(2010; English, French, German, Japanese, Arabic, Hungarian, Russian) In a three-part, 5½-hour TV mini-series, employing the style of cinéma vérité, director Olivier Assayas (co-writer with Dan Franck and Daniel Leconte) recreates the story of Ilich Ramírez Sánchez (Edgar Ramírez), aka Carlos, the multilingual Venezuelan revolutionary, from historical and journalistic research (inserting b/w archival footage) incorporated with fictionalization.

Scenes flash past, fast and furious, beginning with a car bomb on June 28, 1973, in Paris, killing Mohammed Boudia, a partisan of the Palestinian cause. A month afterward, traveling to Beirut from his home in London, Ilich meets with Wadie Haddad, a Christian Palestinian militant, who sends the passionate, cocky young man (espousing an international uprising for the Palestinian struggle) on a mission to prove his value to the cause. Taking the nom de guerre Carlos, an erstwhile student of economics in Moscow, donning a ski mask, forces his way into the home of the chairman of the retailer Marks and Spencer, seriously wounding (before his pistol jams) the Israeli supporter.

He argues to convince a female revolutionary (who points out that Che Guevara is dead) to join him in resistance because words have become useless - violent action is necessary to advance their cause to an international level. "You'll be hearing my name a lot," he boasts: "It's Carlos."

Following the discovery by French police of a hideout and the arrest of two Japanese sympathizers in Paris, in September 1974 Carlos is given command of three members of the Japanese Red Army for an assault on the French embassy in The Hague; but the Japanese act on their own without Carlos, taking hostages with the intention of exchanging them for the Japanese prisoners. Carlos hurls a grenade into a drugstore, with threats of further acts of destruction, to seal the deal.

Weapons and women - make love and war - are available for virile Carlos's deeds and desires. A group of Arabs with Johannes Weinrich (Alexander Scheer), a bookseller from Frankfurt, under Carlos's leadership attempt to destroy an El-Al commercial jet on the runway with an RPG (they miss, hitting another aircraft) in hopes of discrediting Arafat's negotiations with the Israelis; a second operation ends in mayhem at the airport and failure to achieve the objective. While he repeatedly insists on his respect for human lives, Carlos repeatedly endangers innocent civilians.

French authorities detain Carlos's Lebanese contact Andre at customs before releasing and trailing him, getting a photo of him with Carlos Martinez. When the cops show up at an address with Andre in tow, they find a party of young non-violent international protesters singing folk songs along with Carlos, who shoots his way out of the confrontation, killing Andre as well for snitching. In Yemen, Wadie initially criticizes Carlos's taking matters into his own hands, making himself a sensation in the Western media, but then passes along words of praise from Iraq's Saddam Hussein before instructing his commando to get his flabby physique back into shape in a training camp in preparation for an audacious raid on the OPEC headquarters in Vienna.

Part II begins on December 21, 1975, with Carlos personally leading his five commandos, Germans and Arabs, including a woman Nada, calling themselves the "Arm of the Arab Revolution," into the meeting of petroleum potentates, killing three people (one of them a Libyan official) on the way in. After taking 63 hostages, rigging explosives to keep the Austrian police at bay, and separating the oil ministers into three groups - friendly (confiding to Dr Hernandez, the Venezuelan, that he took the name Carlos as a tribute to President Carlos Andres Perez), neutral, and enemies (especially Yamani of Saudi Arabia for lifting the oil embargo) - Carlos demands a communiqué broadcast and air transport to Libya from there to Baghdad; he's granted a DC9 for a flight to Algiers (the Libyans refuse because of the death of their official) on which he takes with him the neutral and enemy oil delegates.

In Algiers the situation turns more tense: the DC9 lacks fuel capacity to reach Baghdad, and the Algerian government demands the release of all neutral delegates. After releasing the neutral hostages, Carlos decides to fly to Tripoli where he's refused help, having nothing to bargain with, since the enemy ministers are unwelcome to Col Qaddafi, and regarded as a terrorist: "We want nothing to do with these criminals." Having no other choice, he returns to Algiers where he agrees to a deal of letting his hostages go in exchange for $20 million, upsetting Nada ("Revolutionaries, not bandits!") and Khalid for selling out.

Back in South Yemen, Wadie reprimands Carlos as well for taking money instead of completing the mission: Soldiers obey orders; they don't negotiate or take initiative. But Carlos isn't a martyr; he's a famous mercenary who's become a celebrity, enjoying the good life. Dismissed (lacking any sense of politics) from Wadie's organization ("I don't trust you anymore"), Carlos retorts: "I will set up my own operation." Instead of Carlos, Wadie sends Boni and Anton to Entebbe.

In the autumn of 1976 in East Berlin, Carlos reunites with Weinrich, who reports that the network of cells has been nearly wiped out with most members either dead or in jail; Carlos, saying he has backing from Iraq, asks Johannes if he can locate Hans-Joachim "Angie" Klein, who had been critically wounded in Vienna. But Angie, a dedicated anti-imperialist fighting the capitalist system, hiding out alone in the woods, tells Weinrich he's not interested in money or terrorism.

In Baghdad, Carlos attends a meeting with an official of the Soviet KGB, who after declaring common cause with all revolutionaries, especially those fighting for the rights of Palestinians, offers a generous financial reward to anyone willing to eliminate Egypt's Sadat for his traitorous association with the Zionists: "He must pay the price."

An attractive German revolutionary and forger, Magdalena Kopp (Nora von Waldstätten), accepts Carlos's stipulation of unconditional submission to his rules if she is to become a member of his organization. In Damascus, Carlos (formerly a target of the Syrian government) and Weinrich consider a tempting Syrian arrangement of money and diplomatic cover for shipping weapons in establishing new bases throughout Eastern Europe in the Soviet bloc.

Part III covers the period from 1979 to 1994, beginning with Weinrich, Carlos, and his wife Magdalena in Budapest, ending in Khartoum, Sudan. In Aden, Yemen, writer Assem al-Joundi, interviewing Carlos for an in-depth article of his life and views (since the superpowers are indistinguishable in the larger scheme of things, the only thing that matters is the struggle of the oppressed against the imperialists), says: "Without newspapers, you don't exist."

In a rage over his infidelities and refusal to allow her direct participation in the fight, Magdalena demands to know: "Am I not enough for you?" When Carlos partners her with Bruno for an assignment from the Lebanese to deliver a car bomb beneath the offices of the newspaper Al Wattan Al Arabi in Paris, the two are caught and arrested in February 1982. After the French dismiss Carlos's ultimatum to release the prisoners, he declares: "So war it is."

Three years later, with Carlos's bases of operations in East Berlin and Hungary forced to decamp, Magdalena is released from prison for good behavior; Carlos takes cover under the alias of Michel in Syria as a businessman and father. As the Cold War comes to an end in 1989, the Syrians order Carlos and Weinrich ("No one is interested in us anymore…. The war is over, and we've lost") to leave. Col Qaddafi in Tripoli also turns them away as "undesirable."

Weary of their running from one location to the next, Magdalena departs for Venezuela with her daughter, leaving Carlos, who goes to Khartoum with Weinrich where he becomes the "phantom" and marries Lana Jarrar, a dental student he'd met in Syria. Meanwhile, long-time associate Kamal "Ali" al-Issawi with the Palestinian Liberation Popular Front gives away Carlos's location to the Syrians who pass the information along to the CIA and French secret service.

The film concludes with summaries of each principal character's current status. Nowhere in the biopic is Carlos referred to as the Jackal.

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