Donald Sutherland & 'Return of the Jedi's Director Teamed Up for This Chilling Spy Thriller (2024)

Deadly spies in movies are highly skilled at killing and going into hiding, but when it comes down to their loyalties, they may be patriotic or murky. But have you heard of Henry Faber? Portrayed by Donald Sutherland, Faber is a Nazi spy in Eye of the Needle (1981) who is close to completing a mission that could change the direction of the Second World War. It was released the year after Sutherland’s Oscar snub for his devastating performance in Ordinary People. But if audiences were expecting a similarly compassionate performance, they would be mistaken.

Henry Faber is one of Sutherland’s darkest roles, and it even gave him inspiration for his villainous role in The Hunger Games series. But Eye of the Needle holds a memorable place in not just the career of its leading actor, but its director too. Richard Marquand got to direct Return of the Jedi (1983) due to his ability to handle suspenseful moments such as the ones he created in his 1981 thriller. Just like the obscurity of Henry Faber among the more well-known onscreen spies, Marquand and Sutherland’s film isn’t as famous as other WWII-set films. And while it may not take place on the battlefield, it’s just as brutal when the fate of the world is threatened by a spy who has no regard for human life.

What Is ‘Eye of the Needle’ About?

Set in the United Kingdom during a critical point of WWII, a German sleeper agent’s cover is blown. Henry Faber is no longer able to go undetected, but he remains one step ahead of the government agents hunting him down. He becomes even more dangerous when he gathers top-secret intel about the D-Day invasion that, if delivered to his superiors, will expose a covert plan by the Allies. Faber needs to get the intel to Germany, but on his way to meet a U-boat, he gets stranded on a rocky island that is the home of an estranged couple.

Although an unexpected romance grows between Faber and the deeply unhappy Lucy (Kate Nelligan), there is no hope of seeing the spy’s loyalties shift. He will complete his mission by killing anyone standing in his way. Based on the spy thriller novel by Ken Follett, you don’t want to see him win, but you can’t help but be in awe at how expertly he evades capture in the first hour of Eye of the Needle. His codename, “the Needle,” is taken from the stiletto dagger he impales unlucky people with who catch onto his secret. At the film’s start, Henry appears to be a modest and patriotic British citizen, until his dark side comes out.

Henry Faber Is a Spy on the Run

A friendly landlady makes the mistake of walking in on Faber while he delivers a message via his shortwave radio. His response is quick as she pivots from confusion to panic. He pushes the door closed, swipes out his blade, and stabs her with one fatal blow. She won’t be the last to go down; the others who meet their end by the Needle’s point include a fellow German agent who is about to be caught, a pair of suspicious military men, and a nervous soldier. By the time he sails out to sea to be picked up by a U-boat, the viewers understand no one is safe when they get close to Henry Faber.

When bad weather strands him on Storm Island, he’s taken in by the Rose family. David (Christopher Cazenove) is a bitter man, left paralyzed from the waist down by a reckless car accident he caused. This has led to David forcing his family to live on Storm Island, putting them all into isolation because of his self-loathing. His wife Lucy is left to watch over their young son when her husband turns to his daily round of drinking. Faber’s arrival then awakens the dissatisfaction in Lucy’s life from being stuck on the rocky island, and they begin an affair. But survival instincts are so intrinsic to him, the Nazi spy doesn’t know how to detach himself from violence.

As he and Lucy walk along the cliffside, the breathtaking view is tainted by the underlying darkness of the viewers knowing Faber’s true colors. When he lies to Lucy about being a writer, he offers small truths about his past. He claims he’s currently working on a love story that ends with the man killing the woman he loved because she broke his heart. The smirk Sutherland puts on is eerie. Life and death mean little to him. Reading into the scene more, Faber may be revealing to her what he did to another woman he loved once. Faber’s nefarious behavior was a key trait Sutherland realized he could use decades later when he joined the cast of The Hunger Games.

‘Eye of the Needle’ Scared Donald Sutherland’s Neighbors

The actor penned a letter to director Gary Ross to show his passionate interest in getting cast as President Snow for 2012’s The Hunger Games. “Snow’s evil shows up in the form of the complacently confident threat that’s ever present in his eyes. His resolute stillness,” Sutherland wrote, “Have you seen a film I did years ago? ‘The Eye of the Needle’. That fellow had some of what I’m looking for.” His performance was so effective, he added to his letter with amusem*nt how it frightened his neighbors. He recalled a memory of his wife getting asked how she, “could live with anyone who could play such an evil man. It made for an amusing dinner or two, but part of my wife is still wondering.”

