Only Patrick Hale can prevent a desperate president, the head of the CIA, a trigger happy general, terrorists, an arms dealer, and religious fanatics from destroying our world, But he has other things on his mind.

If it doesn't happen on TV, it means nothing!
A very funny look at the world.
In a moment World War III... but first a word from our sponsor.

Patrick Hale was invented for television. He's a superstar TV reporter whose special news broadcasts reach a billion people every day. And in the past ten hours, he has uncovered the most incredible story of his career. The bad news is: it involves the President, Vice-President, Director of the CIA, a trigger-happy general, an Arab terrorist, a European arms dealer, religious fanatics, and the result may be World War III. The good news is: his ratings are going through the roof.


Based on Charles McCarry's 1979 novel The Better Angels, Wrong is Right is set in a near future in which violence has become something of a national sport and television news has fallen to tabloid depths (a significantly bigger stretch in 1982, when the film was released.) Star Sean Connery plays Patrick Hale, a globe-trotting reporter with access to a staggering array of world leaders. As the film opens, he has ventured to the Arab country of Hegreb to interview his old acquaintance, King Ibn Awad (Ron Moody). Awad has learned that the President of the United States (George Grizzard) may have issued orders for his removal; as a result, Awad is apparently making arrangements to deliver two mini-nuclear devices -- each about the size of a small suitcase -- to a terrorist, with the intention of detonating them in Israel and the United States, unless the President resigns. In the intricate plot that unfolds, nothing is quite the way it seems, and Hale finds himself caught between political leaders, revolutionaries, CIA agents and other figures, trying to get to the bottom of it all.

Wrong Is Right is a 1982 thriller film directed by Richard Brooks from his own script based on Charles McCarry's novel The Better Angels. The film, starring Sean Connery as TV news reporter Patrick Hale, is about the theft of two suitcase nukes, and deals with media bias, reality television, government conspiracy, and Islamic terrorism.

In the near future, violence has become something of a national sport and television news has fallen to tabloid depths. Patrick Hale (Sean Connery), a globe-trotting reporter with access to a staggering array of world leaders, has ventured to the Arab country of Hegreb to interview his old acquaintance, King Ibn Awad (Ron Moody).

Awad has learned that the President of the United States (George Grizzard) may have issued orders for his removal; as a result, Awad is apparently making arrangements to deliver two suitcase nukes to a terrorist, with the intention of detonating them in Israel and the United States, unless the President resigns.

In the intricate plot that unfolds, nothing is quite the way it seems, and Hale finds himself caught between political leaders, revolutionaries, CIA agents and other figures, trying to get to the bottom of it all.

any reviews found the plot implausible. British reviews castigated the film for its distributor's attempt to tie it in with James Bond in its advertising scheme and retitling of the film, The Man with the Deadly Lens. In France, where the film was called Meurtres en direct, it was compared negatively to Bertrand Tavernier's La Mort en direct, as did Stanley Kauffmann of The New Republic.

The New York Daily News emerged as a champion for the film, Liz Smith calling it "a sleeper not to miss" prior to its release, and Rex Reed and Kathleen Carroll giving it four and three-and-a-half star reviews published a day apart.


Release Date: April 12, 1982


Distrib: Columbia Pictures


Boxoffice: $3,583,513 2014: $9,702,300