Scorpio

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Scorpio

PG

Released Apr 19, 1973

1h 54m

Action

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

59%

Tomatometer

22 Reviews

40%

Popcornmeter

500+ Ratings

Cross (Burt Lancaster) is an experienced assassin for the CIA who decides he's quitting the business. When he announces his intentions, however, the CIA decides they'd rather have him dead than retired. They assign Scorpio (Alain Delon), a French assassin whom Cross has mentored for years, to do the job. A complicated game of cat and mouse follows, during which Cross relies on his many contacts and years of experience to elude the man he's taught everything he knows.

Critics Consensus

Burt Lancaster and Alain Delon add some much-needed weight, but Scorpio doesn't offer much that spy thriller fans haven't already seen before.

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Jerry Oster

New York Daily News

A spy movie that tries to transcend the dutifully ordinary twists of its plot and tell a tale of a squalid world in which nothing not friendship nor love nor life has any value. It is so relentless in rendering meanness that it leaves a bitter aftertaste.

Rated: 2/4

Jun 3, 2021

Full Review

Kevin Thomas

Los Angeles Times

Follows a trite formula on such an unduly large, far-flung scale that it finally gets out of hand, leaving the viewer confused and therefore indifferent.

Jun 3, 2021

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George McKinnon

Boston Globe

Just when you think the international spy intrigue films have reeled to the final fadeout, along comes a picture like "Scorpio" to prove there's life in the old genre yet.

Jun 3, 2021

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David Parkinson

Radio Times

Lancaster manages to combine the fear of the fugitive with the toughness and resource we have come to expect of him.

Rated: 3/5

Jun 3, 2021

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John Huddy

Miami Herald

A slick, talky, occasionally theatrical, but frequently audacious and exciting yarn...

Jun 3, 2021

Full Review

R.H. Gardner

Baltimore Sun

Even with a good script, it wouldn't have amounted to much, being a cliché treatment of an idea that has been used to better advantage countless times before.

Jun 3, 2021

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Steve D

A depressing predictable drag.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

08/04/23

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paul d

Michael Winner's Scorpio is an engaging spy thriller. It's got the same basic ingredients as many films in the genre: Cold War tension, brilliant covert solo operators who take on the world, untrustworthy bureaucrats in Washington and Moscow, double-crosses, ageing spys and their young replacements … should I continue ? This film succeeds because the three leads Lancaster, Delon and Scofield command our attention, each in their own way. And Lancaster's athletic stunts at age 59 are impressive.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

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Audience Member

The bad guys are the CIA!

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

01/26/23

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Audience Member

A lot of stunning cinematography and wonderful writing, but I wasn't a fan of the ending.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

01/18/23

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Audience Member

Unconventional confusion.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/16/23

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Audience Member

Solid if undistinguished Burt Lancaster action flick. Burt is a retiring CIA operative who is training youngster Alain Delon, Scorpio, to take his place. But the inevitable double cross happens when Delon is ordered to kill his mentor, which then involves Russians and other assorted spies and killers. While the story lacks originality, director Michael Winner peppers the film with his usual terse action sequences, which is enough to carry the film. Interestingly, director Winner's previous film was the Charles Bronson classic "The Mechanic" where Bronson mentors youngster Jan-Michael Vincent in the ways of being a hitman, who then is ordered to kill his mentor.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/31/23

Full Review

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Michael Winner

Director

Burt Lancaster

Cross

Alain Delon

Jean 'Scorpio' Laurier

Paul Scofield

Zharkov

John Colicos

McLeod

Gayle Hunnicutt

Susan

Scorpio: Official Clip - I Want Cross

2:00

Scorpio: Official Clip - Getting the Drop on the Opposition

1:34

Scorpio: Official Clip - I'm Still a Communist

2:32

Scorpio: Official Clip - Hit and Run

1:03

Scorpio: Official Clip - Let Me Get My Bag

0:30

Scorpio: Official Clip - Can We Talk?

2:15

Scorpio: Official Clip - The Object Is Not to Win

3:43

Scorpio: Official Clip - Crashing His Tail

2:12

Scorpio: Official Clip - Construction Shoot Out

3:43

Scorpio: Official Clip - Cross Came Back

1:21

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Synopsis

Cross (Burt Lancaster) is an experienced assassin for the CIA who decides he's quitting the business. When he announces his intentions, however, the CIA decides they'd rather have him dead than retired. They assign Scorpio (Alain Delon), a French assassin whom Cross has mentored for years, to do the job. A complicated game of cat and mouse follows, during which Cross relies on his many contacts and years of experience to elude the man he's taught everything he knows.

Director: Michael Winner
Producer: Walter Mirisch
Screenwriter: David W. Rintels, Gerald Wilson
Production Co: Mirisch Corporation, Scimitar Productions
Rating: PG
Genre: Action
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Apr 19, 1973, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Nov 30, 2016
Runtime: 1h 54m

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