Movie vs. Reality: Munich

By Felix Quinonez

April 4, 2012

Hey, look. It's the Hulk. I thought *you* were the Hulk.

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In Munich, the main source of information is a mysterious Frenchman but in reality Mossad agents had various sources. Some of these sources included paid informants, other Israeli officers and friendly European intelligence organizations. The teams also did a lot of test runs before the actually pulling off any hits.

The Kills

First kill - Wael Zwaiter

In the movie Zwaiter was clearly an older man, at least 50 but in real life he was actually in his 30s. The real hit actually employed at least 15 agents, besides the team members, to do surveillance on Zwaiter. In the movie, the target appears very calm as he is about to be shot, he even tries to reason with his assassins but the real Zwaiter actually tried to run.

Second Kill - Mahmoud Hamshiri

Again, the actual events employed a lot more agents. In this case, the plan involved 20 field officers. Although there was a fake interview set up with the target, it took place at a nearby café, not his apartment like the movie portrays. Once the target was out of the house, a team stepped in. Their process was a lot more complicated than what the movie shows. They took a lot of pictures and a sliver of the table on which the phone rested. In a lab they reconstructed the same table only there was a bomb inside of it.

Third Kill- Abad al-Chir

Before Avner gives the signal to blow out the target, he sees him on the balcony. The two of them wind up having a small, pleasant exchange and Al-Chir is actually a nice guy who even offers Avner sleeping pills because the newlywed couples are really loud. I didn’t see any record of this and it seems to be purely fabricated. It seems to be an attempt to humanize the targets. It could also be to make viewers better understand Avner’s doubts.




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Fourth, fifth and sisth kills - Kamal Nasser, Mahmoud Yussuf Najjer, and Kemal Adwan

The mission was portrayed fairly accurately, but the movie does not mention that at least 20 innocent people were killed or that this raid sparked furious protests in the Arab world.

Seventh kill - Zaid Muchassi

Although they did have to kill someone after blowing up Muchassi’s room, it was hardly the shootout that the movie makes it out to be. It was just one undercover agent who was supposed to be guarding Muchassi. In the movie it was a few people and it included a PLO team leader - fabricated by the movie - that Avner talked with the night before.

Eighth kill - “Jeanette”

This was portrayed very accurately in the film. There were only few minor differences that I could find. For example, Jeanette actually lived with another girl who could have been her lover and the team was forced to wait outside her boathouse for hours until this girl went out. Also, Hans actually stayed outside and only went in after Avner and Steve had shot her.


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