A Prayer for the Dying

A former IRA hitman is asked to carry out one final murder. But when he realises that his heart is no longer in the job, it brings him into conflict with his superiors., On the run from his past, an ex-IRA assassin tries to leave the killing behind. A mob leader coerces him into killing one last time for a promise of freedom. The priest who accidentally witnesses the slaying is forced to keep silent when he confesses to him, but the mob leader orders the assassin to murder the priest. And the three lives intersect for one moment when the only commandment is…kill or be killed., A guilt-stricken ex-IRA gunman whose hit for a mobster is witnessed by a priest., Drama about a terrorist who has a crisis of conscience. A former IRA hit man is asked to carry out one final murder. But when he realises that his heart is no longer in the job, it brings him into conflict with his superiors. Based on the novel by Jack Higgins., A man struggling to escape the political unrest of Northern Ireland finds that his violent past still follows him in this drama. Martin Fallon (Mickey Rourke) is a terrorist with the Irish Republican Army who, while attempting to blow up a British military transport, accidentally bombs a bus full of schoolchildren. The incident haunts Fallon, who decides to quit the IRA and escape to London. Fallon wants to relocate to America, but he lacks a passport, and his criminal past would prevent him from getting one. Jack Meehan (Alan Bates), a British gangster who knows about Fallon’s past, offers him a deal — he can get Fallon the papers and the cash to go to America, but in return he must kill a man. A priest, Father De Costa (Bob Hoskins), witnesses Fallon committing the murder, and Fallon wants to find a way to keep De Costa quiet without putting more blood on his hands. The original director of A Prayer for the Dying, Franc Roddam, left the production midway through shooting due to disputes with the producers, and star Mickey Rourke later attempted to disassociate himself from the film.