Alain Delon

December 1979. An American-owned French operated Concorde super-sonic jet takes off from the Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris. Captain Paul Metrand (Alain Delon) makes conversation with Isabelle (Sylvia Kristel), the purser whom is his current lover. They land at Dulles Airport in Washington DC. Maggie Whalen (Susan Blakely) is an investigative reporter who recaps the arrival of the Concorde and reports on the "Goodwill" flight on the Concorde the following day, which leads to a story of future boyfriend Kevin Harrison (Robert Wagner) and his Buzzard missile project. Carl Parker shows up at Maggie's house with a claim about documentation of illegal arms deals to communist nations. Carl is shot before a passerby triggers a fire alarm, scaring the assailant away. Meanwhile, Captain Joe Patroni (George Kennedy) introduces himself to Captain Metrand as being the pilot for the Concord flight to Paris and to Moscow for the upcoming 1980 Summer Olympics to be held eight months from then. The next morning, Maggie tells Harrison about her ordeal and the rumor of documents. Kevin claims someone is framing him. He sends Maggie off in a limo while he waits for his business partner Willie Halpern to arrive. Kevin tells Willie that Parker is dead, but they do not have the documents. Kevin asks what time the next launch of the Buzzard is. Willie replies 6:30; Kevin wants it delayed until 8:00 and the drone test reprogrammed. Metrand and Patroni board the Concorde. It is difficult to determine the pilot-in-command as both of them are captains. Peter O'Neill (David Warner), the 2nd officer and flight engineer, is living with a controlling girlfriend. Kevin surprises Maggie at the airline check-in desk to see her off. He asks if the documents showed up, but they have not. As he is walking away, Carl Parker's wife delivers the documents to Maggie as she steps on the mobile lounge. She looks them over on the lounge and realizes that Kevin lied to her. The Concorde takes off from Washington/Dulles enroute to Paris where, unbeknownst to the flight crew, an off-course ground-to-air missile is headed straight for them. At company headquarters, Kevin tells his controllers to alert the government. Patroni takes over the Concord as it goes into evasive action manouvers to evade the missile. The USAF scrambles F-15 fighter jets to intercept the missile just as it locks onto the Concorde. An F-15 shoots down the missile before it collides with the Concorde. As the Concorde is approaching the European coastline, an F-4 Phantom fighter jet, piloted by a mercenary, is sent by Harrison and engages the Concorde with air-to-air missiles as well as gunfire as French Air Force Mirages scramble to help the Concorde. The Mirages shoot down the F-4 and the Concorde continues to Paris, although it diverts to Le Bourget Airport instead of Charles de Gaulle because it is damaged by the F-4's gunfire. The Concorde reaches the French coastline, landing with a damaged hydraulic system and just barely stopping at the last safety net. Captain Metrand and Isabelle invite Joe to dinner as they wait for the Concord to be repaired. Meanwhile, Kevin arrives at Charles de Gaulle Airport, where an associate meets him, stating that he has another plan to stop Maggie from making public the documents before she reaches Moscow. Joe, Paul and Isabelle meet for dinner with a date for Joe as promised by Paul. Maggie meets Kevin for dinner. He promises to go public with the documents but attempts to bribe Maggie into "polishing" his statement. After being paid by Kevin, a mechanic, Rollie, places a device in the Concorde's cargo door control unit, timed to open during flight to depressurized the aircraft. The next morning, as the passengers re-board the Concorde for the second stage of the flight to Moscow, a well-dressed woman (Charo) attempts to smuggle a dog aboard. She is caught by an alert Isabelle and leaves the aircraft. Inside the terminal, Rollie is in line at the security checkpoint when his money falls out of his pants leg. The X-ray technician attempts to return it, but Rollie pretends not to hear and runs off. The security guard tells his partner to call security before chases Rollie. Rollie runs onto the runway where the Concorde is taking off. The aircraft's wake scatters the money he received from Kevin. The aircraft is en route to Moscow when the automatic device opens the cargo door. When Captain Metrand investigates, he sees the carpet tear down the middle of the aisle, signifying the fuselage is under tremendous stress and the aircraft is about to break apart. The cargo door is ripped off, extensively damaging the aircraft and ripping the floor of the cabin from the Concord as it spirals toward the ground. The airline founder's seat lodges in the hole, acting as a plug. The pilots attempt to fly to Innsbruck for an emergency landing, but realize they do not have enough fuel. Paul realizes they are flying towards a ski area he used to go to in the Swiss Alps; they could make a gear-up landing on a mountain-side. The aircraft approaches the landing site while the Swiss ski patrol marks a runway. The aircraft lands successfully. Maggie immediately gives a report of the accident to a news reporter and gives details about a major story she is about to release. In his office back in Paris, Kevin hears the newscast and commits suicide by shooting himself. At the crash site, Patroni and the last of the crew leaves the Concord shortly before fuselage caves in and the entire aircraft explodes from the leaking fuel.

