Year of the Gun

In 1978, David Raybourne lives in Rome as an American novelist and journalist for a small English-language newspaper. He is romantically involved with Lia, the estranged wife of an Italian industrialist, and is befriended by Italo Bianchi, a left-leaning university lecturer. The political mood around him is tense, setting the stage for the Red Brigades' actions.

The film situates Raybourne amid student protests and political violence as the Red Brigades begin their dangerous campaign. The atmosphere thickens in northern Italy, foreshadowing the Moro kidnapping and murder. Personal relationships around him become entangled in the politics of the era.

To raise money and marry Lia in a lifestyle she desires, Raybourne researches the Red Brigades and drafts a realistic but fictional plot about a political kidnapping. He plans to monetize the material as a sensational novel. The project drags him deeper into the real-world danger surrounding the group.

Raybourne meets Alison King, a beautiful photojournalist hungry for a scoop. She is introduced to Bianchi by Raybourne and quickly grows convinced that he knows more than he admits. Their flirtation becomes entangled with the politics around them.

Alison uncovers Raybourne's draft and brings it to Bianchi's attention. Bianchi secretly forwards the manuscript to a Red Brigades contact, who sees it as a potential leak of their plans. The Brigades begin to suspect that someone is watching them and acting on their plot.

The Brigades' leadership deduces that their kidnap plans may have leaked and decide to monitor Raybourne. As they tighten their gaze, the writer realizes he has become a target of the very organization he hopes to research for a novel. The tension between art, journalism, and politics tightens around him.

Raybourne's boss, Pierre Bernier, is shot dead at the newspaper office, a strike that confirms the danger closing in on him. Raybourne arrives moments later and understands that the Brigades are hunting him now. The fear of being exposed and silenced becomes personal.

Raybourne and Alison attempt to flee with Lia's help, racing through the streets as they dodge surveillance and retaliation. The plan falters when the network around Lia reveals its true loyalties. The trio's escape becomes a perilous chase.

A chase reveals that Lia is more deeply embedded with the Red Brigades than initially thought. Raybourne and Alison are captured again, their sense of safety crushed. The conspiracy surrounding the draft has now become a life-and-death struggle at the center of the political violence.

Raybourne, Alison, and Lia are detained while the Red Brigades carry out the kidnapping of Aldo Moro. The operation unfolds around them as they are kept in confinement. The real-world event underscoring their crisis raises the stakes of their personal story.

After the kidnapping succeeds, the Brigades' leadership accuses Lia of leaking information and shoots her in front of Raybourne and Alison. The brutal act signals the harsh discipline of the organization and the peril of betrayal. Raybourne and Alison are forced to witness the execution.

Alison is compelled to photograph Lia's body, and Raybourne is ordered to publish the story as a warning to future traitors. He later appears on American television to discuss the now-nonfiction book about the Red Brigades and his contact with them. A closing postscript notes that Moro was found shot to death in the trunk of a car nearly two months after his kidnapping.