It was written by Robert Sabaroff, based upon the Parker novel The Seventh by Richard Stark (a pseudonym of Donald E. Westlake).

The film stars Jim Brown, along with Diahann Carroll, Julie Harris, Ernest Borgnine, Jack Klugman, Warren Oates, Donald Sutherland and Gene Hackman.

Thieves fall out when more than a half-million dollars goes missing after the daring and carefully planned robbery of the Los Angeles Coliseum during a football game, each one accusing the other of having the money.

He challenges getaway driver Harry Kifka to a race, picks a fight with thug Bert Clinger, imprisons electrical expert Marty Gough in a wire-controlled vault to watch him fashion an escape, and has a shooting match with marksman Dave Negli before recruiting them and pulling off the job.

Winkler first offered the lead role to Steve McQueen, who was interested, but ultimately decided to make Bullitt instead.

At the time, Brown was under a long-term contract to MGM,[2] which agreed to finance the movie,[3][4] with the working title Run the Man Down.

[citation needed] Prior to the 1960s, on the rare occasions that a stunt double was required for a black actor, he or she was usually played by a "painted down" white performer.

[citation needed] In order to ensure a sizable black audience, The Split was previewed in Oakland, California.

Ebert wrote that the film cleverly exploited the era's racial tensions in service of the plot, thereby making it "interesting in more ways than an action movie about a robbery ordinarily would be.