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Eye of the Needle is a 1981 British spy film directed by Richard Marquand and starring Donald Sutherland and Kate Nelligan. Written by Stanley Mann, it is based on the 1978 novel of the same title by Ken Follett.

Eye of the Needle
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Richard Marquand
Screenplay by	Stanley Mann
Based on	Eye of the Needle 1978 novel by Ken Follett
Produced by	Stephen J. Friedman
Starring	Donald Sutherland Kate Nelligan Ian Bannen Christopher Cazenove
Cinematography	Alan Hume
Edited by	Sean Barton
Music by	Miklós Rózsa
Production company	Kings Road Entertainment
Distributed by	United Artists
Release date	24 July 1981 (1981-07-24) (U.S.)
Running time	112 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Box office	$17.5 million

The film is about a German Nazi spy in the United Kingdom during World War II who discovers vital information about the upcoming D-Day invasion and his attempt to return to Germany while he is stranded with a family on the isolated (fictional) Storm Island, off the coast of Scotland.

Plot

Henry Faber is a cold and emotionless German sleeper agent nicknamed "the Needle" because he prefers to kill with a stiletto. While spying in England, he obtains critical information about the Allies' plans for the Invasion of Normandy but is unable to transmit the information. After narrowly escaping British intelligence in London, who have come to realize he has vital military intelligence about D-Day and so are hounding his every move, Faber heads to Scotland for a rendezvous with a German U Boat. But fierce weather strands him on Storm Island. On the island he meets Lucy, a beautiful young wife, her disabled husband, David, their little son and an elderly, alcoholic shepherd named Tom, the only other person on the island, who runs the lighthouse, with the island's only two-way radio.

A passionate romance develops overnight between Faber and Lucy because of the estrangement she has with her husband after a car crash on their honeymoon which left him confined to a wheelchair, embittered and legless. David becomes suspicious of Faber when he discovers he is carrying military information. When challenged about the documents, Faber ruthlessly kills David by throwing him off a cliff. Faber lies to Lucy to explain David's absence, claiming David has been drinking with Tom, as is often the case. However, Lucy soon finds her husband's body on the rocky shoreline and, lying to Faber, manages to flee with her child in their jeep. When Faber realizes she knows, he pursues her. Lucy drives with her little boy in lashing rain to the only radio on the island at Tom's lighthouse - only to find the old shepherd's murdered body. She radios the mainland and is told that help will be sent immediately, but in the meantime, it is vital for her to destroy the island's only radio transmitter - without telling her why. Lucy, alone and terrified, can't imagine why she needs to do this and refuses.

Faber appears - Lucy has bashed his hand reaching through the door with an axe, wounding him badly, but Faber finds her beloved little boy sleeping in a cot and threatens to kill him if she does not do as he says, which is to allow him access to the radio. He begins using the radio to report to the Nazi U-boat which has been waiting for him off the coast of Storm Island. But just as he is about to impart the information that Patton's supposed invasion-strength army set for Pas de Calais is, in fact, an elaborate ruse of fake airplanes and tanks (a true-life deception to fool the Nazis of the real location of D-Day at Normandy, which actually succeeded brilliantly), Lucy overhears this and grasps why the radio needs to be destroyed; she blows the lighthouse's fuse using her own hand in a light socket, hurting herself but rendering the transmitter useless and Faber's vital information unheard. Faber expresses admiration for what Lucy has done, telling her that the war has come down to the two of them. This poignant, brief affair between two lonely strangers has been supplanted by their higher loyalty to their own nations. Considering Lucy no longer a threat, and possibly because he really has fallen in love, Faber doesn't murder her, as he has done so unhesitatingly to anyone else in his path, but strides towards the shoreline cliffs to reach the previously-arranged U-boat, now visible off-shore.

Lucy, now fully aware of the stakes involved, runs out after Faber with her husband's pistol. She shoots and misses. Shocked, Faber begins to race down the cliffs when her third shot hits him in the leg. Bleeding and in pain, Faber still makes it to shore and pushes the boat into the water, while Lucy begs him to stop. When he doesn't, Lucy takes one last aim and hits him square in the chest. The spy, determined to complete his mission to the end, manages to clamber into the boat, but has no strength left to row. The two lovers stare hopelessly at each other until Faber falls dead, face forward in the boat, before Lucy's horrified gaze.

Cast

Production

The Storm Island scenes were shot over eight weeks on the Isle of Mull, in the Inner Hebrides.[1] The distinctive Connel Bridge appears in the film, and some of the location filming was shot at Blackbushe Airport, Yateley, and also in London.

Reception

Roger Ebert "admired the movie" and stated that it "resembles nothing so much as one of those downbeat, plodding, quietly horrifying, and sometimes grimly funny war movies that used to be made by the British film industry, back when there was a British film industry."[2] George Lucas was impressed by the film and hired director Richard Marquand to helm 1983’s Return of the Jedi. On Rotten Tomatoes, 83% out of 18 critics gave the film positive reviews.

References

External links

• Eye of the Needle at IMDb
• Eye of the Needle at the TCM Movie Database
• Eye of the Needle at AllMovie
• Eye of the Needle at Rotten Tomatoes
• Eye of the Needle at Box Office Mojo

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