History Literature / BlackSundayThomasHarris

* {{Determinator}} - Lander. At times he seems more intent on proving himself than his terrorist allies.

* EroticEating / 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.

* TheSeventies: When both the book and movie are set.

Long before Harris invented [[Literature/TheSilenceOfTheLambs Hannibal Lecter]], he invented Michael Lander, an embittered [[UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar Vietnam]] vet who has been mentally unraveling due to the torture he went through at a North Vietnamese POW camp and the failure of his marriage 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 Lander senseless.

* AntiHero - Kabakov. In the book, Corley mentions to Kabakov how it's clear to him that Kabakov wouldn't care what he had to do to stop Fasil: "Warn me in advance? Warn me, my ass! You'd have sent me a postcard from fucking Tel Aviv, saying 'sorry about the crater and the tidal wave!'"

* AnyoneCanDie - Significant characters die in the book and the movie.
* AsHimself - Miami Dolphins football team owner Joe Robbie has a small part in the film, as do CBS commentators Pat Summerall and Tom Brookshier.

* BadassIsraeli - Major Kabakov.

* BavarianFireDrill - Lander uses the confusion caused by smoke from one of the blimp's engines [[FakingEngineTrouble (which he induced)]] to get the Goodyear ground crew to mount the bomb (disguised as "new camera equipment") onto the base of the blimp's gondola.

* FlechetteStorm - How Lander's bomb would work – hundred of thousands of rifle darts propelled at the Super Bowl crowd by a half-ton of plastic explosive.
* GadgeteerGenius - Lander builds a highly sophisticated WMD in his basement and [[DisconnectedByDeath sets up a remotely detonated bomb inside a phone]] to take out a potential security leak.

* HeroAntagonist - Kabakov again.

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

* JackBauerInterrogationTechnique - In the book Major Kabakov says to his assistant Moshevsky, when a man they are questioning won't talk, "I'm going to step outside for a moment. Perhaps the Captain would like some refreshments. Call me when he has finished eating his testicles."

* MoeGreeneSpecial - Lander is going to be replaced as pilot of the blimp by co-pilot Farley. In both the book and the movie, Dahlia goes into the other pilot's room and kills him, leaving the "Do Not Disturb" sign on the door. Michael shows up to replace him, telling the crew that Farley called him at 2 in the morning and asked him to go in his place, claiming Farley had to go to a doctor because "some drunk broad stuck her finger in his eye."
* MythologyGag - In the film adaptation, "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 the real-life Super Bowl X.

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

* VillainProtagonist - Fasil and Dahlia, who are working to make Lander's plan work.

Lander approaches a Palestinian terrorist group and offers to use his job as a dirigible pilot for the Aldrich Rubber Company to crash its blimp into the UsefulNotes/SuperBowl 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.

* [[ChekhovsGun Chekhov's Crosswind]] - 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 [[YouCantThwartStageOne save Stage One]].
* CrazyPrepared - Lander set up a secondary fuse to set off the bomb if the primary igniter didn't work.

* [[WouldntHitAGirl Wouldn't Shoot A Girl]]: Kabakov is sent to kill a terrorist leader, but doesn't kill Dahlia, assuming she's just his lover. Turns out she's a terrorist as well, and is now more motivated than ever to carry out her mission.

!Tropes Used

* {{Gorn}}: Plenty of it, most memorably [[YourHeadExplode Captain Ogawa's head being blown up by a bomb.]]

The only person who can stop him is a UsefulNotes/{{Mossad}} agent, Major Kabakov. Kabakov only knows that a man who may be American has met with a Black September-affiliated terrorist group (which they discovered from a tape made in advance, captured during a raid by the Israelis on one of the group's safehouses), and that the terrorists will "begin the year with violence." So, working with UsefulNotes/{{FBI}} agent Corley, Kabakov tries to figure out just where, when, and how said violence is to occur, hopefully before it's too late.

* BadassBystander: Kabakov and Corey use a FlashedBadgeHijack to commandeer a helicopter to chase the blimp. Despite being shot at, and in danger of being blown up, the pilot does an excellent job of holding his nerve and is vital in saving the day.

* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: Landers – he was captured by the NVA and tortured into making propaganda statements for them, forced out of the Navy after his release, left by his cheating wife (who took the kids) soon afterwards, and a scene with him dealing with the uncaring VA bureaucracy shows he's not getting any kind of emotional support from them. Dahlia is the only person who treats him with kindness (and even she starts to have second thoughts after he exults over the rifle-dart bomb test).

