A Prayer for the Dying

A Prayer for the Dying is a 1987 thriller film about a former IRA member trying to escape his past. The film was directed by Mike Hodges, and stars Mickey Rourke, Liam Neeson, Bob Hoskins, and Alan Bates. The film is based on the 1973 Jack Higgins novel of the same name. Plot The film begins with an IRA team, including Martin Fallon (Mickey Rourke) and Liam Docherty (Liam Neeson), watching as two British Army Land Rovers approach a roadside bomb they have set for them. At the last minute, a school bus overtakes the army vehicles and detonates the bomb, killing the children. The team scamper away, and Fallon travels to London to escape the past and decides never to kill anyone again. In London, he is approached by a contact to take on one last killing contract on behalf of local gangster cum funeral director Jack Meehan (Alan Bates) and his brother Billy Meehan (Christopher Fulford), to eliminate another gangster, in return for money, a passport and passage to the USA. Initially reluctant, he nonetheless takes on the job and kills the target, but is seen by the local Catholic priest, Father Michael Da Costa (Bob Hoskins). Jack learns there is a witness to the killing. Fallon visits the church and confesses to Fr Michael in a bid to ensure his silence; he also meets his blind niece Anna (Sammi Davis), who lives at the church along with her uncle, who starts to fall in love with him. Meehan, however, insists that Fallon must kill the priest too and tells Fallon he will not be paid until the loose end is tied up. Fallon now finds himself targeted by the cops, the Meehans and the IRA, who now see him as a risk, and send Docherty and another member, Siobhan Donovan (Alison Doody), to London to persuade him to return to Ireland failing which Fallon should be killed. Fallon refuses to return, but Docherty hesitates to kill Fallon at the last moment. Billy Meehan eventually decides to take matters in his own hands and goes to the church looking for Fallon, but Anna kills him in a struggle when he attacks her in the church house. Fallon disposes Billy's corpse in Jack's own crematorium. Siobhan kills Docherty at the behest of the IRA. Jack tries to trick and get Fallon killed aboard a boat he is assured would be taking him to the US, but he sees through and just throws everyone off the boat, having decided not to kill anyone.