Brief summary of the plot and the message

Rating: 7/10 (27 December 2005)

The Munich terrorist attack is merely the film's setup, resulting in Israel forming a team of assassins to track down and kill the terrorists responsible for planning the attack. The film follows this team as they locate and assassinate their targets, and eventually become targets themselves. The main character is the team's leader, who after the job is done is plagued by doubts about whether his actions were morally justified and by worry for his family's safety. He insists that his boss proves to him that all the men he killed were guilty, which the boss is unable to do, presumably making Spielberg's argument for using the more formal court system in order to determine guilt. He also asks whether his actions actually made a difference in light of the fact that all the men he killed were merely replaced by more violent ones, which his boss is unable to answer but which is implicitly answered by the fact that this conversation is happening in view of the still-standing twin towers.