MARATHON MAN

Thomas Babington "Babe" Levy is a history student and distance runner at Columbia University in New York City who seeks to rehabilitate the memory of his father, who committed suicide during McCarthyism. A fiery car accident kills Klaus Szell, the brother of Nazi war criminal Christian Szell, who was a dentist at a concentration camp, as well as a Jewish immigrant named Rosenbaum. Babe's brother Henry ("Doc"), whom Babe believes is an oil company executive, is actually a member of a secret government agency that handles jobs too extreme for either the FBI or CIA. Doc is a courier for the transportation of diamonds owned by Szell and kept in a safe deposit box in New York City. Doc meets his contact LeClerc in Paris. Doc survives attacks directed at him, and LeClerc is killed by an assassin named Chen. Fortunately, Doc eliminates Chen after a minor struggle. When Doc takes Babe and his Swiss girlfriend Elsa Opel to lunch, he tricks Elsa into revealing that she is actually German and has been operating under false pretenses about her background.

Although Doc suspects she may have connections to Szell, he informs Babe that Elsa is seeking an American husband to gain U.S. citizenship. Szell, having learned of his brother's death, secretly arrives in New York from Uruguay to collect and sell the diamonds, and the couriers are mysteriously killed. When Doc and Szell meet, he is stabbed by Szell. Mortally wounded, Doc reaches Babe's apartment and dies before he is able to mention anything about what happened and why.

Szell, concerned over what Doc may have confided to Babe, has him kidnapped by two accomplices. Szell tortures Babe using his dental skills. Babe is rescued by Peter Janeway, who claims to be a colleague of Doc. He explains that Szell got rich by converting gold fillings he pulled from the teeth of Jews killed at Auschwitz, then converted the wealth into the even more concentrated form of diamonds. Janeway asks Babe about Doc's words, but Babe still insists he knows nothing. Frustrated, Janeway reveals himself to be a double agent and returns Babe to Szell. Even under further torture Babe is unable to divulge any information of value. Babe escapes, aided by his prowess as a marathon runner, and his apartment is burglarized by his friends.

Babe arms himself with his father's gun and phones Elsa, who agrees to meet him with a car. Arriving at a country house, Babe guesses that Elsa has set him up, and Elsa denies that she is working as Szell's mistress. The cottage was possessed by Klaus. When Janeway and Szell's henchmen, Karl and Erhard arrive, Babe holds everyone at gunpoint. Janeway kills Karl and Erhard in a gunfight when they try to shoot Babe, and Janeway offers to tell Babe where Szell will be in exchange for his safety and in retribution for Doc's murder. As Babe agrees and departs, Elsa tries to warn him of being double crossed as Janeway takes decisive action. In a fast twist, Janeway executes her and Babe fires through the window, killing Janeway.

Szell canvasses his cache, but is recognized by two Holocaust survivors, one of whom is a jewelry salesman Szell kills with his switchblade. Szell retrieves his diamonds, but as he leaves the Manhattan Diamond District to gauge the amount of his diamonds at the bank, Babe forces him at gunpoint to a pump house in the Central Park reservoir. Babe tells Szell that he can keep as many diamonds as he can swallow. After swallowing one diamond, Szell refuses to continue and says Babe, Doc and their father were weak before attacking him, but Babe dodges the stiletto and throws Szell's briefcase with the rest of the diamonds towards the water. Szell dives for them, and he stumbles down a spiral staircase, impales himself on his own blade and falls into the water. Babe then heads out into Central Park, stopping to throw his gun into the Reservoir.

Babe confronts Szell at the reservoir, forcing Szell to swallow his diamonds before Szell is killed. Babe leaves, rejecting the diamonds and the life-threatening intrigue.

The climax forces Babe, an innocent, into direct conflict with Szell, culminating in Babe asserting control over his fate. Rejecting the diamonds and the violence they spawned, Babe symbolically distances himself from both the criminal world and the traumatic legacy of his family, suggesting a desire for a return to a simpler, safer life.