History Film / MarathonMan

* AmbigousEnding: Although [[Spoiler: everyone who crossed him is dead, including Szell and his two thugs, and won't bother him anymore, Babe is essentially a broken mess, having lost his potential love interest and his brother, his possessions given away to distract the bad guys, and his brother's wristwatch sacrificed, and being battered, robbed, tired and comfused, he goes off aimlessly; whether he graduates from his school or walks homeless and poor will never be known.]

* WeDoNotKnowEachOther: After finding [[spoiler: :LeClerc killed, knowing he has a meeting with Nicole, he goes to the meeting site then tells her to keep going, as with LeClerc dead, the situation is not safe. She keeps walking past him, but it's strongly hinted that she met her demise after disappearing into the darkened night.]]

[[quoteright:315:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/marathon_man_1976.jpeg]]

* CruelMercy: Babe at first tells Szell he can only keep as many diamonds as he can swallow. [[spoiler: When the briefcase gets upset and the diamonds start spilling all over Szell ends up diving after them down a spiral metal staircase and impaling himself]]

* FatalFlaw: [[spoiler: Szell's greed and paranoia. When Babe throws his diamonds in the reservoir, he ends up tumbling down the stairs after them, eventually impaling himself.]]

* IveComeTooFar: Janeway interrogates Babe aggressively to find out what he knows, even though Bebe knows nothing. By the time he realizes Babe was telling the truth, Bebe knows too much to be let go.

* BaitAndSwitch: Two Jews recognize Szell while he's in the diamond district and both eventually manage to identify him, but Szell evades them both and escapes without any lasting impact on him.

** Even if lucky enough to not die immediately, Doc still gets a sucking chest wound from Szell's retractable blade and spends his last moments with Babe gurgling out blood, so he cannot provide him with any important information. Much of the ensuing drama for Babe happens because his attempts to point this out are met with [[RealityIsUnrealistic rampant paranoia and disbelieve]].

* CassandraTruth: The old Jewish lady who recognizes Szell. Everybody in the area hearing her yell, "It's Szell!" thinks she's senile.

* GreedyJew: Invoked. Szell walks through New York's diamond district, and his gaze lingers on numerous Jews who are all conducting business, buying things, or making sales. You can practically feel Szell's disgust. When a Jewish salesman gives him a slick sales pitch, Szell snaps and storms away.

* ChekhovsSkill: Babe is training to run marathons. Even though he's unable to beat local runners, he's good enough to outrn assassins who are chasing him.

* ChekhovsSkill: Babe runs marathons, which has nothing to do with anything...until it's how he's able to outrun a bad guy and escape, even after Szell has mangled his mouth.

* BaldOfEvil: Dr. Szell's baldness makes him that much more creepy and intimidating.

* BerserkButton: [[spoiler: Doc isn't all that furious about Szell hiring a hitman to kill him, but is furious when he plants Elsa to get Babe to fall in love with her and thus tries to involve his brother in the business.]]

* DecoyProtagonist: While the main protagonist is Babe, [[spoiler: The fact that Scylla is Babe's brother, (and the fact that he's played by Creator/RoyScheider, only a year removed from starring in a pretty famous shark film) leads the audience to believe that Hank/Scylla is going to also be a major protagonist in the film. Instead, he dies halfway through, (Though in Goldman's sequel novel, "Brothers" we find out he survived the stabbing) and his death basically jump starts the rest of the film. This was lampshaded by none other than Scheider himself, who after he read the book, expressed his disappointment that Hank Levy, the character he found to be the most interesting, is killed off at the novel's halfway point. The lack of screen time didn't prevent Scheider from accepting the role of Hank in the film, however.]]

