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The Assignment

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"The Assignment'' is a canny, tricky thriller that could serve as an illustration of what this week's similar release, "The Peacemaker,'' is not. Both films involve an international hunt for a dangerous terrorist, but "The Peacemaker'' is a cartoon and "The Assignment'' is intelligent and gripping--and it has a third act! Instead of an action orgy, it has more than enough story to see it through to the end and keep us absorbed the whole way. Yes, it ends with a deadly struggle, but as the setting for another stage of the movie's web of deceit.

The film is centered on a CIA plot to discredit and kill Carlos, the feared terrorist who operated for years, despite the best efforts of the free world's security agencies to capture him. Donald Sutherland plays Fields, the CIA agent for whom Carlos has become an obsession, and when he finds a U.S. Navy officer named Ramirez ( Aidan Quinn ) who's a dead-ringer for the terrorist, he devises a risky scheme: He'll train Ramirez to impersonate Carlos, then use the double to convince the KGB that their attack dog is disloyal. As a result, Carlos will either be dead or, almost as good, discredited in the eyes of his sponsors.

Fields works with an Israeli named Amos ( Ben Kingsley ) in training Ramirez, after first using psychological tactics to persuade the reluctant Navy man to leave his wife and family and become a counter-terrorist. (The scene where Fields shows Ramirez a dying child in a hospital is a direct echo of " The Third Man ".) Then the false Carlos, is sent into the field to work the deception, which I will not describe.

"The Assignment'' is fascinating because its characters can be believed, because there is at least a tiny nugget of truth in the story, and because from the deceptive opening credits, this is a film that creates the right world for these characters to inhabit. Sutherland's CIA man is especially well drawn: "I don't have any family,'' he says, "and I don't have any friends. The only people I've ever cared about were the ones I've killed.'' Quinn plays a dual role, as Ramirez and Carlos, and has some tricky scenes, especially one in which a former lover of Carlos helps train him sexually so that he will be a convincing bedmate for another of the terrorist's lovers.

The screenplay, by Dan Gordon and Sabi H. Shabtai , has action scenes that grow from the story and are not simply set pieces for their own sake. It's impressive the way so many different story threads come together all at once near the end.

The director, Christian Duguay , is new to me. What he has is a tactile love of film, of images. He and the cinematographer, David Franco, don't use locations so much as occupy them; we visit Jerusalem, Paris, Vienna, Washington, Tripoli and Moscow (or sets and effects that look like them) and yet the movie's not a travelogue but a story hurtling ahead.

I have seen so many lazy thrillers. They share the same characteristics: Most of the scenes involve the overpriced star, the villain is underwritten, and the plot is merely a set-up for the special effects, the chases and the final action climax. "The Assignment'' gives us ensemble work by fine actors, it has a villain of great complexity (developed through the process of imitating him), and at the end there is a tantalizing situation for us to unravel as we leave the theater.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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The Assignment (1997)

Rated R For Strong Violence, Sexuality and Language

115 minutes

Claudia Ferri as Maura Ramirez

Aidan Quinn as Annibal Ramirez/Carlos

Ben Kingsley as Amos

Celine Bonnier as Carla

Directed by

• Christian Duguay
• Sabi H. Shabtai

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The Assignment (1997 film)

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The Assignment is a 1997 spy action thriller film directed by Christian Duguay and starring Aidan Quinn (in two roles), with Donald Sutherland and Ben Kingsley . The film, written by Dan Gordon and Sabi H. Shabtai, is set mostly in the late 1980s and deals with a CIA plan to use Quinn's character to masquerade as the Venezuelan terrorist Carlos the Jackal .

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Jack Shaw (Donald Sutherland) has experienced the terror first-hand. He's a top CIA agent who's tracked international killer-for-hire Carlos "The Jackal" Sanchez for over twenty years and barely survived Carlos' devastating bombing of a Parisian cafe. Now, he finally gets a break when he discovers Carlos' dead ringer: American naval officer and dedicated family man Annibal Ramirez (Aidan Quinn). With the aid of his Israeli Intelligence counterpart, Amos (Ben Kingsley), Jack trains Annibal to impersonate Carlos through a series of harrowing physical and psychological exercises and draw the real killer out of hiding and into an elaborate trap.

© 1997 Allegro Film Productions V Inc. All Rights Reserved.

© 2024 Sony Pictures Digital Productions Inc.   All rights reserved

The Assignment

Film details, brief synopsis, cast & crew, christian duguay, aidan quinn, donald sutherland, ben kingsley, claudia ferri, celine bonnier, technical specs.

