A good, hard-driving thriller, seemingly straightforward - on which level it works well enough anyway - but eventually ingenious and devious, making more sense of an inevitably explosive climax. And fortunately, it has, in the leading role, Sean Connery, as a Norwegian security chief called in to save the British Ambassador who has been held to ransom in his residence. A second little knot to unravel is a plane landing at the airport which is hijacked by Ian McShane and his band of terrorists, demanding the release of their colleagues who, though trapped, have the ambassador as hostage. The direction (by Caspar Wrede) and the rest of acting is rather indifferent, but the film's other major assets prove to be throbbingly deep-key music by Jerry Goldsmith and icily atmospheric photography by Sven Nykvist.

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