* AffablyEvil: [[spoiler: Doc, though he's not really evil per se, he simply works for an intelligence agency that has decided the information Szell provides is more important than bringing him to justice. In their interaction, Doc treats Szell with little more than loathing, which is to be expected based on Szell's Nazi ties and Doc's Jewish heritage.]]
* TheAllegedCar: Dr. Szell's brother has trouble getting his old car to move at a green light. This leads to road rage, which leads to his death, which leads to Dr. Szell coming to New York....
* AllForNothing: [[spoiler: Elsa, Janeway, Doc, Karl, and Erhardt, among others, all end up dead because Szell was simply paranoid about his diamonds being stolen after he collected them. The final joke is on Szell. After being above the fray for everyone else's death, he ends up pissing off the wrong guy, and loses both the diamonds and his life. For all their worth, the diamonds are lost in the bottom of the water treatment facility.]]

* AmbiguouslyGay: We see a scene of Hank talking on the phone in a flirty, romantic way, to someone named "Janey," and the dialogue seems to clearly indicate they are lovers. The way it's filmed, we're led to believe it's a woman. [[spoiler: However, later in the film, when we're first introduced to Peter Janeway, he tells Babe to call him "Janey," as everyone else does, which pretty clearly seems to indicate that he and Hank were an item. However, nothing else in the film discusses or hints at this relationship.]] In the sequel, Hank seduces both men and women, so he could actually be bisexual, or he could just be really good at staying in character.

* AssassinationAttempt: Szell [[spoiler: sends an assassin to kill Doc because he fears Doc will steal Szell's diamonds after he collects them.]]

* BerserkButton: [[spoiler: Doc isn't all that furious about Szell hiring a hitman to kill him, but is furious when he plants Elsa to get Babe to fall in love with her, and thus tries to involve his brother in the business.]]

* BirdPoopGag: A bird poops on Babe's tracksuit in the park while he's squiring his Swiss girlfriend around.
* BlatantLies: To cover up his employment with the Agency, Doc has convinced Babe that he's an executive with an oil company. [[spoiler: Even after Doc is stabbed, Babe still believes it so strongly that when Janeway interviews him, Babe can't believe he works for the Agency and that Doc and Janeway worked together.
** Doc calls out [[spoiler: Elsa this way during a joint dinner between himself, Elsa, and Babe. He makes up a bunch of lies about the location in Switzerland Elsa claims to be from that she readily agrees too, then pulls the rug out from under her by saying everything she's just agreed to was total BS.]]

* ChekhovsGunman: The Hispanic guy across the street who mocks Babe and calls him "Creepy". He later does a huge favor for Babe by breaking into Babe's apartment and retrieving the gun (the price is, the guy steals all Babe's stuff).

* DirtyCoward: Janeway.

* DyingClue: Averted. [[spoiler: Poor Doc spends his last moments pitifully gurgling on his one blood and lying in Babe's arms, having come an incredible distance on pure adrenaline (based on the severity of his wound) simply because he wanted to die with the person who loved him. All of the drama that Babe suffers afterwards is because Szell and the spy organization that has secreted him into the country are unable to believe that Doc didn't provided this, even after Babe continued to tell the truth under torture.]]

* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Doc works for the agency that [[spoiler: is protecting Szell and is willing to ignore his crimes at the agency's behest, but he does love his brother Babe, and is angry when Szell attempts to involve him.]]
* EvenEvilHasStandards: One of Szell's henchmen turns his head away, terrified, [[spoiler: when Szell tortures Babe with his dental instruments.]]
* FalseReassurance: Szell's ToThePain speech [[spoiler: starts with him reassuring Babe that he won't be drilling into a cavity... because that's a dying nerve, and live, freshly cut nerves are infinitely more sensitive.]]

* HiddenInPlainSight: Subverted. [[spoiler: Szell walks into the Diamond District, the most Jewish place in New York, and barely escaped being outed by two of his former victims]].
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Film only; [[spoiler:Szell falls down a staircase while chasing after the briefcase of diamonds and impales himself on his own knife blade]].

* ImproperlyParanoid: Both film and novel make it clear that Szell's paranoia is out of control and he expects thieves and treachery at every turn. [[spoiler: It's why he targets and eventually stabs Doc, because he's afraid Doc will attempt to rob him of his precious diamonds. Babe also suffers a lot because this paranoia makes it impossible for him (and thus, his minions) to believe that Henry wasn't able to provide Babe with any information as he died, instead pitifully drowning in his own blood in Levy's living room and thus keep interrogating him for a possible DyingClue. When Szell finally DOES accept that Babe knows nothing, he decides that Babe still knows too much and attempts to have him killed.]]
* InfractionDistraction: [[spoiler:Henry realises that his brother's new girlfriend Elsa Opel is lying about her past and accuses her of trying to find an American husband to get a green card. Turns out she's the daughter of the BigBad, and is spying on the brothers.]]