During the Cold War, the CIA orders free-lance operative Scorpio to assassinate his former CIA mentor Cross and a deadly cat-and-mouse game ensues. Cross is a CIA field agent, most of his tasks as an assassin. He has just returned to Washington DC from working on a case in Paris, he accompanied by Jean Laurier, code name Scorpio, a Frenchman who has long been mentored by Cross and who works as a freelance assassin. Scorpio pulled the actual trigger on the target in the just completed Paris case, and because of the nature of their work, Cross and Scorpio part company at Dulles Airport, neither having ever seen the other if questioned. Scorpio currently also lives part-time in DC with his girlfriend Susan and his flight attendant sister Anne. Cross' superior McLeod is surprised to see both Cross and Scorpio return to DC as the agency, through McLeod, had unofficially contracted Scorpio to eliminate Cross in Paris as it is well known within the agency that Cross plans on quitting, the threat that he could sell out to the Communists with the amount of knowledge he has too great a risk for the agency to take. Scorpio was seemingly the best man for the job in knowing Cross better than anyone else professionally. Scorpio is able to absolve himself in not carrying out that Paris mission on Cross on a loophole, he further able to renegotiate the contract to meet his goals more fully, namely to take over Cross' position within the agency. Cross discovers not only about there being a contract hit on him, but also that Scorpio is the hired gun. With a wide, loyal and diverse network both domestically and internationally, Cross is at least able to make it out of the country, he using that network to set up somewhere undetected and hopefully to bring his wife Sarah by his side once his new life is established. In the process, Cross will discover just how loyal his network is to him, with some former adversaries in his work, such as now Vienna-based Sergei Zharkov a former Soviet Communist agent, or if some are not who they purport to be in having a separate agenda. If it gets to that point, another question is whether Cross or Scorpio can pull the trigger on the other, each who may see the other as a mirror image of himself. —Huggo Cross is an old hand at the CIA, in charge of assassinating high-ranking foreign personalities who are an obstacle to the policies of the USA. He often teams up with Frenchman Jean Laurier, alias "Scorpio", a gifted free-lance operative. One day, the CIA orders Scorpio to eliminate Cross -- and leaves him no choice but to obey. Scorpio is cold-blooded and very systematic; however, as a veteran agent, Cross knows many tricks. He can also rely upon a network of unusual personal contacts, some dating back to the troubled years preceding WWII. A lethal game of hide-and-seek is programmed, but what are the true motives of every single player? —Eduardo Casais <casaise@acm.org>

A young woman meets a vital young man, but their love affair is doomed because of the man's materialistic nature. In the suburbs of Rome, translator Vittoria breaks her engagement with her boyfriend, writer Riccardo, after a troubled night. Vittoria goes downtown to meet her mother, who is addicted to the stock market, and she meets materialist broker Piero on a day the stock-market crashes. Piero and Vittoria begin a monosyllabic relationship.

In Rome, we see Philippe Greenleaf (Maurice Ronet) and Tom Ripley (Alain Delon) at a cafe table together; Tom is writing postcards. They chat about Philippe's girlfriend Marge, who he is having trouble with. Philippe gets up when he sees his friend Freddy (Billy Kearns) and invites him to join them. When Tom is away at a bookstore Philippe tells Freddy that Tom has admitted that it was Philippe's father who had Tom go to Italy to bring Philippe home to America with the promise of a handsome reward. Philippe has no intention of going. Freddy is uneasy about Tom and soon leaves; Philippe has Tom pick up their tab. As they walk down the street Philippe bumps into a blind man. He gives him money, then on Tom's suggestion buys the blind man's cane and gives him money for the taxi home. When Philippe pretends to be blind and stumbles into a car, a young woman takes pity on him and guides him across the street, and she ends up spending the evening with both men in a horse carriage, only later discovering that Philippe is not blind. Full of laughter, she buys the cane and has the carriage stop so she can try walking like a blind woman; she asks them to wait for her, but they instead proceed to a night club. Meanwhile Tom has seen fit to steal some of the lady's jewelry. Next, Philippe and Tom arrive by boat in the coastal town of Mongibello, where Philippe lives. At a local ballet company pre-premiere nerves are on; we see Philippe and Tom bring back a drunken man, O'Brien (Frank Latimore), the company director. Then they pay a visit to the guitar-playing, Fra Angelico-studying Marge (Marie Laforêt), who is upset with Philippe for leaving town for several days. They soon make up on the sofa, while Tom goes to the next room, discovers some of Philippe's clothes and puts them on. He looks into the mirror and pretends to be Philippe, but is interrupted by Philippe at the door. Later when Philippe is on his way to the bank for a cash withdrawal, Tom comes to him with a letter from Philippe's father, who is disappointed that Philippe does not seem intent on returning home and consequently discontinues his financial arrangement with Tom. Tom seems haunted and begs Philippe to go to San Francisco so he can get his hands on his father's money. Philippe, Marge and Tom go on a sail boat to join Freddy at Taormina. It's high summer, the sun is hot and the ocean is blue. During a meal Tom talks about how he used to adore Philippe when they were kids, and how