Marathon Man (1976) [thePiratePimp]

Is it safe???

Marathon Man is a 1976 suspense/thriller film directed by John Schlesinger. It was adapted by William Goldman from his novel of the same name and stars Dustin Hoffman, Laurence Olivier, Roy Scheider, William Devane and Marthe Keller. The music score was composed by Michael Small.

Plot
Thomas "Babe" Levy (Dustin Hoffman) is a history Ph.D. candidate and avid runner researching the same field as his father, who committed suicide after being investigated during the Joseph McCarthy era. Babe's brother (Roy Scheider), known as "Doc," poses as an oil company executive but is actually working for a secret agency headed by Peter Janeway (William Devane).
When the brother of a Nazi war criminal is killed in a traffic accident, Doc suspects that the criminal, Dr. Christian Szell (Laurence Olivier), will come to New York to retrieve a valuable diamond collection. Narrowly escaping a vicious attempt on his own life in Europe, Doc travels to New York after being told that Babe and his new girlfriend, Elsa Opel (Marthe Keller), have been mugged by two men dressed in suits.
When he takes Babe and Elsa to lunch, Doc tricks Elsa into revealing that she has been lying about her background. Doc suspects she may be connected to Szell, but he tells Babe that she must be seeking an American husband so that she can become a U.S. citizen.
Szell arrives in America. He has a meeting arranged with "Scylla," which is Doc's spy agency code name. Doc angrily confronts Szell, irate over the mugging of Babe. ("We never involve family!") Szell's only concern is whether it will be safe for him to collect his diamonds. Doc replies that he doesn't care, whereupon he is stabbed with a blade concealed in Szell's sleeve.
Doc barely makes it back to Babe's apartment before dying. The police arrive and interrogate Babe, followed by Janeway and his men. Janeway wants to know what Doc told him before he died. He informs Babe that his brother was a U.S. government agent. Babe insists that his brother did not tell him anything, but Janeway is convinced Doc would not have struggled all the way to Babe's apartment without giving him vital information.
Babe is later abducted from his apartment by the two men who mugged him in the park. Strapped to a dentist chair, he is tortured by Szell. In terrible pain, Babe is repeatedly asked "Is it safe?" but continues to deny any knowledge.
With the others out of the room, Babe is miraculously rescued by Janeway. He explains to Babe calmly that Szell is in America to sell off a large cache of diamonds which he had taken from Jews killed at Auschwitz. Janeway continues to demand Doc's dying words, but Babe still insists he knows nothing. A frustrated Janeway reveals himself as a double agent and returns Babe to Szell. Still unable to extract any useful information, Szell drills into one of his healthy teeth.
Babe eventually escapes, staggering through the streets of New York, aided by his skills as a marathon runner. He phones Elsa, who agrees to meet him with a car. Arriving at a country home, Babe guesses that Elsa has set him up, forcing her to confess that the home was owned by Szell's deceased brother. Janeway's and Szell's men arrive, so Babe uses Elsa as a hostage. Janeway ruthlessly kills Szell's men and offers to let Babe personally kill Szell in revenge for Doc's death if Janeway can have the diamonds. Babe agrees, but after he leaves Janeway kills Elsa. Suspecting that something like that would happen, Babe returns and shoots Janeway.
Attempting to determine the value of his gems, Szell visits an appraiser in the Diamond District of midtown Manhattan. A shop assistant who is a Holocaust survivor believes he recognizes Szell as a war criminal. Szell hurriedly leaves the shop, but an elderly Jewish woman also recognizes him. Trying to cross the street to get closer to Szell, the woman is hit by a taxi, causing a crowd to assemble to aid her. Amidst the confusion, the shop assistant appears again, calling out Szell's name, coming toward him. Szell slits the man's throat.
Szell retrieves his diamonds from a bank. Waiting outside is Babe, who forces him at gunpoint into a water treatment plant in Central Park near his daily jogging path. Babe tells Szell he can keep as many diamonds as he can swallow. Szell says, "You're joking," to which Babe replies, "No, I don't think so, I'm not joking. Essen!" (meaning "eat"). He hurls handfuls of diamonds, many of which fall through the grating platform they're standing on and into the water below.
Szell relents, swallowing one diamond. He refuses to cooperate further, saying Babe will have to shoot him. Szell brings up Babe's father and brother and accuses Babe of being weak and predictable, then spits at him.
Babe strikes back but in the process loses his grip on the gun. Szell reveals his dagger and lunges at him, but Babe manages to avoid it and throw the open briefcase with the remaining diamonds down the stairwell towards the water. Szell dives for them, but stumbles and rolls down the steps, falling on his own knife blade. Szell looks at the knife in his stomach in amazement and pulls it out just before collapsing into the water. Babe heads out into Central Park, stopping to throw his father's gun into the reservoir.