Three Days of the Condor Trivia Quiz

Answer: Turner

Joseph Turner (played by Robert Redford) is part of a CIA team working in New York City under the cover of being a group called the American Literary Historical Society. His work as a researcher is what triggers the events of the film, although we don't find out the details until much later - for much of the time, the viewer is just as mystified as the hero as to why this is all happening to him.

The incorrect options are other members of the team.

Answer: A poorly-written thriller novel

While Turner was reading the novel, he noticed several strange plot elements, suggesting that there was some hidden message in it. He was also interested to note the languages into which this mediocre piece of writing had been translated, which included Arabic and Persian, but not the far more common French and German.

This seemingly-innocuous observation set off alarm bells when it was read at CIA headquarters, because he had accidentally stumbled across a secret plan, known only to a small group within the CIA, and not part of official policy.

The members of the plan decide that the whole NYC group, who had all read the book which generated Turner's report, must be eliminated to protect their plans.

Answer: He had gone out through a back door to collect lunch for them all.

Turner returns with lunch only to find the offices littered with bodies (the receptionist, the security officer, the office director and three other researchers), and realises there is something terribly wrong. He later discovers that the last member of the team, who stayed home "sick" (apparently code for hung over) that day, has also been eliminated. Because Turner left the building by a rear door, of which the team of hit men were unaware, they don't realise that he has survived. Unfortunately, his decision to call the CIA's New York headquarters alerts the wrong people to this fact, and leads to the bloody cat-and-mouse game that is to follow.

Answer: Wicks tries to shoot the Condor; in return, the Condor shoots Wicks.

Wicks (played by Michael Kane) turns out to be one of the conspirators, and the meeting is a trap. He goes to the alley accompanied by Sam Barber (played by Walter McGinn), one of Turner's friends, who thinks they are in fact planning to bring Turner to safety, but this is only a ruse - his presence is designed to make Turner feel safe enough to expose himself so that Wicks can shoot him. Wicks misses Turner, but kills Barber before Turner manages to use his gun to shoot Wicks. Turner now realises that he cannot trust the CIA, and he is on his own.

Answer: In a ski shop

As Turner later says, when asked how he chose the woman, she was just chosen at random - he needed someone, she was there. He forces Kathy (played by Faye Dunaway) to take him to her place in Brooklyn Heights, where he will have a chance to stop running, and start working out what is actually going on.

She slowly loses her fear of him, and starts to trust him, eventually agreeing to help him, and not just cooperate at gunpoint.

Answer: As a mailman

The hired assassin is a man named Joubert (played by Max von Sydow), but he cannot safely carry out the killing himself, as Turner has seen him. He organises for one of his men to pretend to have a parcel requiring a signature in order to gain entry to the apartment. Turner, however, is on high alert, and manages to kill the "mailman" before the hit can be completed.

Answer: He is dead.

As Turner confronts Higgins (played by Cliff Robertson), trying to find out if he knows what is going on, he outlines his suspicion that there is a conspiratorial subsection of the CIA, running a covert operation about which the other members of the CIA are ignorant, and that these people are responsible for the current spate of deaths.

He points out that he gave his report to Higgins, who forwarded it to Wicks, and asks who else might know of the contents. In the course of this, Higgins identifies Joubert as the assassin, and reveals that Wicks is dead.

After Turner shot him in the alley, he was hospitalised; somebody unplugged his life-support system, eliminating one more of the people who were aware of the plot.

Answer: CIA Deputy Director of Operations for the Middle East

Wicks has shown Atwood Turner's report, and he immediately recognised that the report would endanger his "game", as Higgins later describes it. The operation is not so much a formal plan as it is a game plan, a scenario that is being developed so that it can be put into action when it is needed.

They are sure that there will come a time when American interests will require that they seize control of the oil fields in the Middle East, and they need to have everything ready for that time. At least, that is what Higgins later claims, but we sense that the wheels are already turning.

Answer: Joubert shoots Atwood.

This is more than a little surprising, because we know that Joubert has been after Turner all along. However, it turns out that someone else in the CIA has given Joubert new instructions (and more money) to have him abandon that project and then eliminate Atwood, in order to stop the rogue operation without creating any scandal from public knowledge. Joubert recommends that Turner leave the country (and invites him to come work for him, as he has shown himself to be a talented amateur), but Turner says he would miss the USA too much if he moved to Europe and a safer life.

Answer: New York Times

Turner refuses to go quietly with Higgins, and instead informs him that the 'New York Times' has been given all of Turner's information, and when it is published the entire operation will be brought to a crashing halt. In 1975, this would have immediately reminded viewers of the role of the 'Washington Post' in the Watergate scandal - for a film version of those events, see 'All the President's Men', a 1976 film starring Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman.

In this case, we are left uncertain as to whether the CIA's unlawful actions will or will not be reported - after Turner says, "They'll print it", and starts to walk off, Higgins asks, "How do you know?"