1981 film by Richard Marquand
Eye of the Needle is a 1981 British spy film directed by Richard Marquand and starring Donald Sutherland and Kate Nelligan. Written by Stanley Mann, it is based on the 1978 novel of the same title by Ken Follett.
The film is about a German Nazi spy in the United Kingdom during World War II who discovers vital information about the upcoming D-Day invasion and his attempt to return to Germany while he is stranded with a family on the isolated (fictional) Storm Island, off the coast of Scotland.
Plot
Henry Faber is a cold and emotionless German sleeper agent nicknamed "the Needle" because he prefers to kill with a stiletto. While spying in England, he obtains critical information of a massive military deception campaign to disguise the Allies' plans to invade Normandy instead of Pas de Calais as Nazi Germany High Command expects, but is unable to transmit the information. MI5, knowing that Faber's discoveries could foil D-Day, are hounding his every move. Faber heads to Scotland for a rendezvous with a U-boat, but fierce weather strands him on Storm Island. On the island he meets Lucy, a beautiful young woman; her disabled husband, David; their young son Jo; and an elderly, alcoholic shepherd named Tom, the only other person on the island. Tom runs the lighthouse and the island's only two-way radio.
A passionate romance develops overnight between Faber and Lucy because of the estrangement she has from her husband, a former RAF fighter pilot, after a car crash on their honeymoon four years before, which left him without use of his legs and embittered. David becomes suspicious of Faber when he discovers he is carrying a film canister. When questioned about the film, Faber ruthlessly kills David by throwing him off a cliff, and then kills Tom, who has found him trying to contact the U-boat with the shepherd's radio. Faber lies to Lucy to explain David's absence, claiming David has been drinking with Tom, as is often the case. However, Lucy soon finds her husband's body on the rocky shoreline and, lying to Faber, manages to flee with Jo. When Faber realizes she knows, he pursues her. Lucy reaches the radio at Tom's lighthouse, contacts the mainland and is told that help will be sent immediately, but in the meantime it is vital for her to destroy the transmitter (but without explaining why). Lucy, alone and terrified, refuses.
When Faber arrives, Lucy tries to fight him off, but Faber takes Jo hostage, forcing her to allow him access to the radio. He begins using the radio to report to the U-boat which has been waiting for him off the coast of Storm Island. But as he attempts to impart the intelligence he has gathered, speaking in German, Lucy realizes his true agenda and blows the lighthouse's fuse by inserting a key into a light socket, thus rendering the transmitter useless and Faber's vital information unheard. Despite what she has done, Faber doesn't kill her, but strides towards the shoreline cliffs to reach the arranged rendezvous with the U-boat, which is now surfaced nearby and clearly visible.
Lucy runs out after Faber with her husband's revolver. She implores him to stop, and when he does not desist, she fatally shoots him before he can reach the submarine. Lucy sinks to her knees, exhausted and despondent.
Production
The Storm Island scenes were shot over eight weeks on the Isle of Mull, in the Inner Hebrides.[1] The distinctive Connel Bridge appears in the film, and some of the location filming was shot at Blackbushe Airport, Yateley, and also in London.
Reception
Roger Ebert "admired the movie" and stated that it "resembles nothing so much as one of those downbeat, plodding, quietly horrifying, and sometimes grimly funny war movies that used to be made by the British film industry, back when there was a British film industry."[2] George Lucas was impressed by the film and hired director Richard Marquand to helm 1983’s Return of the Jedi. On Rotten Tomatoes, 83% out of 18 critics gave the film positive reviews.
