Lurz, an industrialist with an office in a Berlin high-rise, informs his American headquarters that the company has difficulty selling its security-related computer systems to the West German government in Bonn.

With these words, Susanne sets an ambiguous covert plot into motion, alerting the members of the terrorist cell of an upcoming meeting.

They are: August Brem, the ringleader; Susanne's composer husband Edgar; feminist history professor Hilde Krieger; Petra Vielhabor, a housewife who is constantly arguing with her banker husband Hans; and Rudolf Mann, a clerk in a record store.

The Gast family have dinner together: Gerhard, Susanne, her husband Edgar, the caustic grandfather, the delusional pianist grandmother, and the young couple's small son.

One is her former boyfriend, Franz Walsh, a beefy black German who is an explosives expert recently discharged from the military.

The other is his friend Bernhard von Stein, an aristocrat whose fondness for the works of Bakunin makes him the object of jokes.

Petra, Rudolf and Hilde receive those with the marks; they must break into an office at night in order to steal the new identities.

Bernhard is caught by Officer Gast at the cemetery when he tries to warn Franz that it is a set-up and tells him not to go to Ilse's grave.

The remaining terrorists, taking advantage of the carnival season to wear elaborate costumes as disguises, kidnap P.J.

The Third Generation was made immediately after Fassbinder achieved wide international critical and commercial success with The Marriage of Maria Braun.

[2] The large cast mainly comprised actors from Fassbinder's regular troupe: Hanna Schygulla, Margit Carstensen, Volker Spengler, Harry Baer and Günther Kaufmann among others.

It also includes two international stars: Eddie Constantine, who had worked with Fassbinder earlier in the director's career, and Bulle Ogier, who did not speak German.

Her dialogue was translated to her native French by Juliane Lorenz who worked as assistant director and editor, also having a cameo role as a job counselor.

Some of the actors also worked behind the scenes: Harry Baer was executive producer, Raúl Gimenez was production designer and Volker Spengler was the art director.

The French daily Le Figaro called it: "An effective, cinematic exercise in style and one of the most frightening political films".