The Killer Elite

The Killer Elite centres on Mike Locken, a specialist in a private outfit that handles dangerous jobs, many of them for the CIA, alongside his friend and partner George Hansen. When a mission goes wrong, Hansen turns on Locken and shoots him, leaving him badly injured in the arm and leg. Locken slowly rebuilds his mobility and is drawn back into the organisation's work, this time on an operation involving a political figure from Asia whose life is under threat. The assignment puts him on a collision course with Hansen, and Locken's old colleagues, Mac and Miller, join him in pursuing the man who betrayed him.

Sam Peckinpah directed the film, which sits between Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia and Cross of Iron in his filmography. Stirling Silliphant and Marc Norman wrote the screenplay, and Martin Baum and Arthur Lewis produced it. James Caan plays Locken, with Robert Duvall as Hansen, Arthur Hill as Cap Collis, Bo Hopkins as Jerome Miller, Mako as Yuen Chung and Burt Young as Mac; the credited cast runs to 41 names. Made for about 5 million dollars, it returned roughly 1 million at the worldwide box office. On IMDb it holds 5.9 out of 10 from 8,300 votes, on TMDB 5.8 from 151, and critics' reviews average 5.7 from 16.