* JumpScare: [[spoiler: Szell stabbing Doc/Hank OUT OF FREAKING NOWHERE. Especially because, at that point, we have no idea that Szell carries a retractable blade up his sleeve, and because of the earlier fight scene, the audience is convinced that the older, weaker Szell is in no way a match to the well-trained Doc. The fact that Szell guts Doc as he's in the middle of a PrecisionFStrike makes it all the more a shock to the audience.]]

* PostVictoryCollapse: [[spoiler: Doc, laying on the floor and writhing in pain clutching his mangled right hand after killing an assassin.]]

* SecretTest: When Doc meets Babe's girlfriend Elsa and finds out that she's Swiss, he starts firing questions at her, until he exposes her as a liar. She admits that she's from Germany before she stalks out.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: Even if lucky enough to not die immediately, Doc still gets a sucking chest wound from Szell's retractable blade and spends his last moments with Babe gurgling out blood, so he cannot provide him with any important information. Much of the ensuing drama for Babe happens because his attempts to point this out are met with [[RealityIsUnrealistic rampant paranoia and disbelieve]].

* TokenEvilTeammate: Melendez is a burglar that Babe lets ransack his place in exchange for helping him with Szell's men.

* TortureIsIneffective: for the very simple reason that Babe knows nothing, Szell and Janeway waste a huge amount of time and effort in finding this out.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Doc sees Nicole walk off down a dark alley and hears a thud-like sound. A moment later, a soccer ball is thrown or kicked towards him from the alley. We never find out exactly what happened to Nicole, but given what happened to LeClerc, it couldn't have possibly been good.

* YouHaveToBelieveMe: An old woman recognizes Szell on the street, but her shouts do little to convince the crowd to apprehend him.

* AmbiguouslyGay: We see a scene of Hank talking on the phone in a flirty, romantic way, to someone named "Janey," and the dialogue seems to clearly indicate they are lovers. The way it's filmed, we're led to believe it's a woman. [[spoiler: However, later in the film, when we're first introduced to Peter Janeway, he tells Babe to call him "Janey," as everyone else does, which pretty clearly seems to indicate that he and Hank were an item. However, nothing else in the film discusses or hints at this relationship.]]

* AllforNothing: [[spoiler: Elsa, Janeway, Doc, Karl, and Erhardt, among others, all end up dead because Szell was simply paranoid about his diamonds being stolen after he collected them. The final joke is on Szell. After being above the fray for everyone else's death, he ends up pissing off the wrong guy, and loses both the diamonds and his life. For all their worth, the diamonds are lost in the bottom of the water treatment facility.]]

* AffablyEvil: Doc.

* AlmostDeadGuy: A partial example, in that he can't manage to tell Babe anything, but everyone assumes he has.
* AmbiguouslyGay: We see a scene of Hank talking on the phone in a flirty, romantic way, to someone named "Janey," and the dialogue seems to clearly indicate they are lovers. The way it's filmed, we're led to believe it's a woman. However, later in the film, when we're first introduced to Peter Janeway, he tells Babe to call him "Janey," as everyone else does, which pretty clearly seems to indicate that he and Hank were an item. However, nothing else in the film discusses or hints at this relationship.

* BarehandedBladeBlock: Played with. [[spoiler: An assassin who attacks Hank/Scylla in the opening of the film attempts to garotte Doc, but he gets a hand between the fire and his throat. The film plays this out completely straight, as we see Doc's hand get gorily torn up as the assassin puts his entire pull into the garrote on Doc's hand to get it to Doc's throat.]]
* BerserkButton: Doc isn't even too furious about Szell hiring a hitman to kill him, but is furious when he tries to involve his brother in the business.

