Plot
Art professor and mountaineer, Jonathan Hemlock, is a retired government assassin called on to return to work for two more "sanctions", a euphemism for officially approved killings. During his career with a secret government agency called C-2, Hemlock amassed a private collection of 21 rare masterpiece paintings, paid for from his previous sanctions. The director of C-2, Dragon, is an albino ex-Nazi confined to semi-darkness and kept alive by blood transfusions. Dragon wants Hemlock to kill two men responsible for the death of another government agent, code name Wormwood. Insisting he is retired, Hemlock refuses until Dragon threatens to expose Hemlock's art collection to the Internal Revenue Service. Hemlock agrees, and travels to Zürich, where he carries out the first sanction by killing two hitmen for $20,000, twice his usual fee (equivalent to $131,000 in 2025), and a letter guaranteeing him that he would receive no trouble from the IRS.
Returning from Europe, Hemlock meets air stewardess Jemima Brown, unbeknownst to him a C-2 courier, who seduces him. While he is asleep, she steals his money and IRS exemption letter. Dragon agrees to return them if Hemlock completes the second sanction. Hemlock is reluctant, but agrees when he learns that the C-2 agent that was killed, Wormwood, was in fact his old friend Henri Baq. Hemlock is an ex-Green Beret, and he and Baq had served together during the Vietnam War, where Baq saved his life. Dragon agrees to pay him $100,000 (equivalent to $653,000 in 2025) plus expenses, and tells him the target is a member of an international mountain-climbing team that will soon attempt an ascent of the north face of the Eiger mountain in Switzerland. Hemlock will be the American member of the team, and must kill one of the climbers; Dragon is uncertain of the target's identity other than the man walks with a limp.
Hemlock travels to Arizona to train at a climbing school run by a friend, Ben Bowman, who whips him back into shape with the help of an attractive Native American woman named George. Hemlock also encounters an enemy, Miles Mellough, a former ally from the military, who years before had betrayed him in Southeast Asia. Mellough somehow knows a great deal of what Hemlock is planning. He bargains for his life by offering to tell Hemlock which climber is the target. Hemlock refuses, so Mellough tries to kill Hemlock by hiring George to seduce and drug him, but Hemlock survives. Later, Hemlock lures Mellough and his bodyguard miles into the desert, shoots and kills the bodyguard, and leaves Mellough to die in the sun.
Hemlock travels to Switzerland with Bowman, the supervisor for the climb, and meets the other three climbers at the Hotel Bellevue des Alpes, in view of the Eiger. The headstrong and condescending German member, Karl Freytag, presents his proposed route up the mountain, and the team agrees that he will lead the group. The following morning, the men begin their ascent of the Eiger north face, but soon the weather conditions become poor. The older French climber is struck by falling rocks and continues, but dies in his sleep that night. With Hemlock now leading the expedition, the surviving members retreat towards a tunnel window that connects to the Eigerwand railway station, carrying the dead climber between them. At the last moment, climbers Freytag, Meyer, and the body fall off the mountain. Hemlock is saved, dangling alone a few metres from the tunnel window.
Bowman and a rescue crew make their way through the Eiger to the tunnel window, where they attempt to throw a rope to Hemlock. Hemlock notices Bowman is suddenly limping, a sign that identifies him as Hemlock's target. Hemlock says, "You're limping, Ben," reluctant to trust that Bowman will rescue him. Bowman throws him the rope, and Hemlock attaches it, then reluctantly cuts his own rope. He falls onto Bowman's rope, and is pulled safely into the tunnel. On the train ride back, Bowman admits he became involved with "the other side" years earlier, but claims he had no idea that Kruger would kill Henri Baq. Bowman explains he had become involved with Miles Mellough, to whom he was indebted for getting his daughter, George, off drugs.
Back at Kleine Scheidegg, Bowman approaches Hemlock, looking to mend his relationship with him. Hemlock takes a phone call from Dragon, who is convinced that since C-2 was never able to positively identify the target, Hemlock killed all three of the other climbers intentionally to ensure he completed the job. Hemlock tells Bowman that C-2 believes the target died on the mountain, and there is no reason to tell them otherwise. After Bowman leaves, Jemima Brown joins Hemlock and asks him if he really killed all three climbers intentionally. Hemlock just smiles.
