Plot

After the Black September capture and massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics, five men are chosen to eliminate the people responsible for that fateful day.

After Black September's assassination of Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972, Prime Minister Golda Meir okays a covert operation to hunt down and kill all involved. A team of five gathers in Switzerland led by Avner, a low-level Mossad techie whose father was a war hero and whose wife is pregnant. It's an expendable team, but relying on paid informants, they track and kill several in Europe and Lebanon. They must constantly look over their shoulders for the CIA, KGB, PLO, and their own sources. As the body count mounts -- with retribution following retribution -- so do questions, doubts, and sleepless nights. Loyalties blur. What does it mean to be a Jew?—<[email protected]>

In September 1972, Palestinian terrorists, posing as athletes, are able to infiltrate the relatively unsecured athlete's village at the Summer Olympic Games in Munich, where they take Israeli athletes and coaches hostages, the release of who they consider illegally held Arab prisoners in Israel the requested ransom. Because the Israeli government refuses to negotiate, the terrorists, who end up being referred to as Black September, end up killing eleven of those hostages. Beyond the official Israeli response to the massacre, the Israeli government forms a covert team whose mission is to assassinate those eleven they see as responsible that are living in the western world. This team will have no official ties to the government or Mossad, including to their official unofficial handler, Ephraim. Although not an obvious choice on the surface, they choose as as head of this disparate five man team Avner Kaufman, a Mossad agent, former bodyguard to Prime Minister Golda Meir and son of a respected Israeli military leader. As the team goes about their mission, they agree to disagree about many aspects of what they are doing, including its purpose and what collateral damage is considered acceptable. They also have to alter plans based on the reaction by the Arab to their killings. Avner and the team will learn that the lines between who is considered a friend and an enemy can often be blurred.—Huggo

During the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, eleven Israeli athletes are taken hostage and murdered by a Palestinian terrorist group known as Black September. In retaliation, the Israeli government recruits a group of Mossad agents to track down and execute those responsible for the attack.—Anonymous

In the wake of 1972 Munich Olympic tragedy, the Mossad retaliates by deploying a team of agents (led by Avner) in Europe to assassinate Palestinian terrorist leaders suspected of planning the attack, which left eleven Israeli athletes dead.—Anonymous

The film begins with a depiction of the events of the 1972 Munich Olympics. After the killings, the Israeli government devises an eye for an eye retaliation; and a target list of 11 names is drawn up.

Avner Kaufman (Eric Bana), an Israeli-born Mossad agent of German-Hebrew descent, is chosen to lead the assassination squad and is given the assignment over tea at the home of Prime Minister of Israel Golda Meir. To give the Israeli government plausible deniability and, at the direction of his handler Ephraim (Geoffrey Rush), Avner resigns from Mossad; and the squad operates with no official ties to Israel. Avner is given a team of four Hebrew men: Steve (Daniel Craig), a South African driver; Hans (Hanns Zischler), a document forger; Robert (Mathieu Kassovitz), a Belgian toy-maker trained in defusing explosives; and Carl (Ciarán Hinds), a former Israeli soldier who "cleans up" after the assassinations. Avner and his team set about tracking down the 11 targets with the help of a shadowy French informant, Louis (Mathieu Amalric).

