Mordi e fuggi (1973)

Fabrizio, Raul, and Sylva, a gang of anarchists, rob a bank and kill a police officer as they flee. Intercepted by a police patrol, they stop at a gas station and take Giulio hostage—an associate in a pharmaceutical company headed by his father-in-law—and Danda, his young lover, who are on their way to the seaside to spend the weekend together. Thus begins a long-distance pursuit from Lazio to Tuscany, joined by cars belonging to journalists and television crews, as well as a few advertising vehicles, alongside those of the police and the Carabinieri. The fugitives make their demands for releasing the hostages known: one hundred million lire and an aircraft at a small airport. While Giulio’s family, investigators, and politicians discuss what strategies to adopt, the fugitives continue their flight, trying to shake off their pursuers. After spending the night at the villa of an elderly retired general, during which the kidnappers and hostages reveal their different characters, they set off for a meeting at an airfield to receive the ransom and the plane. The police, however, have laid an ambush, and the escape ends in tragedy.