The Revolutionary (1970) Timeline Explained – Every Event in Order

After being suspended from the university and dumped by his girlfriend Anne, A becomes convinced that the campus leftist organization is too tame. Despard, a working-class factory worker, offers A the opportunity to engage in more militant direct action through a general strike, which appeals to A's growing appetite for radical change. This transition marks A's shift from theoretical campus politics to real-world revolutionary organizing.

Foreshadowing: A's earlier complaints about the campus group being "too tame" foreshadow his gravitation toward Despard's more extreme methods.

• despard
• marxist group
• campus activism
• radicalization
• general strike

Despard refuses to mobilize his faction under direct orders from the Party, which has decided not to take decisive action at that moment. This decision leaves A feeling betrayed and abandoned, as he had thrown himself into the general strike plan believing it would force systemic change. The Party's caution contrasts sharply with A's growing urgency, pushing him further toward Leonard II's more violent approach.

Foreshadowing: The Party's earlier hesitation during the failed general strike hints at their cautious, bureaucratic approach to revolutionary action.

• despard
• party orders
• mobilization
• revolutionary movement
• betrayal

A deserts the army when his unit is mobilized to suppress a workers' strike, putting him in the impossible position of using military force against the very workers he seeks to help. This moment represents a definitive break from the state's apparatus, as A can no longer reconcile his revolutionary ideals with being a tool of state repression. The desertion forces him deeper underground and ultimately leads him to Leonard II.

Foreshadowing: A's earlier criticism of the state as repressive foreshadows his inability to serve that same state against the working class.

• desertion
• army
• draft
• workers strike
• military
• revolutionary ideals

Leonard II seeks vengeance for those who were jailed after the protest crackdown following the failed general strike. His plan involves both liberating a pawn shop and assassinating the judge overseeing the trial of the factory workers. Leonard II represents the path of violent vengeance that A is drawn toward after being abandoned by the mainstream revolutionary movement.

Foreshadowing: Leonard II's presence at the bar, introduced after A is left adrift, signals the emergence of a more dangerous and personal form of radicalism.

• leonard ii
• bombing
• vengeance
• jailed protesters
• judge assassination

A agrees to participate in the bomb operation partly from desperation for purposeful action after Despard's refusal to mobilize, and partly to prove his commitment to the revolutionary cause. His specific role is to detonate a second bomb if Leonard II's device fails, a grim contingency that forces him to contemplate killing innocents for political ends. The agreement represents A's complete moral descent into violence.

Foreshadowing: A's earlier willingness to throw himself into increasingly extreme activities foreshadows his acceptance of violent action.

• bomb
• detonator
• leonard ii
• revolutionary violence
• commitment

When Leonard II's bomb fails to explode at the critical moment, A is left holding the detonator for the second bomb, facing a life-or-death decision. He must choose between detonating the device and potentially causing mass casualties, or refusing and abandoning the mission. This moment forces A to confront the full moral weight of his radicalization and the consequences of his choices.

Foreshadowing: A's earlier role as a contingency plan for the bomb establishes him as the final arbiter of whether violence occurs.

• bomb malfunction
• detonator
• judge
• life or death decision
• moral choice

The general strike fails because the government cracks down on radicals, forcing participants underground and destroying the organizational capacity of the movement. A goes into hiding as authorities tighten surveillance on suspected radicals. The failure demonstrates the state's ability to suppress organized labor resistance and pushes A toward more desperate measures.

Foreshadowing: The earlier tension between Despard's militant approach and the Party's caution hints at the movement's vulnerability to suppression.

• general strike
• government crackdown
• labor movement
• failure
• underground

Anne ends her relationship with A because she cannot tolerate his obsessive focus on politics, which has consumed his life and pushed her away. The breakup, combined with his suspension from the university, represents a turning point that hardens A's resolve to prove himself through revolutionary action. The double rejection pushes him further toward extremism.

Foreshadowing: The breakup foreshadows A's complete abandonment of personal relationships in favor of radical political commitment.

• anne
• girlfriend breakup
• rejection
• political obsession
• turning point

Helen, a young bourgeois woman, provides A with sanctuary in a greenhouse as he hides from authorities following his desertion. Her willingness to shelter him creates an unlikely alliance that forces A to confront the gap between his radicalism and her privileged background. The greenhouse becomes a fragile refuge as the world tightens its grip around him.

Foreshadowing: A's movement from privileged student to hiding in a greenhouse with a bourgeois woman reflects his deepening entanglement with people outside his original world.

• helen
• greenhouse
• sanctuary
• bourgeois
• underground

The ending leaves A suspended at a moment of potential violence, holding a detonator and facing the judge, without a clear resolution. This ambiguous conclusion forces him to reckon with the full cost of his radicalization, whether he will actually detonate the bomb and become what he sought to fight against, or find another way out. The film suggests his choices have led him to an existential crossroads.

Foreshadowing: A's repeated failures and losses throughout the film build toward this final moment of reckoning where he must choose who he has become.

• ambiguous ending
• detonator
• judge
• consequences
• moral reckoning