In Rome, the group tracks down their first target, Abdel Wael Zwaiter, who is broke and living as a poet. The group follows him to his apartment building, and Avner and Robert shoot him dead. In Paris, Robert pretends to be a journalist interviewing their second target, Mahmoud Hamshari, about the Munich massacre. He plants a bomb in Hamshari's phone that is set to be detonated by a remote key. Carl is to dial Hamshari's number from a public telephone booth after Hamshari's wife and daughter have left. However, while a large truck obscures their view, the daughter runs back inside to retrieve something. Carl calls the number, and the girl picks up; but Avner aborts the mission before Robert, who cannot see what is going on, triggers the explosion. When the girl leaves, Carl telephones the number, asks the man who answers if he's Hamshari; and, upon affirmation of name, Robert detonates the bomb. In Cyprus, the team kills the next target, Hussein Al Bashir (Hussein Abd Al Chir), by planting a bomb in his hotel room beneath his bed. Avner gets a room next to Al Bashir and turns off his bedroom light, the signal to proceed. When Robert detonates the bomb, the explosives almost kill Avner and injures a newlywed couple next door. The group meet later aboard a boat in the Cyprus harbor to discuss the errors in the mission. Robert insists that the explosives he used were far more powerful than what he expected. It is revealed at this juncture that Louis provided the explosives and that he is also helping with the logistics of the hits through Avner.

Avner then meets with Louis in Paris and he gives the team information on three Palestinians in Beirut: Muhammad Youssef Al-Najjar (Abu Youssef); Kamal Adwan; and Kamal Nasser, a Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) spokesman. Ephraim refuses to let them handle the mission themselves. Avner insists that he will lose Louis' trust if the operation is carried out by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Ephraim relents, allowing the team to accompany the IDF commandos. In Beirut, Steve, Robert, and Avner meet up with a group of Sayeret Matkal IDF soldiers. They penetrate the Palestinians' guarded compound and kill all three.

In Athens, Louis has provided the team with an apartment. During the night, four PLO members, who have rented the same apartment as a safe house, enter the dwelling. After a tense confrontation with guns drawn, Robert defuses the situation by claiming that his squad are members of the Basque separatist Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA), Red Army Faction (RAF), and the African National Congress (ANC). Avner discusses Middle East politics with the group's leader. Avner's group carries out their next assassination, that of Zaiad Muchasi, by installing a remote-controlled bomb in Muchasi's TV set. However, the bomb does not detonate. Hans walks into the hotel, forces his way and throws a grenade that sets off the bomb, killing Muchasi. The squad exchanges gunfire with Muchasi's bodyguards. In the chaos, they are forced to take the hotel manager hostage; and Robert reveals that he doesn't actually build bombs, but just defuses them.

Louis provides the squad with information on Ali Hassan Salameh, the organizer of the Munich Massacre. Avner learns from Louis that the CIA have a deal with Salameh wherein they protect and fund him in exchange for his promise not to attack US diplomats. The squad moves to London to track down Salameh, but they are not able to accomplish the assassination when Avner is suddenly approached by several drunken Americans. It is implied the said Americans are actually CIA agents. Avner is propositioned by a woman (Marie-Josée Croze) in the hotel but declines. Afterward, Carl is killed by the same woman, who Avner learns is an independent Dutch contract killer.

Robert questions the morality of the entire mission; Avner listens to him and asks him to take a break. The remaining squad tracks the Dutch assassin to the Netherlands and kills her without a glitch. Afterwards Avner, Steve and Hans discuss the futility of the mission. Later, Hans is found stabbed to death and left on a park bench while Robert is killed in an explosion in his workshop. Avner and Steve finally locate Salameh in Spain; however, their assassination attempt is thwarted by Salameh's guards. A disillusioned Avner flies to Israel and then to his new home in New York City to reunite with his wife and their child. In a fit of paranoia, he storms into the Israeli consulate and screams at an employee whom he believes to be a Mossad agent to leave him and his family alone. Ephraim comes to New York to urge Avner to rejoin Mossad.

In the final scene, Avner openly questions the basis and effectiveness of the operation, and Ephraim admits that there was no evidence linking any of the targets to the Munich massacre. In a show of respect, Avner asks Ephraim to break bread with him, but because he has refused to return to Israel, Ephraim rejects him and leaves. Avner leaves as well. During the last scene, the camera pans across the New York City skyline and stops with the Twin Towers in the center of the scene. A postscript notes that 9 of the 11 men targeted by Mossad were eventually assassinated, including Salameh in 1979.