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Operation Finale

2018 film directed by Chris Weitz

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 23, 2026
Entity authorityQ42802162 ↗
Source-derived summary

Operation Finale is a 2018 American historical drama thriller film directed by Chris Weitz from a screenplay by Matthew Orton about a 1960 clandestine operation by Israeli commandos to capture former SS officer Adolf Eichmann, and transport him to Jerusalem for trial on charges of crimes against humanity. The film stars Oscar Isaac (who also produced) as the Mossad officer Peter Malkin, and Ben Kingsley as Eichmann, with Lior Raz, Mélanie Laurent, Nick Kroll, and Haley Lu Richardson. Several source materials, including Eichmann in My Hands, by Peter Malkin and Harry Stein, provided the basis for the story.

The film was theatrically released in the United States on August 29, 2018, by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer through their joint venture with Annapurna Pictures (now called United Artists Releasing) and received mixed reviews from critics.

Plot

After World War II ends, Holocaust perpetrator Adolf Eichmann disappears; other leaders of Nazi Germany take their own lives to avoid facing trials for war crimes. In 1954, Mossad agent Peter Malkin mistakenly kills the wrong person while hunting a Nazi war criminal in Austria, damaging his reputation.

In Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1960, Sylvia Hermann begins courting the son of Adolf Eichmann, Klaus. At dinner with her German-Jewish father, Lothar, Klaus openly speaks negatively about Jews and claims his father died in the war. Lothar grows suspicious and passes his name along to Mossad in Tel Aviv, Israel. Field agent Zvi Aharoni is dispatched in Buenos Aires to gather intelligence.

Editorial summary

“Operation Finale” enters the record as 2018 film directed by Chris Weitz. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Operation, Finale and film can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA productive route into publication, performance and collection histories when the underlying object or edition remains clearly identified. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2018, 1960, 1954—that can be checked directly. The authority record carries competing date values—2018-09-21, 2018-10-03—which should remain separate until their references and qualifiers are resolved. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Operation, Finale and film.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Operation Finale” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Operation, Finale and film provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q42802162. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 3 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2018, 1960 and 1954.

Critical limits

Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

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  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Operation Finale”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Operation Finale primary sources, Operation Finale archive and Operation research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Operation Finale”?
  2. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
  3. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Operation Finale” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.