Avalanche Express is a 1979 adventure thriller film starring Lee Marvin, Robert Shaw, Maximilian Schell and Linda Evans, and produced and directed by Mark Robson. The plot is about the struggle over a defecting Soviet general. The screenplay by Abraham Polonsky was based on a 1977 novel by Colin Forbes. It was the last film for Shaw and Robson, who both died during production in 1978.

Soviet General Marenkov (Robert Shaw) decides to defect to the West. He is in charge of Operation Winter Harvest, a plot to poison crops in the West. CIA agent Harry Wargrave (Lee Marvin) leads the extraction team. Marenkov meets the team in Milan at La Scala where a rehearsal of Nabucco is underway.

Wargrave's team hustles Marenkov onto the Atlantic Express train to travel across Europe. During the extraction, Wargrave is killed, but his death is a ruse. He reappears on the train's crew, and he is using Marenkov as bait to lure Soviet agents out of hiding. Wargrave knows they will attack the train and expose their identities.

KGB spy-catcher Nikolai Bunin (Maximilian Schell) leads the Soviet agents who try several ways of stopping Marenkov's defection. They trigger an avalanche. Wargrave blows up the gangway connection between the front and the back of the train, which allows the lead cars to escape to the safety of a tunnel. At another point, the train is hijacked, but the attempt is foiled. The film ends with Marenkov safely on board a jet headed for his debriefing in the West.

The film was based on a novel by Colin Forbes which was published in 1977. The Guardian called it an "irresistible adventure yarn." The Evening Telegraph praised it as an "extremely satisfying modern adventure story... told in razor sharp style."

In June 1977 it was announced film rights had been purchased by Lorimar Films, the filmmaking arm of Lorimar Productions, best known for its work in television. Mark Robson, who had just produced and directed the hugely-successful disaster film Earthquake and had made another successful train set movie (Von Ryan's Express), signed to produce and direct. Jerry Gershwin was the Lorimar executive originally responsible.

Abraham Polonsky wrote the script. Robson called the novel "rather sprawly for film" and "very difficult to synthesize into a motion picture. What Abe brought to it was unity. He has given the characters better motivations which means the total work is better motivated." Robson added the film "does make a political statement in a way... The movie will really come out for those who want to live in peace and co operation."

Shooting started in Munich on 27 February 1978 and also took place in Milan and Venice. Filming was physically tough, complicated by increased security caused by terrorism in Europe, and Robson's deteriorating health. The movie had been filming for 65 days in Europe, with ten to go, when Robson fell ill. He was flown to a hospital in London where he later died of a heart attack on 20 June 1978. He was 64 years old. "He sure went with his boots on," said Marvin. Mike Connors said Robson's death "was not unexpected. We could see him go downhill from day to day. The lack of communication on a European picture is terribly exhausting."