Cuban-American navel officer Annibal Ramirez is a dead ringer for Carlos "The Jackal" Sanchez. His features are so close to those of Sanchez that he is brutally interrogated as a terrorist while on vacation in Israel. American counter-intellegence agent Jack Shaw and his Israeli counterpart Amos realize they can use Ramirez as bait for "The Jackal." Wanting to serve his country, Ramirez is unsure he can survive the physical and psychological trials he must endure to become like Sanchez. By the end of the training, however, Ramirez knows Sanchez better than anyone alive and enters the world as "The Jackal."

Vlasta Vrana

Liliana komorowska, mitchell david rothpan, gregory hlady, gabriel marian oseciuc, frederic desager, kliment denchev, yonathan gordon, ndiouga sarr, manuel aranguiz, leni parker, jacques lavallée, david francis, daniel pilon, richard jutras, hisham zayed, ted whittall, francis del vecchio, lisa wegner, lucie laurier, neil kroetsch, matthew dupuis, paul stewart, claude genest, michael caloz, david franco, heinz becker, louis bouchard, mark knoeffel, andres lange, martin morf, marcello adatto, benoit alarie, francois allard, pierre allard, alec anderson, michael annett, georges archambault, itzik ben aroya, henri aubertin, jean-paul auclair, nancy auclair, cheryl bainum, mihaly balasko, sandor balo, gyula balogh, itzhak bareli, krisztina barkoczky, franco battista, marc h beaulieu, louise bedard, benoit begin, marc bélanger, novek belanger, richard belanger, caroline beliveau, jocelyne bellemare, christian bergeron, sylvain bergevin, josee bernard, jacques f bernier, michel bernier, mickey binyamini, brian black, andras bogdan, jean boivin, michel bolduc, michel b bordeleau, philippe bosse, diane boucher, virginie boudreau, claude boulet, mary bradley, anderson chet bradshaw, cecile braemer, karoly braunner, michel brohez, michel brouillette, joseph lang browns, joseanne brunelle, frances calder, andrew d campbell, jean-francois campeau, helene canse, alain caporicci, johanne caporicci, annie carignan, claudine carpentier, tim j carroll, denis caspar, yves castonguay, jason cavalier, michel cerro, guylaine chagnon, stephane charron, jean chasse, jozsef cirko, steve clark, steven clark, alain clouatre, guy cloutier, gary coates, joseph n cohen, didier communaux, stephane connolly, sam coppola, normand corbeil, ryal cosgrove, francis covan, mike cozons, donna croce, gabor csakovics, zsolt csutak, denise d'amours, francois daignault, louis dandonneau, gary daprato, james darling, luc deguise, jean-yves denis, louise deschenes, marc desourdy, melina dicristo, robert ditchburn, kristen dolenko, jacques dorion, marion doucet, pascal dufaux, gina duhamel, paul dupont, yanick dusseault, john dykstra, bram eisenthal, shimon elimelech, zsolt feher, attila feherhegyi, bruno ferland, deak ferrand, natalie fleurant, raoul fortin, martin fournier, charlene francique, sassi franco, monika frankl, mario fraser, rene frechette, michel frenette, zoltan fulop, yiftach gabai, daniel gagnon, francine gagnon, sylvie gagnon, paul-emile gallant, gilbert garcia, jean-francois garcia, patrick garcia, benoit gauthier, francois gauthier, michel gauvin, sebastien gervais, nimi getter, michel ghorayeb, michel ghoyareb, stephen gilbert, natalie ginat, suzanne gingras, manon girard, moshe gissis, johnny goar, shai goldenberg, francois gosselin, melany goudreau, anne grandbois, jennifer-lys grenier, naama halperin, johnny harkala, avidan hatuka, terry hawkins, claude hazanavicius, simon hebert, r j henning, roger hewett, mark hoffman, julie houle, monika hufnagel, daniel huysman, france hyman, silvi imbeault, yehuda sar israel, pierric jouvante, michael joy, daniel juneau, boaz katzenelson, nick kerridge, shabtai kimhi, yaacov kimmelfeld, bobe kiraly, attila kiss, pini klavir, michael konydes, daria korolus, agota kovacs, balazs kovacs, gabor kovacs, tamas krausz, yohannan kredo, maurice krouche, brigitte labelle, helene lafrance, eric lafrance st-pierre, stephen laidlaw, miscellaneous notes.

Released in United States Fall September 26, 1997

Limited Release in United States September 26, 1997

Released in United States on Video March 17, 1998

Based upon a true story.

Completed shooting June 27, 1996.

Began shooting February 11, 1996.

