Munich (film) - Plot

Plot

The film begins with a depiction of the events of the 1972 Munich Olympics. After the killings, a target list of 11 names is drawn up.

Avner Kaufman (Eric Bana), an Israeli-born Mossad agent of German-Jewish descent, is chosen to lead the assassination squad and is given the assignment over tea at the home of Prime Minister of Israel Golda Meir. To give the Israeli government plausible deniability and, at the direction of his handler Ephraim (Geoffrey Rush), Avner resigns from Mossad; and the squad operates with no official ties to Israel. Avner is given a team of four Jewish men: Steve (Daniel Craig), a South African driver; Hans (Hanns Zischler), a document forger; Robert (Mathieu Kassovitz), a Belgian toy-maker trained in defusing explosives; and Carl (Ciarán Hinds), a former Israeli soldier who "cleans up" after the assassinations. Avner and his team set about tracking down the 11 targets with the help of a shadowy French informant, Louis (Mathieu Amalric).

In Rome, the group tracks down their first target, Abdel Wael Zwaiter, who is broke and living as a poet. The group follows him to his apartment building, and Avner and Robert shoot him dead. In Paris, Robert pretends to be a journalist interviewing their second target, Mahmoud Hamshari, about the Munich massacre. He plants a bomb in Hamshari's phone that is set to be detonated by a remote key. Carl is to dial Hamshari's number from a public telephone booth after Hamshari's wife and daughter have left. However, while a large truck obscures their view, the daughter runs back inside to retrieve something. Carl calls the number, and the girl picks up; but Avner aborts the mission before Robert, who cannot see what is going on, triggers the explosion. When the girl leaves, Carl telephones the number, asks the man who answers if he's Hamshari; and, upon affirmation of name, Robert detonates the bomb. In Cyprus, the team kills the next target, Hussein Al Bashir (Hussein Abd Al Chir), by planting a bomb in his hotel room beneath his bed. Avner gets a room next to Al Bashir and turns off his bedroom light, the signal to proceed. When Robert detonates the bomb, the explosives almost kill Avner and injures a newlywed couple next door. The group meet later aboard a boat in the Cyprus harbour to discuss the errors in the mission. Robert insists that the explosives he used were far more powerful than what he expected. It is revealed at this juncture that Louis provided the explosives and that he is also helping with the logistics of the hits through Avner.

Avner then meets with Louis in Paris and he gives the team information on three Palestinians in Beirut: Muhammad Youssef al-Najjar (Abu Youssef); Kamal Adwan; and Kamal Nasser, a Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) spokesman. Ephraim refuses to let them handle the mission themselves. Avner insists that he will lose Louis' trust if the operation is carried out by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Ephraim relents, allowing the team to accompany the IDF commandos. In Beirut, Steve, Robert, and Avner meet up with a group of Sayeret Matkal IDF soldiers. They penetrate the Palestinians' guarded compound and kill all three.

In Athens, Louis has provided the team with an apartment. During the night, four PLO members, who have rented the same apartment as a safe house, enter the dwelling. After a tense confrontation with guns drawn, Robert defuses the situation by claiming that his squad are members of the Basque separatist Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA), Red Army Faction (RAF), and the African National Congress (ANC). Avner discusses Middle East politics with the group's leader. Avner's group carries out their next assassination, that of Zaiad Muchasi, by installing a remote-controlled bomb in Muchasi's TV set. However, the bomb does not detonate. Hans walks into the hotel, forces his way and throws a grenade that sets off the bomb, killing Muchasi. The squad exchanges gunfire with Muchasi's bodyguards. In the chaos, they are forced to take the hotel manager hostage; and Robert reveals that he doesn't actually build bombs, but just defuses them.

Louis provides the squad with information on Ali Hassan Salameh, the organizer of the Munich Massacre. Avner learns from Louis that the CIA have a deal with Salameh wherein they protect and fund him in exchange for his promise not to attack US diplomats. The squad moves to London to track down Salameh, but they are not able to accomplish the assassination when Avner is suddenly approached by several drunken Americans. It is implied the said Americans are actually CIA agents. Avner is propositioned by a woman (Marie-Josée Croze) in the hotel but declines. Afterward, Carl is killed by the same woman, who Avner learns is an independent Dutch contract killer.

Robert questions the morality of the entire mission; Avner listens to him and asks him to take a break. The remaining squad tracks the Dutch assassin to the Netherlands and kills her without a glitch. Afterwards Avner, Steve and Hans discuss the futility of the mission. Later, Hans is found stabbed to death and left on a park bench while Robert is killed in an explosion in his workshop. Avner and Steve finally locate Salameh in Spain; however, their assassination attempt is thwarted by Salameh's guards.

A disillusioned Avner flies to Israel and then to his new home in New York City to reunite with his wife and their child. In a fit of paranoia, he storms into the Israeli consulate and screams at an employee whom he believes to be a Mossad agent to leave him and his family alone. Ephraim comes to New York to urge Avner to rejoin Mossad.

In the final scene, Avner openly questions the basis and effectiveness of the operation, and Ephraim admits that there was no evidence linking any of the targets to the Munich massacre. In a show of respect, Avner asks Ephraim to break bread with him, but because he has refused to return to Israel, Ephraim rejects him and leaves. Avner leaves as well.

During the last scene, the camera pans across the New York City skyline and stops with the Twin Towers in the center of the scene. A postscript notes that 9 of the 11 men targeted by Mossad were eventually assassinated, including Salameh in 1979.