Le Cercle rouge

In Marseille, a prisoner named Corey is released early for good behavior. Shortly before he leaves, a prison warden tips him off about a prestigious jewelry shop that he could rob in Paris. Corey goes to the house of Rico, a former associate who has let him down and with whom his former girlfriend now lives, and forcefully removes money and a handgun from Rico's safe. Then he goes to a billiard hall, where two of Rico's men find him. After killing one, knocking the other out and taking his gun, Corey buys a large American car and, hiding both handguns in the boot, starts for Paris. On the same morning, another prisoner, Vogel, who was being taken on a train from Marseille to Paris for interrogation by the well-respected Commissaire Mattei, manages to escape in open country. Corey, who has understood what this huge police activity is about, stops at a roadside grill in the epicentre of the manhunt, leaving his car boot unlocked. Vogel crosses a stream to send dogs off his scent, reaches the grill, and hides in the boot of Corey's car. Corey takes Vogel to his long vacant flat in Paris where they start to plan the robbery. For this they need a marksman to disable the security system by a single rifle shot and a fence to buy the goods. They recruit Jansen, an alcoholic ex-policeman and a crack shot, together with a fence. They successfully rob the jewelry shop, but the fence refuses to take the goods. Overcoming their disappointment, Jansen and Vogel suggest that Corey ask Santi to recommend a new fence. Corey does so, taking Jansen as backup and leaving Vogel at his apartment, who has been given the red rose that Corey had received from the flower girl at Santi's. After Corey arrives at the country house and starts showing the jewels to Mattei, Vogel appears suddenly, presumably acting on his suspicion that Corey was not safe with this new fence, and upon seeing Mattei tells Corey to run with the loot. After a brief, tense confrontation with Mattei, Vogel follows Corey. Jansen, alerted by the gunshots in the mansion's park now filled with police, arrives to stop the pursuers. One after the other, the three men are shot dead by Mattei's officers, who recover the jewels.