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The Assignment

With action set in the U.S., Canada, France, Libya and Israel, "The Assignment" has the makings of a vintage international spy thriller, but the story of American and Israeli agents trying to entrap notorious real-life terrorist Carlos (The Jackal) Sanchez comes off disappointingly flat. As usual, Montreal helmer Christian Duguay delivers all kinds of eye-catching visuals and crackerjack suspense sequences.

By Brendan Kelly

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With action set in the U.S., Canada, France, Libya and Israel, “The Assignment” has the makings of a vintage international spy thriller, but the story of American and Israeli agents trying to entrap notorious real-life terrorist Carlos (The Jackal) Sanchez comes off disappointingly flat. As usual, Montreal helmer Christian Duguay delivers all kinds of eye-catching visuals and crackerjack suspense sequences. But the less-than-inspired script takes way too long to get into high gear and simply doesn’t dispense the requisite amount of thrilling moments. The film remains a reasonably entertaining suspenser, but it will be a challenge for Triumph to attract a substantial audience given pic’s lack of marquee star power and the crowded action marketplace. B.O. will likely be better overseas and in the video market.

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The evil Jackal is first introduced in a flashback to early 1970s Paris, where the longhaired killer Carlos (Aidan Quinn) is shown tossing a grenade into a crowded cafe. CIA operative Jack Shaw (Donald Sutherland) just happens to be sitting outside the exploding coffee shop and, after seeing the effects of Carlos’ nasty handiwork, Shaw vows to hunt down and destroy the terrorist any way he can.

Globetrotting tale then jumps forward 15 years to mid-’80s Jerusalem, where squeaky-clean U.S. naval officer Annibal Ramirez (also Quinn) is on vacation. He is picked up and interrogated by Israeli intelligence agents after Mossad commander Amos (Ben Kingsley) becomes convinced that Ramirez is, in fact, the dreaded Carlos. It appears that the upstanding naval veteran and the murdering terrorist look remarkably similar.

The mix-up is eventually ironed out, and Ramirez heads back home to Norfolk, Va. In the meantime, Shaw has somehow heard about this guy who is practically the identical twin of his arch-nemesis, and he heads to Ramirez’s home to convince the naval officer to impersonate Carlos in an elaborate scheme to reel in the Jackal. Thanks to some heavy-duty strong-arming from Shaw, the initially reluctant Ramirez gives in and accepts the risky assignment.

Then it’s off to Montreal for some rigorous, downright strange training overseen by Shaw and Amos, with Ramirez learning to dodge oncoming snowmobiles, shooting blanks at people, eating dozens of bowls of porridge each day and ingesting hallucinatory drugs. The far-fetched plan is to make the KGB, which is sheltering Carlos in Libya, believe that Carlos is about to switch sides and go over to the CIA. Once they discover this, the Russians will presumably bump off Carlos themselves.

Ramirez meets an old g.f. of Carlos’, Carla (Celine Bonnier), and Shaw and Amos force him to have sex with the sultry woman just so he’ll pick up a few tips about Carlos’ macho style in the sack. After that, he is ready to hook up with another old Carlos g.f., Agnieska (Liliana Komorowska), in a crucial part of the sting.

A key problem here is the length of time it takes for story to reach optimum cruising speed. After nearly an hour, Ramirez is still in training at a dilapidated penitentiary and has not even hit the road to try to draw Carlos from his lair. Duguay, who showcased a sure hand with energetic thrills ‘n’ spills in his previous feature, “Screamers,” once again shows he is a fine action helmer, with various high-adrenaline chase and shootout sequences. But the tale is simply not strong enough to perk up interest, and scripters Dan Gordon and Sabi H. Shabtai have not provided enough character development to compensate for the lackluster pacing.

Quinn is the best of the leads, giving some much-needed depth to his portrayal of the goody-two-shoes career naval officer who discovers his own dark demons while impersonating Carlos. Sutherland hardly breathes any life into his role, and Kingsley is equally uninspired.

Duguay, a former cinematographer, and lenser David Franco give the pic a great look and know exactly how to shoot the fast-paced action scenes. All other tech credits are first-rate.