* ChalkOutline: Poor Doc is still lying on the floor of Babe's apartment, with the outline already having been drawn around him.

* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: Janeway. He lets Doc gets killed, then involves his brother, and willingly rats out Szell to Babe, only to attempt to kill him right after. Luckily, Babe shoots him first.

* CruelMercy: Babe at first tells Szell he can only keep as many diamonds as he can swallow. [[spoiler:Szell ends up diving after them and impaling himself]]

* DecoyProtagonist: While the main protagonist is Babe, [[spoiler: The fact that Scylla is Babe's brother, (and the fact that he's played by Creator/RoyScheider, only a year removed from starring in a pretty famous shark film) leads the audience to believe that Hank/Scylla is going to also be a major protagonist in the film. Instead, he dies halfway through, (Though in Goldman's sequel novel, "Brothers" we find out he survived the stabbing) and his death basically jumpstarts the rest of the film. This was lampshaded by none other than Scheider himself, who after he read the book, expressed his disappointment that Hank Levy, the character he found to be the most interesting, is killed off at the novel's halfway point. The lack of screen time didn't prevent Scheider from accepting the role of Hank in the film, however.]]
* DepravedDentist: Dr. Szell, a dentist, uses the tools of his trade to torture Babe for information.

* TheDogBitesBack: After spending the whole film being chased and tortured to hell and back by Szell and his men, Babe decides to fight back and manages to destroy the man by attacking the thing he loves the most.
* DyingClue: Averted. Poor Doc spends his last moments pitifully gurgling on his one blood and lying in Babe's arms. All of the drama that Babe suffers afterwards is because Szell and the spy organization that has secreted him into the country are unable to believe that Doc didn't provided this, even after Babe continued to tell the truth under torture.

* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Doc works for Szell and is willing to ignore his crimes, but he does love his brother Babe, and is angry when Szell attempts to involve him.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: One of Szell's henchmen turns his head away, terrified, when Szell tortures Babe with his dental instruments.
* FalseReassurance: Szell's ToThePain speech starts with him reassuring Babe that he won't be drilling into a cavity... because that's a dying nerve, and live, freshly cut nerves are infinitely more sensitive.
* FatalFlaw: Szell's greed and paranoia. When Babe throws his diamonds in the reservoir, he ends up tumbling down the stairs after them, eventually impaling himself.
* FauxAffablyEvil: Szell is downright fatherly with Babe... in between torture sessions.

* ImproperlyParanoid: Both film and novel make it clear that Szell's paranoia is out of control and he expects thieves and treachery at every turn. Babe suffers a lot because this paranoia makes it impossible for him (and thus, his minions) to believe that [[spoiler:Henry wasn't able to provide Babe with any information as he died, instead pitifully drowning in his own blood in Levy's living room]] and thus keep interrogating him for a possible DyingClue.
* InfractionDistraction: [[spoiler:Henry realises that his brother's new girlfriend Elsa Opel is lying about her past and accuses her of trying to find an American husband to get a green card. Turns out she's the daughter of the BigBad, and spying on the brothers.]]
* InterrogatedForNothing: It's made clear very early on that Szell will continue to torture Babe until ''he'' is sure that it's "safe", and nothing Babe can tell him will make him stop. Furthermore, he's torturing Babe to make absolutely sure that Babe isn't hiding any information that he truly doesn't knows [[spoiler:because Doc told him nothing as he died]].

* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: Janeway seems willing to let Babe get Szell by telling him where he is, only to attempt to shoot him afterwards.
* JewsLoveToArgue: A grouchy Jewish-American motorist engages in road rage with Szell's brother, which resulted in their deaths.

* UngratefulBastard: [[spoiler:Janeway allowed one of his best agents to die just to keep his (supposedly) best source of information happy. Also, due to earlier dialogue in which Hank Levy is talking flirtatiously to "Janey" (Janeway's nickname) on the phone, it would also appear that Janeway sold out a man who was much more than just a professional colleague to Szell]].

