- After being double-crossed and left for dead, a mysterious man named Walker single-mindedly tries to retrieve the money that was stolen from him.
- Mal Reese is in a real bind--owing a good deal of money to his organized crime bosses--and gets his friend Walker to join him in a heist. It goes off without a hitch, but when Reese realizes the take isn't as large as he had hoped, he kills Walker--or so he thinks. Some time later, Walker decides it's time to get his share of the money and starts with his ex-wife Lynne, who took up with Reese after the shooting. That leads him on a trail--to his wife's sister Chris, to Reese himself, then onto Big Stegman, then Frederick Carter, then up the line of gangsters in an effort to get money from people who simply won't acknowledge that they owe him anything.—garykmcd
- Walker, an lone gangster who used to be partners with Mal Reese, is shot and left for dead at Alcatraz. Knowing that he has been betrayed by his own partner in crime, Walker is determined to even the score and get revenge by taking the $93,000 that was taken. He enlists help from Chris, a woman who knows Mal, and continues his personal vendetta through the city of Los Angeles, using violence as a tool of intimidation for the bad guys.—blazesnakes9
- The criminal Mal Reese asks his partner and friend Walker to work with him to rob dirty money in Alcatraz Island from another criminal group since he has to pay a debt. Walker helps him and Reese kills the courier and shots Walker to kill him too, leaving him bleeding in a jail. Then he flees with the money and Walker's wife Lynne. However, Walker survives and with the help of the mysterious Yost, he chases Reese to recover his share of US$ 93,000 in the heist. He travels to Los Angeles, where he finds Lynne, who tells him that Reese left her and sends one thousand dollars per month for her through a courier. Lynne takes and overdose of sleeping pills and dies. Walker waits for the courier and learns that the car dealer Stegman is the one who sends the money to Lynne. Walker forces Stegman to say where Reese is, and he says that he is living with Lynne's sister, Chris. Walker visits Chris and she says that Reese hits on her, but she hates him. She helps Walker to find his whereabouts, seducing Reese. Walker reaches him in a fortress guarded by The Organization's men and Reese says that he used the money to pay his debt with The Organization. Walker asks him who his boss is and he says Carter, Brewster and Fairfax. Waker accidentally kills Reese but promises to collect his money from the powerful Carter.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- Based on the theme of the individual pitted against the large, impersonal organization. Here the central character is an old-fashioned loner of a gunman embroiled with a large-scale, corporate criminal operation behind a respectable-looking 'front'. Without delving into psychology or motivation, the film places emphasis on action and surface appearances, superbly capturing the glossy, depersonalized feel of a 1967 Los Angeles--a nightmare landscape of concrete, glass and coiling freeways.—alfiehitchie
- Lee Marvin plays Walker, a man who loses his share of $93,000 when he's double-crossed on a heist. His old pal Mal Reese (John Vernon) filled him with bullet holes and left him to rot, presuming he was dead or would die soon anyway. Reese needed all the money to pay back his debts to the Organization. Walker's wife also came along for the ride, but she didn't know what was going to happen. The job took place at the dark and dreary old prison, Alcatraz, where money pick-ups are made. After being shot up, Walker apparently made it out alive. During this sequence, and throughout the film, there are flashbacks to provide the backstory. They help convey Walker's thoughts and feelings, even if it seems like he doesn't have them anymore. He is portrayed as austere, terse, and slightly aloof.
Now all Walker wants to do is get his money back. At the inception of this storyline we see Walker stomping down a corridor, his footsteps loud, repetitive, pounding. Walker is fiercely determined, a man on a mission. Walker does a lot of walking throughout the movie, going from one place to another until he finds justice. That's the only thing on his mind. Shots of his wife getting out of bed, going out, and coming back home play while the pounding of his footsteps overshadow it. Since his wife is the person closest to him, and because she had an affair with Reese, Walker goes straight for her first. As the sound of footsteps come to a halt, we see Walker uninhibitedly barge in his wife's front door with a gun in hand, knock her down, and head right for the bedroom-blasting away several rounds at the bed. Reese wasn't there as he'd hoped. Now it's up to Walker to hunt down Reese through his connections. Reese is a top man in the syndicate this time around, so getting to him is not easy. Walker enlists the help of his wife's sister (Angie Dickinson). Since Reese wouldn't give him the cash, Walker disposes of him and move to the next guy in line. The bill gets passed down. Walker simply holds the whole Organization accountable. He won't relent until his gets the money.
It all comes down to Walker going back to the place that haunts his memory: Alcatraz. That's where his money will be dropped. Once again, an act of treachery is in the works. Walker is set up to be hit by a sniper. He observes the drop-off point from overhead, waits it out, and makes the men believe he didn't show up. At the last moment, all you see is Walker dissipate into the darkness like a ghost. The ending doesn't fill in the blanks. Will he retrieve the money? Has this all been a dream from the beginning when he was left to die? The answers are left up to the viewer.
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