Marathon Man (1976)

The film was directed by John Schlesinger, adapting the novel by William Goldman. Schlesinger's intense direction earned the film a reputation as a masterclass in 1970s paranoid thriller cinema.

The movie stars Dustin Hoffman as "Babe" Levy, a graduate student who becomes entangled in a deadly conspiracy. The film also features legendary actors Laurence Olivier and Roy Scheider in pivotal roles.

The film is notorious for its intense, terrifying torture sequence where the Nazi war criminal Dr. Christian Szell uses a dentist drill on Hoffman's character. The scene gave audiences a lasting phobia of dentistry.

"Is it safe?" is the repeated, iconic line spoken by Laurence Olivier's character while torturing Dustin Hoffman. He is frantically trying to find out if it is safe for him to retrieve his hidden stash of diamonds from a bank vault.