* BarehandedBladeBlock: Played with. [[spoiler: An assassin who attacks Hank/Scylla in the opening of the film attempts to garotte Doc, but he gets a hand between the fire and his throat. The film plays this out completely straight, as we see Doc's hand get gorily torn up as the assassin puts his entire pull into the garrote on Doc's hand to get it to Doc's throat.

* PrecisionFStrike: "I couldn't give a fuck about your--''[stabbed]''"

* UngratefulBastard: [[spoiler:Janeway allowed one of his best agents to die just to keep his (supposedly) best source of information happy.]].

* DecoyProtagonist: While the main protagonist is Babe, [[spoiler: The fact that Scylla is Babe's brother, (and the fact that he's played by Creator/RoyScheider, only a year removed from starring in a pretty famous shark film) leads the audience to believe that Hank/Scylla is going to also be a major protagonist in the film. Instead, he dies halfway through, (Though in Goldman's sequel novel, "Brothers" we find out he survived the stabbing) and his death basically jumpstarts the rest of the film. This was lampshaded by none other than Scheider himself, who after he read the book, expressed his disappointment that Hank Levy is killed off at the novel's halfway point. The lack of screen time didn't prevent Scheider from accepting the role of Hank in the film, however.]]

* DecoyProtagonist: While the main protagonist is Babe, [[spoiler: The fact that Scylla is Babe's brother, (and the fact that he's played by Creator/RoyScheider, only a year removed from starring in a pretty famous shark film) leads the audience to believe that Hank/Scylla is going to also be a major protagonist in the film. Instead, he dies halfway through, (Though in Goldman's sequel novel, "Brothers" we find out he survived the stabbing) and his death basically jumpstarts the rest of the film. This was lampshaded by none other than Scheider himself, who after he read the book, expressed his disappointment that Hank Levy is killed off at the novel's halfway point. The lack of screen time didn't prevent Scheider from accepting the role of Hank in the film, however.

%%* DirtyCoward: Janeway.

* ShoutOut: Goldman named Szell after George Szell, a Hungarian-born conductor with the Cleveland Orchestra.

* SeanConneryIsAboutToShootYou: Dustin Hoffman is on [[http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41ZBY09ECFL.jpg this poster]].

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Film only; [[spoiler:Szell falls down a staircase while chasing after the briefcase of diamonds and impales himself on his own blade]].

A 1976 American political thriller film directed by Creator/JohnSchlesinger, adapted by Creator/WilliamGoldman from his own [[TheFilmOfTheBook novel of the same name]]. The cast includes Creator/DustinHoffman, Creator/LaurenceOlivier, Creator/RoyScheider, Creator/WilliamDevane, and Marthe Keller.

A 1976 American political thriller film directed by Creator/JohnSchlesinger, adapted by Creator/WilliamGoldman from his own [[TheFilmOfTheBook novel of the same name]].

Thomas "Babe" Levy (Creator/DustinHoffman) is a history graduate student and aspiring marathon runner who seeks to follow in the footsteps of his father, a historian who committed suicide after being unjustly targeted by UsefulNotes/JosephMcCarthy. He receives a visit from his older brother Henry (Creator/RoyScheider), who--unbeknownst to Babe--is working for a secret U.S. government agency managing the fugitive Nazi Christian Szell (Creator/LaurenceOlivier). Babe soon finds himself entangled in events, and must fight to save himself from Szell and his allies.

[[quoteright:310:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/marathon_man_film_poster.jpg]]

Creator/DustinHoffman plays Thomas "Babe" Levy, a history graduate student and aspiring marathon runner. Babe seeks to follow in the footsteps of his father, a historian who committed suicide after being unjustly targeted by UsefulNotes/JosephMcCarthy. He receives a visit from his brother Henry (Creator/RoyScheider), who, unbeknownst to Babe, is a government agent assigned to manage the fugitive Nazi Christian Szell (Creator/LaurenceOlivier). Babe soon becomes entangled in events, and must fight to save himself from Szell and his allies.

''Not'' to be confused with Creator/StephenKing's ''The Running Man'', another bleakly political [[Literature/TheRunningMan novel]] turned into an iconic [[Film/TheRunningMan film]] - which takes its title much more literally.