FILM · 2018 · USA
Operation Finale
17 archived facts 5 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (17)
- #001
Sir Ben Kingsley said he kept a photograph of Holocaust survivor Eli Wiesel in his pocket while on set, which reminded him both of his historical responsibility and of his intention to honor Eichmann's victims rather than focus on Eichmann. It was something Kingsley had done before: while playing Itzhak Stern in Schindler's List (1993), he carried a photograph of Holocaust victim Anne Frank in his pocket. Kingsley added that, after his earlier research on Nazis for other films, nothing surprised him while researching Eichmann, and that he tended not to expend excessive energy on the man's psychology.
- #002
As shown at the end, Peter Malkin keeps his promise to Eichmann that he will see his wife again. The real Vera Eichmann had visited her husband one last time in Israel a month before his execution.
- #003
Eichmann was responsible for organizing the deportation of Jews by rail to the concentration camps, and these actions were, among other things, part of the basis for the Israeli court's guilty verdict. This connection is not stated explicitly in the film. It is, however, referenced in the opening title sequence, in which a hand (presumably Eichmann's) is shown pushing pins into a map of Central Europe bearing the names of concentration camps and European cities on small flags. Shots showing train timetables are interspersed among these scenes. At the end of the opening title sequence, the camera pulls back to reveal the entire map, with red lines marking the railway routes to the camps.
- #004
The aircraft used to extract Eichmann in the film was a Bristol Type 175 Britannia. This is period-accurate for the El Al aircraft of the time.
- #005
The straight razor Peter uses to shave bears the word Solingen. Solingen is a town in Germany famous for producing high-quality swords, knives, scissors and razors. It is also the town where Adolf Eichmann was born.
- #006
Adolf Eichmann was 54 years old when he was captured in 1960. In the flashback scenes set when the Final Solution was decided (1942), Eichmann was 36 years old. During filming, Sir Ben Kingsley was 74 years old.
- #007
Sir Ben Kingsley has played three people who survived the Final Solution: Otto Frank in Anne Frank: The Whole Story (2001), Itzhak Stern in Schindler's List (1993) and Simon Wiesenthal in Murderers Among Us: The Simon Wiesenthal Story (1989).
- #008
A remake of the 1979 film The House on Garibaldi Street (1979).
- #009
Ironically, despite being captured by Israeli Mossad agents, Adolf Eichmann is the person who speaks the most Hebrew while reading the Shema in the film.
- #010
Michael Benjamin Hernandez (Dani Shalom) is Oscar Isaac's younger brother.
- #011
Sir Ben Kingsley plays the Nazi Adolf Eichmann. In Murderers Among Us: The Simon Wiesenthal Story (1989), he played the Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal. Although he is not named in the film, the real Wiesenthal played a part in Eichmann's capture. He passed on to the Israeli consulate in Vienna the claims that Eichmann had been seen in Buenos Aires. He later arranged for private detectives to photograph Adolf's brother Otto at their father's funeral, because no recently taken photograph of Adolf existed and Otto closely resembled his brother.
- #012
Mélanie Laurent appeared in Inglourious Basterds (2009) as a Jewish girl who flees from a Nazi officer searching for her and later plays a key role in taking revenge on the Nazis while hiding her true identity. Here she plays a Jewish girl who hunts a fugitive high-ranking Nazi officer and also conceals her identity.
- #013
The film's closing epilogue reads: "On June 1, 1962, Adolf Eichmann, found guilty of sending millions of people to their deaths, was hanged. He was cremated in an oven built for the occasion, and his ashes were scattered at sea so that he would have no final resting place. The trial was televised around the world. For the first time, the world saw the testimony of eyewitnesses to the Holocaust. Malkin kept the mission secret from his mother until she lay on her deathbed. 'I knew you wouldn't forget Fruma,' she said. Peter Malkin died in 2005, survived by his wife and children."
- #014
Eichmann had previously been played by Robert Duvall in The Man Who Captured Eichmann (1996); this was the second role shared by Duvall and Sir Ben Kingsley. They had previously both played Doctor Watson in The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (1976) and Without a Clue (1988).
- #015
The film's opening prologue reads: "Between 1939 and 1945, the Nazis murdered more than ten million of the state's 'enemies,' six million of them European Jews. At the end of the war, Hitler, Himmler and Goering escaped justice by taking their own lives. The rest of the brains behind the Holocaust were never brought to trial at Nuremberg. Ten years later, most of the world had stopped wondering what had become of the head of the SS 'Jewish Affairs Bureau'… Adolf Eichmann."
- #016
Oscar Isaac also appears in the Star Wars sequel trilogy. The role of Eichmann had previously been played by Milton Johns, a cast member of Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980), in War and Remembrance (1988). Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) also featured Bruce Boa, who appeared alongside Arliss Howard in Full Metal Jacket (1987) and played Malkin in The Man Who Captured Eichmann (1996).
- #017
At the 1 hour 35 minute mark, during the flashback to the trench shooting in the forest, when Eichmann has to wipe blood off his uniform, the soldier standing to Eichmann's left is holding an MP40 submachine gun. In slow motion the weapon is fired three times. Not a single spent casing is ejected. The ejection port cover is still closed. The muzzle flashes were clearly added in post-production, and no blanks were used.
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