Philippe's father didn't want them to be together because Tom wasn't of good enough family. Philippe sends Tom to the steering wheel while he and Marge have some time alone, but Tom overhears Philippe saying to Marge that he is not fond of Tom and that they will soon leave him behind so they can be alone. Tom is upset and deliberately makes the boat shake. Philippe comes up and, faking concern for the boat, tricks Tom into the safety boat, which he lets float after the ship, and retires to the cabin. But the rope breaks, and Tom drifts off. When Philippe discovers this he sets out to find Tom, and he and Marge bring the sunburned Tom aboard again. When Marge blames Philippe for treating his friend in this way he says that in fact he and Tom never spent their childhood together. When Philippe looks for a shirt among Tom's things he discovers some of his own bank statements hidden, though he keeps his discovery from Marge. Marge asks Tom to leave them behind and go home when they reach land. One night, we see Tom hide the earrings he stole earlier in the pocket of some of Philippe's clothes. The next day the two men have a conversation about the bank statements, and Philippe guesses that it might have been Tom's intention to pretend to be Philippe and claim his money as his own. Philippe and Marge have a row involving the earrings Marge has found among Philippe's clothes, and when Philippe tosses her Fra Angelico writings into the ocean she demands to be set ashore. Philippe and Tom continue alone. They continue their conversation about the bank statements, and Tom details how he would have killed Philippe to claim his money, and admits that he planted the jewelry. Philippe is repulsed and fascinated by Tom's behaviour. The two men play a hand of poker; Philippe wagers money, Tom the pocket watch Philippe's father gave him. When Tom discovers that Philippe tries to cheat in order to lose, Tom is upset. He says a few thousand dollars is no longer enough when he might have it all. He decides the game in Philippe's favour and stabs him in the chest as Philippe screams, "Marge". Tom Ripley must struggle with the boat against the wind, but he covers Philippe's body in a sack, then ties it to the anchor and dumps it. He accidentally falls in himself, but struggles back onto the boat and steers the boat to harbour in Mongibello. He goes to visit Marge, claiming that Philippe does not want to see her again. He collects some of Philippe's items from the house and from the boat. Claiming to be Mr. Greenleaf he goes to a boating agency to sell the boat, then leaves for Rome. There he buys equipment to fake a passport and learns how to convincingly fake Philippe's signature. He speaks to Marge on the phone, successfully convincing her that she is speaking to Philippe. He types Marge a letter and brings it personally to Marge. She takes him with her to Naples to show him the city. While she writes a letter to Philippe at a cafe, he takes a walk and looks at the market stalls. Back at Tom's hotel in Rome, he must escape notice from Madame Popova (Elvire Popesco), who knows Philippe from Mongibello; he soon gets an apartment for himself. Philippe's friend Freddy comes to visit after learning about the address and is suspicious when he finds Tom there wearing Philippe's clothes. Tom comes to see Freddy as a threat to his secret and gives him a fatal blow with an antique statuette. At night when the building is quiet he carries the body down the stairs and into the street where his car is waiting to help him dump the body. Soon after he is about to leave the apartment behind when the police come by; he narrowly escapes in a taxi. He goes straight to the bank to withdraw a large sum from Philippe's account, then telephones the apartment identifying himself to the police as Tom Ripley and desiring to speak to Philippe. A police officer, Riccordi (Erno Crisa), comes to Tom's pension to question him about the murder in which Mr. Greenleaf is a suspect, but Tom is, of course, unable to help. The next day Tom is present at the morgue to identify Freddy's body, along with Marge and others. They go to a restaurant and discuss Philippe's whereabouts, though they all believe him to be innocent. While at the table, Tom almost slips up when he quotes one of the letters Marge has written to Philippe, but he comes up with a lie and says that he met with Philippe the day before, and that Philippe is now in Mongibello. As soon as he can Tom travels to Mongibello to make it appear as if Philippe has been there and left a suicide note, the money Tom withdrew and a will leaving all the money to Marge. He leaves the house through a window just as Marge enters with the police. Back in Rome the next morning, Riccordi comes to Tom's pension room to ask him questions and reveal certain suspicions, but without result. Next, Tom is back in Mongibello, coinciding with a religious festival. He knocks on Marge's door, but there is no answer, and when he visits Mr. O'Brien and Madame Popova they tell him they have not seen her for weeks. The next morning Tom finds a way into the house and finds Marge still in mourning over Philippe's death. He tries to convince her that Philippe did not truly love her. He announces that he will return to America and kisses her goodbye, but she stops him and asks him to stay. He has her play the guitar for him, and we see the two in bed together. One day soon after, Tom and Marge go swimming. Philippe's father comes to town to meet Marge and sell Philippe's boat. Tom stays by the beach while Marge goes to meet him. When they investigate the boat, they discover that from a rope tangled in the engine hangs the rotten corpse of Philippe Greenleaf. The police come to the beachside cafe and have the waitress call Tom Ripley to the telephone. As Tom goes to take the call, he smiles to himself.