• Production: A Triumph Films release of an Allegro Films production, with the participation of the Quebec and the Canadian governments. (International sales: Columbia TriStar, Culver City.) Produced by Tom Berry, Franco Battista. Executive producers, David Saunders, Joseph Newton Cohen. Co-producer, Stefan Wodoslawsky. Directed by Christian Duguay. Screenplay, Dan Gordon, Sabi H. Shabtai.
• Crew: Camera (color), David Franco; editor, Yves Langlois; music, Normand Corbeil; production design, Michael Joy; art direction, James Fox; costumes, Ada Levin; digital effects, Richard Ostiguy; sound, Thierry Morlaas-Lurbe; assistant director, David McLeod; casting, Mary Margiotta, Karen Margiotta, Lucie Robitaille. Reviewed at Toronto Film Festival (Gala), Sept. 9, 1997. MPAA Rating: R. Running time: 115 MIN.
• With: Annibal Ramirez/Carlos - Aidan Quinn Jack Shaw/Henry Fields - Donald Sutherland Amos - Ben Kingsley Maura Ramirez - Claudia Ferri Carla - Celine Bonnier KGB Head Officer - Vlasta Vrana Agnieska - Liliana Komorowska With: Von Flores, Al Waxman, Mitchell David Rothpan, Gregory Hlady, Gabriel Marian Oseciuc, Frederic Desager, Kliment Denchev, Yonathan Gordon, Ndiouga Sarr, Manuel Aranguiz, Leni Parker.

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The Assignment (1997) Streaming: Watch & Stream Online via Amazon Prime Video

By Areeba Masood

The Assignment (1997) is a spy action thriller. It centers on a daring CIA plot to take down notorious terrorist Carlos the Jackal. The agency recruits a dead ringer for Carlos – an unsuspecting American naval officer – to impersonate the terrorist and infiltrate his inner circle. This high-stakes mission forces the officer to confront a dangerous world and walk a tightrope between deception and exposure.

Here’s how you can watch and stream The Assignment (1997) via streaming services such as Amazon Prime Video.

Is The Assignment (1997) available to watch via streaming?

Yes, The Assignment (1997) is available to watch via streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

A shocking case of mistaken identity turns Lieutenant Commander Annibal Ramirez’s world upside down. The unassuming officer is recruited by the CIA for a near-impossible mission: impersonate the infamous terrorist Carlos the Jackal. Ramirez undergoes a grueling transformation, learning to walk, talk, and think like his deadly counterpart. His goal? Infiltrate Carlos’s inner circle and convince the KGB, Carlos’s sponsors, that he’s become a double agent for the CIA.

The Assignment (1997) stars Aidan Quinn as Lt. Commander Annibal Ramirez, an unsuspecting officer thrust into the world of espionage. Donald Sutherland portrays Jack Shaw, the jaded CIA operative tasked with training Ramirez, while Ben Kingsley takes on the role of Amos, a ruthless Mossad agent with a stake in the mission.

Watch The Assignment (1997) streaming via Amazon Prime Video

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 The Assignment (1997) synopsis is as follows: 

“Jack Shaw has experienced the terror first-hand. He’s a top CIA agent who’s tracked international killer-for-hire Carlos “The Jackal” Sanchez for over twenty years and barely survived Carlos’ devastating bombing of a Parisian cafe. Now, he finally gets a break when he discovers Carlos’ dead ringer: American naval officer and dedicated family man Annibal Ramirez.”

NOTE: The streaming services listed above are subject to change. The information provided was correct at the time of writing.

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The Assignment (1997 film)

The Assignment is a 1997 spy action thriller film directed by Christian Duguay and starring Aidan Quinn (in two roles), with Donald Sutherland and Ben Kingsley . The film, written by Dan Gordon and Sabi H. Shabtai, is set mostly in the late 1980s and deals with a CIA plan to use Quinn's character to masquerade as the Venezuelan terrorist Carlos the Jackal .

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Carlos the Jackal has sex and kills a spider in its web with his cigarette then evicts the woman from his room. He dons a disguise and walks to a cafe where CIA agent Henry Fields ( Donald Sutherland ) is sitting at a table. He recognizes Fields and asks for a light but Fields does not recognize Carlos, because of his disguise. He watches as Carlos detonates a grenade, killing dozens of people.

The next year, the Jackal attacks an OPEC meeting in Austria to earn a ransom. The CIA sends Fields to identify Carlos, where he secretly plans to assassinate him with a concealed pistol. The plan is foiled when his CIA superior stops him from reaching out to shake Carlos' hand because he might be photographed doing so by nearby journalists.

In 1986, Carlos is apparently apprehended in an open-air market in Jerusalem and brutally interrogated by a Mossad commander named Amos ( Ben Kingsley ). The man claims to actually be a US naval officer named Annibal Ramirez ( Aidan Quinn ) whose identification was lost in the chaos of his arrest. Amos confirms his identity and lets him go, stunned that Ramirez looks exactly like Carlos. Back at home, Ramirez is visited by Fields (now using the name Jack Shaw) who tries to recruit him to impersonate the terrorist leader. Ramirez refuses.

