Starring Edgar Ramí­rez. In English, French, German, Spanish, Arabic, and Russian with English subtitles. Rated 14A. Opens Friday, October 29, at the Cinemark Tinseltown

Although his body count is quite modest by contemporary standards, Ilich Ramí­rez Sánchez remains the world’s only celebrity terrorist. Nicknamed “the Jackal” after a copy of the Frederick Forsyth thriller The Day of the Jackal was supposedly found in his luggage in the wake of a bloody shootout with French police, the Venezuelan-born “Carlos” was the perfect Cold War villain. Known for blasting his way out of a Paris ambush and tossing a grenade into a crowded café, this Communist playboy began to be noticed. It was in 1975, however, that he really “made his bones”. First, he attacked the OPEC conference in Vienna, kidnapping a slew of the world’s oil ministers after causing three deaths. Then he flew his hostages to one Arab capital after another before allegedly receiving a whopping great ransom in return for their release. After that, his violent career continued for decades, but he was now a mysterious presence lurking in the shadows, not a high-profile triggerman. Finally, he was captured in Khartoum and imprisoned in France.

Indeed, sometimes it does seem as if Carlos sprang fully formed from Forsyth’s head.

French director Olivier Assayas was so taken by this story that he made not one but two films about the Jackal’s life. The first was a 330-minute epic that was originally meant to be shown in three parts or on TV. The second is a 160-minute condensation of same in which events occur in a more linear manner.

Happily, this distillation in no way results in a diminution of Carlos’s on-screen power. As we travel from country to country, from attack to attack, we rediscover an underworld that has only recently vanished. The pace is superfast, and star Edgar Ramí­rez turns in an intense performance.

Quite simply, biopics don’t get any better than this.