History Literature / TheBoysFromBrazil

In Brazil in 1974, a young busboy finds himself serving a table full of jovial, elderly German ex-pats in the midst of a celebratory dinner party. The busboy overhears a sinister conversation: these men are former Nazis who are planning the assassination of 94 civil servants around the world, motives unknown. But the busboy is no busboy. He manages a single phone call to Ezra Liebermann, who runs a secret network in Vienna dedicated to tracking down fugitive Nazis and bringing them to justice. Before their conversation can end, the busboy is murdered.

Based only on this chancy information, Liebermann rallies his best spies to track down clues, both in hopes of saving the 94 victims and to discover the reason why they were targets. Some of them have already been killed. More are dying every day. But another, even stranger piece of the puzzle soon arises: thirteen years ago, every targeted family adopted an infant from Brazil, innocent children created by the Angel of Death himself, Josef Mengele, as part of a twisted plan to bring about a new Reich with a new leader.

* KickTheSonOfABitch: Mengele kills Bobby's father, an unrepentant racist.

* AngryGuardDog: The Wheelock family has about a dozen well-trained dobermans.

* ArtisticLicenseBiology: Averted. Both the book and the film are noteworthy for describing cloning science accurately, including the process of replicating another human, which was only theoretical at the time both were made.

A 1976 novel by Creator/IraLevin, it was adapted into a 1978 film directed by Franklin J. Schaffner, starring Creator/LaurenceOlivier (in his last UsefulNotes/AcademyAward-nominated role) as Nazi hunter Ezra Liebermann and Creator/GregoryPeck as Dr. Josef Mengele. The score, which was also nominated for an Oscar, was composed by Music/JerryGoldsmith.

* SocietyMarchesOn: The description of cloning is painstakingly detailed, as the concept was relegated to more futuristic sci-fi at the movie's release. However the description remains far more accurate than [[HollywoodScience most examples of cloning in Hollywood]].

* StatingTheSimpleSolution: Mengele asks his superiors why he can't "[[WhyDontYouJustShootHim just shoot Liebermann]]", only to be denied...

* YouExclamation: Liebermann is understandably outraged on finally coming face-to-face with the notorious Dr. Mengele himself.

* ''Film/TheBoysFromBrazil:'' The adoption agent who placed the baby Hitler clones with unsuspecting families has difficulty remembering their names years later, but does vividly remember one family who gave her a puppy out of gratitude for helping them get a child.

* SocietyMarchesOn: The description of cloning is painstakingly detailed, as the concept was relegated to more futuristic sci-fi at the movie's release.
** Also subverted, as the description remains far more accurate than most examples of cloning in Hollywood.
* StatingTheSimpleSolution: Mengele asks his superiors why he can't "[[WhyDontYouJustShootHim just shoot him]]", only to be denied...

* YouKilledMyFather: The Nazis plan is to kill the boys' fathers to replicate Hitler's origin story. But one of them, after knowing Mengele killed his old man, sends the dogs to attack him.

* NotSoDifferent: At the end of the movie, Liebermann accuses the Nazi hunters of being this in regards to the Nazis, since they wanted to kill children for their goals.

* CompositeCharacter: Seibert in the film is the leader of Mengele's superiors and his main antagonist; in the book he is Mengele's main advocate, while an unseen man named Rudell is in charge and responsible for cancelling the project.

A 1976 novel by Creator/IraLevin, it was adapted into a 1978 film directed by Franklin J. Schaffner, starring Creator/LaurenceOlivier (in his last UsefulNotes/AcademyAward-nominated role) as Nazi hunter Ezra Lieberman and Creator/GregoryPeck as Dr Josef Mengele. The score, which was also nominated for an Oscar, was composed by Music/JerryGoldsmith.

In Brazil in 1974, a young busboy finds himself serving a table full of jovial, elderly German ex-pats in the midst of a celebratory dinner party. The busboy overhears a sinister conversation: these men are former Nazis who are planning the assassination of 94 civil servants around the world, motives unknown. But the busboy is no busboy. He manages a single phone call to Ezra Leibermann, who runs a secret network in Vienna dedicated to tracking down fugitive Nazis and bringing them to justice. Before their conversation can end, the busboy is murdered.

* AdaptationalNameChange: From Yakov Leibermann in the novel to Ezra Leibermann in the film.

