# Movie ID help **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 18, 2018, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-id-help/814405 "2018-05-18T16:26:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2018, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-id-help/814405/1 "2018-05-18T16:26:07Z")
Looking for an old movie (70’s?) about an assassin that used a crossbow. I tried to google it of course but given that there is a crossbow model named Assassin and the popularity of Assassins Creed there were tons of hits to wade through. Yeah, I couldn’t find it. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2018, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-id-help/814405/2 "2018-05-18T17:24:57Z")
I think we need more information here. Time and place it was set? Nationalities of the cast? Motive for and subject of the assassination? The only '70s movie I can think of in which crossbows were used is **this one** : > **[The Wild Geese](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wild_Geese)** > > The Wild Geese is a 1978 war film directed by Andrew V. McLaglen and starring Richard Burton, Roger Moore, Richard Harris, and Hardy Krüger. The screenplay concerns a group of mercenaries in Africa. It was the result of a long-held ambition of its producer Euan Lloyd to make an all-star adventure film similar to The Guns of Navarone or Where Eagles Dare. The producer and director would later make The Sea Wolves starring several cast members from this film. > The screenplay by Reginald Rose was ... They were used to kill guards in watchtowers. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2018, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-id-help/814405/3 "2018-05-19T00:45:49Z")
It wasn’t a war movie. The only scene I can remember enough to describe is one where the killer killed someone in an apartment building or maybe a hotel room. I think he entered from a common hall. It might have been from the 60’s. I seem to remember it had a feel of that time. Maybe the killer wore a black turtleneck. Maybe the movie title had month in it. Sorry it’s not much to go on but that’s all I can remember. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2018, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-id-help/814405/4 "2018-05-19T02:51:47Z")
Sounds more like something out of _Man From UNCLE_ or _Mission Impossible_. Those were ancient TV shows before they were movies starring Tom Cruise or Armie Hammer. ---
**Author:** ![sabernode](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/278dde/32.png) [@sabernode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sabernode)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2018, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-id-help/814405/5 "2018-05-19T03:10:50Z")
The only movie that I thought about is Assassin’s Creed: Magneto. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2018, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-id-help/814405/6 "2018-05-19T03:30:29Z")
[When Eight Bells Toll ?](http://thisislandrod.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/when-eight-bells-toll-1971.html) - It’s easy to admit that another major pleasure of the film is in the sight of Hopkins getting into fisticuffs and gun-fights, squeeze into a wetsuit, plug a guy with a crossbow, and do all the things expected of an action hero (although he obviously needed a stuntman much more than, say, Sean Connery), whilst refusing to buff himself into a smoothly palatable screen persona.\* ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2018, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-id-help/814405/7 "2018-05-19T03:34:48Z")
For Your Eyes Only? When you say the movie is about an assassin, does that mean he is the protagonist? Or just a minor character? ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2018, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-id-help/814405/8 "2018-05-19T04:27:05Z")
I’m not sure if he was the protagonist but I don’t recall him being a minor character. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2018, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-id-help/814405/9 "2018-05-19T17:37:35Z")
Found it! > **[The Osterman Weekend (1983) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086058/)** > > The Osterman Weekend: Directed by Sam Peckinpah. With Rutger Hauer, John Hurt, Craig T. Nelson, Dennis Hopper. During the Cold War, a controversial television journalist is asked by the C.I.A. to persuade certain acquaintances, who are Soviet Agents... Thanks to those who helped. ---
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2018, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-id-help/814405/10 "2018-05-20T16:04:43Z")
I saw it many years ago but don’t remember anything about it. Sounds like it is worth another look. I read the plot outline on Wiki and came across this: “Tanner’s son discovers the severed head of the family dog in the refrigerator, but it turns out to be fake.” Now I realize that movie covert agents have ridiculous amounts of resources, but a fake dog head made to order to resemble a particular dog? What? Where in the hell would they come up with something like that on short notice? Dennis