Black Sunday is a 1977 American action thriller film directed by John Frankenheimer and based on Thomas Harris's novel of the same name.

The inspiration of the story came from the Munich massacre, perpetrated by the Black September organization against Israeli athletes at the 1972 Summer Olympics, giving the title for the novel and film.

[4] Michael Lander is a pilot who flies the Goodyear Blimp over National Football League games to film them for network television.

During a raid on a Black September safehouse in Beirut, the Israeli counter-terrorist Mossad agent David Kabakov surprises Iyad while she is showering.

His mission was to kill everyone in the unit; however, seeing her unarmed and naked, he spares her life and turns his attention to clearing the rest of the safehouse, and she escapes.

Kabakov uses a contact in the Egyptian government named Riaf to discover her identity, and Corley tracks Iyad and her superior Mohammed Fasil to a hotel in Miami.

Lander is mortally wounded, but he lasts long enough to succeed in flying the blimp straight into the Super Bowl, causing mass chaos and destruction in the stadium.

As appearing in Black Sunday (main roles and screen credits identified):[5] The film was produced by former Paramount Pictures chief Robert Evans.

The thousands of extras needed for this footage, which obviously could not be shot during the real Super Bowl, were instead provided by the United Way charity, in exchange for Frankenheimer directing a promotional film for them, narrated by Shaw.

During filming of the chaotic scenes of panic as the blimp descends into the crowds, Dolphins player Barry Hill fell and injured himself, requiring a splint and a bandage on his right hand.

In January 2010, Film Score Monthly issued a limited edition of 10,000 copies of the previously unreleased soundtrack, remixed from the original masters.

[2] Director Frankenheimer felt the film was hurt by the fact an earlier movie about terrorism at a championship football game, Two-Minute Warning, had come out just beforehand and performed poorly.

The site's critics consensus reads, "A smart, tense thriller from director John Frankenheimer, Black Sunday succeeds on a technical level, even if it fails to bring its characters to vivid life.

[21] The film was parodied as "Blimp Sunday" in the issue of Mad Magazine #195, in a story written by Dick DeBartolo with art from Mort Drucker.