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Poster for The Killer Elite
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Released
1975 · FILM

The Killer Elite

“They protect us from the enemy, but who protects us from them?”

Directed by
Sam Peckinpah
Written by
Marc Norman, Stirling Silliphant
Runtime
122 min
ActionCrimeThriller

Synopsis

Mike Locken is a principal member of a group of freelance spies. Much of their work is conducted for the CIA, and during a mission for the agency, one of Locken's friends betrays him, shooting him in the elbow and knee. The mission, which involved protecting a target, is compromised. Though nearly crippled, Locken regains mobility with the help of braces. Driven largely by a desire for revenge, he pursues his former friend.

Credits

Actors
Editor
Production Designer
Director of Photography
Writers
Director

Related titles

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How many hands made this film

The scale of the collaboration

Principal cast & crew: 26

These are the principals we have on file — the full crew ran to the hundreds. Every film this size was made by far more hands than any credits list ever names.

Why a floor?

This is a minimum, not a total. We only count the credits we’ve captured so far, and coverage is uneven — a blockbuster might show a few hundred names while another of the same size shows a couple dozen. The real crews all ran into the thousands. The number here only grows as full credits are enriched — so we frame it as a floor, never a headcount.

Craft leads on file

Edited by Tony De ZarragaShot by Philip H LathropScored by Jerry FieldingDesigned by Ted Haworth

Box Office

1975 · Box office

📉 Underperformed — grossed 0.2× its budget

Why 2.5×?

Cinemas keep roughly half of every ticket sold, and a wide release’s marketing often costs about as much again as the film — so a movie needs to gross around 2.5× its production budget just to break even theatrically. It’s a rule of thumb, not the studio’s ledger (home video and streaming come later).

Worldwide gross

$1.0M

Budget$5.0M
Worldwide gross$1.0M
break-even (2.5×)

Also known as

  • Die Agenten-Elitede
  • Die Killer-Elitede
  • Los aristócratas del crimenes
  • Tueur d'élitefr

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