* SickbedSlaying - After Sergeant Moshevsky is wounded by a bomb intended to silence the ship captain who smuggled in the plastic explosives for the plot, 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''.

A 1975 novel by Thomas Harris, adapted into a 1977 film directed by Creator/JohnFrankenheimer and starring Creator/RobertShaw and Creator/BruceDern.

Long before Harris invented [[Literature/TheSilenceOfTheLambs Hannibal Lecter]], he invented Michael Lander, a disgruntled [[UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar 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 Lander senseless.

Long before Harris invented [[Literature/TheSilenceOfTheLambs Hannibal Lecter]], he invented Michael Lander (Dern), a disgruntled [[UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar 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.

Michael approaches a Palestinian terrorist group and offers to use his job as a dirigible pilot for the Aldrich Rubber Company to crash its blimp into the UsefulNotes/SuperBowl 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 only person who can stop him is a UsefulNotes/{{Mossad}} agent, Major Kabakov (Shaw). Kabakov only knows that a man who may be American has met with a Black September-affiliated terrorist group (which they discovered from a tape made in advance, captured during a raid by the Israelis on one of the group's safehouses), and that the terrorists will "begin the year with violence." So, working with UsefulNotes/{{FBI}} agent Corley (Fritz Weaver), Kabakov tries to figure out just where, when, and how said violence is to occur, hopefully before it's too late.

We watch in fascination as Lander's plan goes through with inexorable precision toward its deadly outcome, assisted by Dahlia Iyad (Marthe Keller), a woman who has a rare position of authority in the Black September terrorist organization. Some events become known to Kabakov, who eventually comes to the conclusion that the target will be the Super Bowl, in view of the statement in the terrorist announcement that was captured early.

The book and the movie have several differences. [[spoiler:Kabakov ]] dies in the book, [[spoiler:Moshevsky]] dies in the film. In the movie, Muslim terrorist Faisal [[spoiler:dies about halfway 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, as the film shot footage at Super Bowl X. The book has Kabakov and his doctor Rachel Bauman enter into a love affair; the character doesn't appear 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.

The only person who can stop him is a UsefulNotes/{{Mossad}} agent, Major Kabakov (Shaw), and his partner, Sergeant Moshevsky (Steven Keats). Kabakov, assisted by UsefulNotes/{{FBI}} agent Corley (Fritz Weaver), only knows that a man who may be American has met with a Black September-affiliated terrorist group, which they discovered from a tape made in advance, captured during a raid by the Israelis on one of the group's safehouses, that the terrorists will "begin the year with violence." So they not only have to try to figure out what the event is, but where it is happening and how, and hopefully before it's too late.

Long before 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.

The only person who can stop him is an Israeli government assassin, Major Kabakov and his partner, Sergeant Moshevsky. Kabakov, assisted by FBI Agent Corley, only know that a man who may be American, has met with a Black September-affiliated terrorist group, which they discovered from a tape made in advance, captured during a raid by the Israelis on one of the group's safehouses, that the terrorists will "begin the year with violence." So they not only have to try to figure out what the event is, but where it is happening and how, and hopefully before it's too late.

We watch in fascination as Lander's plan goes through with inexorable precision toward its deadly outcome, assisted by Faisal and Dahlia, a woman who has a rare position of authority in the Black September terrorist organization. Some events become known to Kabakov, who eventually comes to the conclusion that the target will be the Super Bowl, in view of the statement in the terrorist announcement that was captured early.

[[quoteright:310:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/black_sunday_1977_poster.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:310:If tomorrow is, y'know, UsefulNotes/SuperBowl Sunday.]]

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/black_sunday_1977_poster.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:300:If tomorrow is, y'know, UsefulNotes/SuperBowl Sunday.]]

A 1975 novel by Thomas Harris, adapted into a 1977 film directed by Creator/JohnFrankenheimer and starring Robert Shaw and Creator/BruceDern.

* AnyoneCanDie - Significant characters die in the book and the movie

* BlandNameProduct: Averted. The Good Year blimp and actual NFL team names and logos are the two best examples.

* IsraelisWithInfraredMissiles: Kabakov, Moshevsky, and (in the book) Rachel Bauman are all veterans of the Arab-Israeli wars, and Kabakov, Moshevsky, and their Mossad hit squad are still technically IDF soldiers.