January 30, 2024 – This tension-filled drama takes you inside the Munich, Germany control room of ABC sports during the 1972 Olympics when a terrorist attack in the Olympic Village becomes an epic news story that captivates the world.

The entire tragic hostage crisis is told from the viewpoint of sports broadcasters put in the unfamiliar position of making decisions involving international diplomacy, active police and military actions and life and death drama, while dealing with network politics.

Key players are Geoffrey Mason (John Magaro of “Past Lives”) control room director, ABC Sports President Roone Arledge (played by Peter Sarsgaard of “The Batman”) Marvin Bader (Ben Chaplin of “Family”) the head of operations and German translator Marianne Gebhardt (Leonie Benesch of “The Teacher's Lounge”).

Sports news is often looked down upon as the candy store of news operations, while the hard news, war, crime, politics, economics, science, etc., is handled by the serious news people, at least it used to be that way. The lines are blurred now. In 1972 it was big deal when Roone Arledge decided that sports would handle the hostage crisis news in Munich, over the objections of ABC's news division.

Mason is involved in taking over from the night shift in the ABC control room when staff people start hearing gunfire in the Olympic village nearby. It soon becomes clear that something is terribly wrong, and the sports team quickly pivots from sports coverage to hard news.

A heavy studio camera is dragged outside to cover the action in the nearby Olympic village. Radio equipment is modified to intercept police bands. Marianne becomes a key player in finding out what is happening since she is the only one in the control room who can understand both English and German.

The sports crew also jury-rigged phone equipment in order to air the voice of Peter Jennings (who, years later, would later become the ABC news anchor) who was in a room overlooking the hostage crisis in the Olympic village. Jennings (played by Benjamin Walker) an expert in Middle East politics, is very familiar with the Black September terrorists who held 11 Israeli Olympians hostage.

Famed sportscaster Howard Cosell's voice is also heard in this movie. Cosell (1918–1995) also provided coverage from inside the Olympic village. The Olympic village is locked down and nobody can get in or out except for athletes. The broadcasters find a work around by having crewman Gary Slaughter (Daniel Adeosun of “The Book of Clarence”) pretend to be an athlete, using a fake ID. Gary carries film into and out of the Olympic Village.

The crew got so good at eavesdropping on police communications and actions, they might have put a rescue operation in jeopardy by showing too much of it on live TV when the terrorists could see it. This led to police ordering ABC cameras turned off. The tension in the movie is very high. There are incredible emotional highs and lows in the control room, sometimes related to false reports from authorities.

Arledge is in a constant struggle with ABC news division, and satellite services (broadcast satellites were a new, scarce resource back then) to get the resources he needed for the hostage news coverage. The team proves to be very resourceful at improvising to getting around these kinds of problems.

This is one of the year's best movies, loaded with tension and great acting performances. The movie also makes extensive use of archival footage from the original broadcasts, for additional authenticity. Writer-Director Tim Fehlbaum (“The Colony”) and writers Moritz Binder and Alex David have crafted a powerful, immersive movie about raw journalism in action. It rates an A.

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