Shaw persists, turning up at a Navy ball and trying various manipulations to goad Ramirez into taking the assignment. He finally succeeds by confronting Ramirez with the human cost of Carlos' terrorism by taking him to Bethesda Naval Hospital to see a boy who has been crippled by one of Carlos' bombs.

Amos and Shaw train Ramirez at a former prison in Canada. Much of his training is devoted to situational awareness and internalizing details of Carlos' life. His training concludes with Carla, one of Carlos' ex-mistresses, training Ramirez in how to make love like Carlos. The plan revolves around convincing the KGB , which is financing his terrorism, that Carlos has begun selling information to the CIA. Shaw lures one of Carlos' ex-lovers, Agnieska, to Libya, where Ramirez convinces her of his legitimacy. However, he notices she has become an informant for French intelligence. Several French agents arrive at their apartment, and Ramirez is forced to kill them.

Carlos sends an assassin to kill Agnieska in France, ordering him to leave Europe through London. The assassin happens to be in Heathrow Airport at the same time as Ramirez, and realizes Ramirez is an impostor after he fails to recognize a code phrase. During a struggle, Amos and the assassin kill each other. After Amos' death, the CIA suspends the operation and Ramirez returns home.

Ramirez makes love to his wife as Carlos would, and she is disturbed by his change. The next day, at his son's little league game, he gets into a confrontation with another father and nearly kills him. Shaw bails him out of jail, and both men are clearly suffering from the failure of their mission. Ramirez accuses Shaw of fabricating the scene at the hospital to trick him into accepting the assignment and Shaw threatens to use the Ramirez family as bait to lure out Carlos if he tries to back out. That night Ramirez painfully reveals the mission to his wife but leaves to continue it, knowing that his family will never be safe as long as Carlos is alive.

Ramirez and Shaw meet up in East Berlin and the KGB photographs them, assuming Carlos has been turned . Enraged, the KGB raids Carlos' safe house, but he escapes. Shaw and Ramirez are waiting outside for him, and Ramirez fights Carlos on the bank of the Spree River . It is impossible to tell which of the two is the real Carlos during the struggle. As one of the men is being held under water by the other, Shaw comes upon them and shoots the man above the water several times. He realizes too late that he has shot Ramirez, and Carlos swims away. Ramirez presses Shaw to leave him and kill Carlos, but Shaw insists that their plan has worked and that Carlos is now a target of the KGB.

Back home, a car bomb appears to kill Ramirez and his family and Shaw attends the funeral. In St. Martin , Ramirez receives a news clipping of the bombing with a congratulatory note from Shaw, implying that he staged the killing to liberate the Ramirez family. Ramirez nearly kills a spider in its web like Carlos, but does not. Text reveals Carlos' true fate - arrested in 1994.

• Aidan Quinn as Lt. Cmdr. Annibal Ramirez / Carlos
• Donald Sutherland as Jack Shaw (Henry Fields)
• Ben Kingsley as Amos
• Claudia Ferri as Maura Ramirez
• Vlasta Vrána as KGB Head Officer
• Liliana Komorowska as Agnieska
• Von Flores as Koj
• Daniel Pilon as Admiral Crawford
• Claude Genest as Baseball Dad
• Céline Bonnier as Carla

Rotten Tomatoes gives The Assignment a rating of 62% from 21 reviews. [2]

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Rotten Tomatoes® Score

In its low-rent way, it aims for every frisson, reversal and shock-tactic -- and mostly succeeds.

Like for most action pics, character development is the first casualty.

Stylish spy flick with a surprisingly good cast.

A non-formula spy thriller without the glitz and romanticism usually associated with this genre.

If there's a small saving grace to this crude thriller, it is the work of Montreal-born director Christian Duguay, who shows flashes of real flare.

The plot raises the keenly important question of whether professionals who fight evil may be corrupted by the ruthless means they employ; but the movie takes too much pleasure in sensationalistic digressions to explore this issue very thoroughly.

Quinn is excellent in the dual roles of Jackal and Ramirez.

Additional Info

• Genre : Thriller, Action
• Release Date : September 26, 1997
• Languages : English
• Captions : English, Spanish
• Audio Format : 5.1

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The Assignment (1997)

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Jack Shaw has experienced the terror first-hand. He's a top CIA agent who's tracked international killer-for-hire Carlos "The Jackal" Sanchez for over twenty years and barely survived Carlos' devastating bombing of a Parisian cafe. Now, he finally gets a break when he discovers Carlos' dead ringer: American naval officer and dedicated family man Annibal Ramirez.

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