as Carlos, even during their lovemaking. The girlfriend has become an informant for French intelligence, however. Several French agents arrive at their apartment, and Ramirez is forced to kill them in self-defense. He is horrified at having to kill allies in his undercover operation.

Carlos sends an assassin to kill the girlfriend in France, ordering him to leave Europe through London. The assassin happens to be in Heathrow airport at the same time as Ramirez, and he quickly realizes he is an impostor after Ramirez fails to give the correct response to a password. The assassin forces Ramirez into a bathroom and a struggle ensues. Amos rushes in and manages to kill the assassin before being fatally shot. After Amos' death, the CIA suspends the operation pending a review, and Ramirez returns home.

Back with his wife, he makes love to her as Carlos would, and she is disturbed by the change in his personality. The next day, at his son's little league game, he gets into a confrontation with another father and nearly kills him. Shaw bails him out of jail, and both men are clearly suffering deeply by not being able to finish their mission and kill Carlos. Ramirez accuses Shaw of fabricating the scene at Bethesda Naval Hospital. Shaw threatens to use the Ramirez family as bait to lure out Carlos, if he tries to back out. That night Ramirez confesses everything to his wife, including his infidelity, but leaves to go on the mission, knowing that his family will never be safe as long as Carlos is alive.

They head to East Berlin and conspicuously meet with each other. The KGB photographs Ramirez meeting with Shaw and assumes Carlos has been turned.

Enraged, the KGB raids Carlos' safe house, but as they try to kill the terrorist, he fatally shoots several agents and escapes. Shaw and Ramirez are waiting outside for him, and Ramirez fights Carlos on the bank of the Spree River. It's impossible to tell which of the two is the real Carlos during the struggle. As one of the men is being held under water by the other, Shaw comes upon them and shoots the man above the water several times. He realizes too late that he has shot Ramirez, and Carlos swims away. Ramirez presses Shaw to leave him and kill Carlos, but Shaw insists that their plan has worked and that Carlos is now a marked man by the KGB. One way or another, Shaw points out that Carlos' days as a terrorist are over.

After returning home, the Ramirez family is seen leaving for Mass. Their car explodes in a fireball, and Carlos is shown receiving in the mail a newspaper clipping of their deaths. After their funeral we find the deaths of Ramirez and his family were staged by Shaw, and in the final scene, the family are safely cavorting on a beach in the Caribbean. Ramirez moves to kill a spider in its web with his cigarette, but suddenly changes his mind. He watches his children, finally at peace.

An epilogue reveals that Carlos the Jackal was jailed in 1994, after being refused sanctuary by several countries. A former U.S. Naval officer and a retired CIA agent are rumored to have played a major role in his capture.

• The Jackal (1997 film)

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