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The Osterman Weekend (film)

The Osterman Weekend
The Osterman Weekend movie.jpg
The theatrical release poster for The Osterman Weekend
Directed by Sam Peckinpah
Produced by Peter S. Davis
William N. Panzer
Written by Ian Masters (adaptation)
Screenplay by Alan Sharp
Based on The Osterman Weekend
(1972 novel)
by Robert Ludlum
Starring
Music by Lalo Schifrin
Cinematography John Coquillon
Edited by Edward M. Abroms
David Rawlins
Production
company
Osterman Weekend Productions
Distributed by 20th Century Fox
Release date
  • November 4, 1983 (1983-11-04) (US)
  •  ()
Running time
103 minutes
116 minutes (Director's cut)
Country United States
Language English
Box office $6,486,797

The Osterman Weekend is a 1983 suspense thriller film directed by Sam Peckinpah, based on the novel of the same name by Robert Ludlum. The film stars Rutger Hauer, John Hurt, Burt Lancaster, Dennis Hopper, Meg Foster and Craig T. Nelson. It was Peckinpah's final film before his death in 1984.

CIA director Maxwell Danforth (Burt Lancaster) watches a recording of agent Laurence Fassett (John Hurt) and his wife (Merete Van Kamp) having sex. When Fassett goes into the bathroom to take a shower, two assassins enter the bedroom and kill his wife. Fassett, unaware of his employer's involvement, is consumed by grief and rage. He hunts the assassins, eventually uncovering a Soviet spy network known as Omega.

Fassett tells the director that he wants to turn some of Omega's agents to the side of the West. He sees an opportunity in John Tanner (Rutger Hauer), a controversial television journalist who is highly critical of government abuses of power. Fassett explains that Tanner's closest friends are Omega agents. He believes Tanner could convince the Soviet spies to defect. He offers videotaped evidence of Tanner's friends discussing financial matters with a Russian man, whom Fassett identifies as a KGB agent. Tanner met his friends in college, and they have all gone on to successful careers. The spies are Bernard Osterman (Craig T. Nelson), a television producer who knows martial arts; Richard Tremayne (Dennis Hopper), a plastic surgeon; and stock trader Joseph Cardone (Chris Sarandon). Tanner agrees, but only on the condition that someone from the CIA appear as a guest on his show. Danforth agrees to this condition.


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