* ChildrenAreInnocent: In spite of the fact that most of the boys from Brazil are clearly budding sociopaths, Lieberman is against their assassination, since they haven't committed any crimes.

* CompositeCharacter: Seibert in the film is the leader of Mengle's superiors and his main antagonist while in the book he is Mengle's main advocate, while an unseen man named Rudel is in charge and responsible for cancelling the project.

* DatedHistory: The movie puts Mengele in Paraguay (though the mothers of the kids are Brazilian), his speculated real life location. He truly went there for sometime, but in the 1970s he was ''really'' in Brazil (where he died in 1979, meaning that besides the deteriorated health he could have seen the movie).

* FailureHero: At the end, the heroes' efforts amount to nothing as its the villains are disposed by their own schemes.

* NaziHunter: The protagonists, Lieberman being the most prevalent among them. As the film goes on, Lieberman becomes the only one that doesn't believes the situation is crazy enough that the GodzillaThreshold of ordering the death of 95 kids is an acceptable way of dealing with a potential threat.

* WhatTheHellHero: The NaziHunter tells off Liebermann for burning the list of cloned Hitlers, saying it was stupid old fools like him who allowed the Holocaust to happen. Liebermann replies that it was Nazis "who would kill even children to get their way."

* OohMeAccentsSlipping: James Mason has a truly fake attempt at a German accent.

* AdaptationalNameChange: From Yakov Leibermann in the novel to Ezra Leibermann in the book.

In Brazil in 1974, a young busboy finds himself serving a table full of jovial, elderly German ex-pats in the midst of a celebratory dinner party. The busboy overhears a sinister conversation: these men are former Nazis who are planning the assassination of 94 civil servants around the world, motives unknown. But the busboy is no busboy. He manages a single phone call to Yakov Leibermann, who runs a secret network in Vienna dedicated to tracking down fugitive Nazis and bringing them to justice. Before their conversation can end, the busboy is murdered.

The novel and film are a speculative fiction type story involving infamous real-life Nazi scientist Mengele (known as the "Angel of Death" for the extent of death he inflicted upon his victims during the Holocaust) trying to resurrect the Third Reich by cloning Hitler and recreating the events of his youth in order to make sure his Hitler Clones become as much like the original as possible.

Unfortunately for him, Mengele has a group of devoted {{Nazi Hunter}}s on his trail...

* DoubleMeaningTitle: The titular "boys" from Brazil initially seems to refer to the enclave of Nazis that secretly live there, as in "the old-boys network." [[spoiler:It isn't until about halfway through the book that we find out the "boys" are the cloned children. Levin's notorious for these little hidden-in-plain-sight jokes: the Nazis can't be the "boys ''from'' Brazil" since they're ''in'' Brazil; they're ''from'' Germany or Austria (?)!]]

* SocietyMarchesOn: The description of cloning is painstakingly detailed, as the concept was relegated to more futuristic scifi at the movie's release.

* WhatTheHellHero: The NaziHunter tells off Liebermann for burning the list of cloned Hitlers, saying it was stupid old fools like him who allowed the Holocaust to happen. Liebermann replies that it was Nazis, "who would kill even children to get their way."

* DecoyProtagonist: Barry Kohler in the movie. The first 30 minutes focus on his investigation into Mengele’s presence in Paraguay, until he is murdered by Mendeleev and the Hitler clones.
* DoubleMeaningTitle: The titular "boys" from Brazil initially seems to refer to the enclave of Nazis that secretly live there, as in "the old-boys network." [[spoiler:It isn't until about halfway through the book that we find out the "boys" are the cloned children. Levin's notorious for these little hidden-in-plain-sight jokes: the Nazis can't be the "boys ''from'' Brazil" since they're ''in'' Brazil; they're ''from'' Germany!]]

* FailureHero: At the end, the heroes' efforts ammount to nothing as its the villains are disposed by their own schemes.

* DecoyProtagonist: Barry in the movie.

* DoubleMeaningTitle: The titular "boys" from Brazil initially seems to refer to the enclave of Nazis that secretly live there, as in "the old-boys network." [[spoiler:It isn't until about halfway through the book that we find out the "boys" are the cloned children. Levin's notorious for these little hidden-in-plan-sight jokes: the Nazis can't be the "boys ''from'' Brazil" since they're ''in'' Brazil; they're ''from'' Germany!]]