History Literature / BlackSundayThomasHarris

* AcePilot: Lander was a highly decorated helicopter pilot before his capture, and is considered an expert blimp pilot by the rest of his team on the Goodyear blimp.

** There are a few brief shots of someone who is supposed to be JimmyCarter, but [[CelebrityLookalike it's just a double]].

* BavarianFireDrill - Lasser uses this technique to get the Goodyear ground crew to mount the bomb (disguised as "new camera equipment") onto the base of the blimp's gondola.

* AnOfferYouCantRefuse: When an Egyptian colonel balks at providing information about Dahlia, Kabakov says that if he doesn't and a terrorist attack on American soil takes place, he'll make sure the ''world'' knows about their conversation, and that he could have done something about it but didn't.

* ChekhovsWind - At the start of the film, Lander has trouble holding the blimp steady in high winds, and the network complains about his performance. Later on, just before the Super Bowl, he finds out he's been replaced by another pilot because of this. However, [[RoomDisservice Dahlia is able to rectify the situation]] and [[YouCantStopStageOne save Stage One]].

* ChekhovsGun - At the start of the film, Lander has trouble holding the blimp steady in high winds, and the network complains about his performance. Later on, just before the Super Bowl, he finds out he's been replaced by another pilot because of this. However, [[RoomDisservice Dahlia is able to rectify the situation]].

* ChekhovsGun - At the start of the film, Lander has trouble holding the blimp steady in high winds, and the network complains about his performance. Later on, just before the Super Bowl, he finds out he's been replaced by another pilot because of this.

* AnOfferYouCantRefuse: When an Egyptian colonel balks at providing information about Dahlia, Kabakov says that if he doesn't and a terrorist attack on American soil takes place, he'll make sure the world knows he ''personally'' could have done something about it and didn't.

* MythologyGag - In the film adapation, "When The Saints Go Marching In" (a song heavily associated with UsefulNotes/NewOrleans) plays in the background during a pre-Super Bowl party. The big game in the novel takes place in New Orleans; in the film it was moved to Miami to take advantage of StockFootage from the real-life Super Bowl X.

* DeadlyDoctor - After Lt. Mochevski is wounded by a bomb intended to silence the ship captain who smuggled in the plastic explosives for Lander's bomb, Dahlia disguises herself as a nurse and kills him in his hospital room with an injection of potassium chloride. Creator/QuentinTarantino said this scene inspired the similar one with Daryl Hannah in ''Film/KillBill''.

* IronicNickname - Supposedly some of Kabakov's co-workers in the Mossad call him [[DeadBabyComedy "The Final Solution"]].

A 1975 novel by Thomas Harris, adapted into a film directed by Creator/JohnFrankenhemier in 1977.

Long before Thomas Harris invented [[Literature/TheSilenceOfTheLambs Hannibal Lecter]], he invented Michael Lander, a disgruntled Vietnam Vet who is [[strike:nearly]] psychotic because of the torture he went through as a POW in the hands of the North Vietnamese and the loss of his wife as a result of his resultant problems reintegrating in society after the war. He is finally driven psychotic when he catches his wife riding her lover during woman-on-top sex, and the lover runs out of the house after beating Michael senseless.

* TheFilmOfTheBook

* EvilTastesGood - In the book, Fasil is sitting in a place waiting, eating a piece of rich Swiss chocolate, then sensuously licking the melted chocolate off his fingers, and realizing if the Israelis ever found out his passionate love of high-quality chocolate they might be able to discover where he is.

Michael approaches a Muslim terrorist group and offers to use his job as a dirigible pilot for the Aldrich Rubber Company to crash its blimp into the Super Bowl at New Orleans, and fire a bomb carrying hundreds of thousands of rifle darts into the stadium, which will kill in excess of 50,000 people in one stroke.

The book and the movie have several differences. [[spoiler:Kabakov ]] dies in the book, [[spoiler:Mochevski ]] dies in the film. In the movie, Muslim terrorist Faisal [[spoiler:dies about 1/2 way through]], but in the book he [[spoiler:lives and is taken to Israel to stand trial]]. The book has the Super Bowl in New Orleans; the movie has it in Miami. The book has Kabakov and his doctor Rachel Bowman enter into a love affair; the affair does not happen in the movie. The book used "Aldrich" for the company Lander worked for; in the movie, Goodyear actually approved use of their name and their blimp in the movie. Not related to the 1960 [[{{Film/BlackSunday}} Mario Bava]] horror classic.

* ShellShockedVeteran - Lander is a veteran of TheVietnamWar, and already unhinged by the beginning of the bombing plot.

Long before Thomas Harris invented HannibalLecter, he invented Michael Lander, a disgruntled Vietnam Vet who is [[strike:nearly]] psychotic because of the torture he went through as a POW in the hands of the North Vietnamese and the loss of his wife as a result of his resultant problems reintegrating in society after the war. He is finally driven psychotic when he catches his wife riding her lover during woman-on-top sex, and the lover runs out of the house after beating Michael senseless.