Donald Sutherland turns in a venomous performance as Henry Faber, who never seems to lose his cool, despite having to narrowly avoid the government agents on his trail. The “resolute stillness” the actor brought up of Faber can be seen in the spy’s unperturbed demeanor and his determination to his mission. The calm presence, and then the speed at which he turns violent, make him a lethal man. There’s another aspect of Faber in Snow too. The smile President Snow puts on for his opponents or for Panem is depleted of any kindness; the same can be said when Faber smiles for Lucy.

While Sutherland is easily the more famous face that stands out in Eye of the Needle, director Richard Marquand’s work can’t go unnoticed. The best sequences in the film make great use of establishing shots and slow-burn tension. The WWII thriller became the film that helped Marquand get significant attention in the U.S. when George Lucas chose him to close out the original Star Wars trilogy. In the DVD commentary for Return of the Jedi, Lucas explained he was impressed by the “energy and suspense” he saw in Eye of the Needle, but the decision would bring some complications during filming.

Before the Sith, Richard Marquand Explored Real World Evil With 'Eye of the Needle'

In the doc, Empire of Dreams: The Story of the Star Wars Trilogy (2004), Lucas realized he had to be on set more than he thought he would have to. Marquand’s inexperience with making a special effects-heavy film meant Lucas assisted the director and was involved in the film’s second unit to ease the workload. Still, Lucas had nothing but kind words to share about Marquand. The 1981 WWII thriller may not have had any special effects, but the “energy and suspense” Lucas mentioned is accurate. Early on in Eye of the Needle, Faber trespasses onto a military base to capture photos that reveal a major part of the Allies plan for their D-Day invasion.

The camera sees the layout of the landscape before it gets in closer when Faber crawls under barbed wire and cuts through the fencing. He never rushes through it, despite the high risk of getting caught. You don’t know if you should be in awe of how calm he is under this pressure, or be wondering when the inevitable moment will come when someone notices him. If anyone wants to survive their encounter with Henry Faber, they need to fight back, and it’s when the film heads to Storm Island, that he begins to risk being defeated.

Violence Erupts in the Finale of ‘Eye of the Needle’

When Lucy’s husband David finds proof that Henry is an enemy of the nation, a struggle ensues. It’s dirty and desperate as each of the men attempts to gain the upper hand, both getting near a cliff’s edge until Henry is the victor, but just barely. The efficient kills by Henry Faber get messier, culminating in a savage brawl during the third act that pits Lucy and Henry against each other. Lucy realizes two horrible truths: Henry killed David and he’s a Nazi spy. As bad weather dumps torrential rain on the island, Lucy tries to stay alive and protect her son, doing whatever she can to accomplish this. She slams an axe into Henry’s hand when he tries to unlock a door. She sticks metal into an open fuse so he can’t use the radio to signal the U-boat, burning her hand in the process.

The film's doomed romance continuously puts Henry and Lucy in intimate positions. Their sex scenes are drained of their passion when Lucy has to hide she knows the truth about Henry and must pretend to enjoy another night together. The pained expression on her face is a disturbing sight. Once Henry notices Lucy’s burnt hand in the finale, which matches his maimed one, he suddenly appears exhausted. “The war’s come down to the two of us,” he tells her. Eye of the Needle puts Donald Sutherland on the other side of WWII, in contrast to his roles where he was taking out Nazis in The Dirty Dozen or stealing Nazi gold in Kelly’s Heroes.

But Donald Sutherland wasn’t anything like Henry Faber, even if his neighbors couldn’t grasp that. He was an exceptional performer who could portray a range of characters that were funny, tragic, or chilling. When he was given an honorary Oscar in 2017, Sutherland poked fun at himself, saying, “I don’t deserve this, but I have arthritis and I don’t deserve that either.” As for Marquand, he had an interest in returning to the Star Wars universe to direct one of the prequels that Lucas was planning, but he died suddenly at the age of 49. One of the final movies he made was the neo-noir thriller Jagged Edge, swapping a Nazi spy and homemaker for a high-profile lawyer and her possibly guilty client. With the recent passing of Donald Sutherland, and Richard Marquand’s untimely death back in 1987, Eye of the Needle is waiting to be rediscovered.

Eye of the Needle is currently streaming on Tubi in the U.S.

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