US Ambassador Robert Thorn (Gregory Peck) is persuaded to substitute a newborn baby whose mother has died in childbirth for his own stillborn son. By the age of five the child, Damien, seems to be exerting a malevolent influence on the Thorn household, suffering a violent fit when he is taken to church and causing his nanny to hang herself. Thorn searches for an answer to his son's behaviour and meets maverick priest Father Brennan (Patrick Troughton), who tries to convince him that Damien is in fact the Antichrist and must be stopped at all costs. The Ambassador at first dismisses this as the crazy rantings of a religious maniac, but subsequent events suggest that maybe the priest had a point.

US Ambassador Robert Thorn (Gregory Peck) is persuaded to substitute a newborn baby whose mother has died in childbirth for his own stillborn son. By the age of five the child, Damien, seems to be exerting a malevolent influence on the Thorn household, suffering a violent fit when he is taken to church and causing his nanny to hang herself. Thorn searches for an answer to his son's behaviour and meets maverick priest Father Brennan (Patrick Troughton), who tries to convince him that Damien is in fact the Antichrist and must be stopped at all costs. The Ambassador at first dismisses this as the crazy rantings of a religious maniac, but subsequent events suggest that maybe the priest had a point.

Upon leaving jail, petty criminal Charlie Croker (Michael Caine) inherits a carefully planned $4,000,000 gold robbery in Italy. With the original mastermind of the plan murdered, Croker needs financial backing and finds it in Mr Bridger (Noel Coward in his last screen role), a quintessential English crime boss still incarcerated by Her Majesty's Prison Service. Bridger supplies Charlie with his own gang of bank robbers, getaway drivers and computer whizz-kids, and helps him plan the heist (during the practice runs Caine utters the infamous phrase 'you were only supposed to blow the bloody doors off'), which results in the world's biggest traffic jam. The gang's getaway in red, white and blue minis is accompanied by the tune 'Getta Bloomin Move On' (aka 'Self Preservation Society') written by Quincy Jones and George Martin.