A sprawling biographical drama following Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, the Venezuelan revolutionary who became one of the world's most notorious terrorist mercenaries under the alias Carlos the Jackal. The film traces his rise through left-wing militant networks in the 1970s, including the audacious OPEC headquarters siege in Vienna, through to his eventual decline as a fugitive operating across various Middle Eastern and European states. Originally produced as a lengthy miniseries before being condensed into a theatrical cut, it charts how ideology gradually gives way to self-interest and ego as Carlos becomes increasingly isolated and irrelevant.