The Killer Elite is a 1975 American action thriller film directed by Sam Peckinpah and written by Marc Norman and Stirling Silliphant, adapted from the Robert Syd Hopkins novel Monkey in the Middle. It stars James Caan and Robert Duvall as a pair of elite mercenaries who become bitter rivals and are caught on opposite sides of a proxy war over a foreign dignitary in the streets of San Francisco. The cast also stars Mako, Arthur Hill, Bo Hopkins, Burt Young and Gig Young. Tom Clancy and Tiana Alexandra appear in their film debuts. The film represents the last collaboration between Peckinpah and soundtrack composer Jerry Fielding. It is considered to be among the first American films to feature ninjas. The film received mixed reviews, with some critics perceiving Peckinpah as having "sold out" to commercial interests, while others criticized the film's use of martial arts tropes and imagery as contrived. Others, such as Pauline Kael, praised Peckinpah's direction and action sequences, and commended the film as a self-aware satire. Plot Mike Locken and George Hansen are longtime friends and professional partners, agents of Communications Integrity (ComTeg), a private intelligence agency that handles covert assignments for the CIA. At the end of their latest assignment, Hansen betrays Locken by killing their client and shooting Locken in the knee and elbow, effectively "retiring" him. After months of painful rehabilitation, Locken wears metal braces, but is able to walk with a cane. Upon being released from the hospital, Locken moves in with his nurse, Amy, to continue his therapy. As months pass, Locken undergoes serious martial-arts training with a cane, becoming adept with it while vowing revenge against Hansen for his betrayal. ComTeg director Cap Collis refuses to put Locken back into the field again, assuming that he is only fit for a desk job. O’Leary, a CIA agent, hires ComTeg to protect Yuen Chung, a Taiwanese politician who arrived in the United States with a delegation that includes his daughter, Tommie. Chung has been targeted for assassination, and Hansen has been hired to carry out the assignment. Locken assembles his old team, including driver Mac and marksman Jerome Miller, but they do not know that Collis is in collaboration with Hansen, hoping to unseat current ComTeg director Lawrence Weybourne. Collis has hired two separate hit squads, one led by Hansen and one led by ninja Negato Toku, to eliminate Chung after