History Film / TheWildGeese

-->'''Matheson''': "Wait a min__ ''(KilledMidSentence)''

* CoupDeGrace: When the guard in Limbani's cell realises someone has come to break out his prisoner, he turns and fires a bullet at Limbani's head. Fortunately the shot misses.

** Flynn forces a drug dealer to eat his own heroin...laced with strychnine. He predicts it might take 20 minutes to kill him.

-->"Oh no no no... that was my job."

* CoolGuns:
** The film features many different versions of FN FAL rifles. Of particular note is [[http://www.imfdb.org/wiki/Wild_Geese,_The#Custom_L1A1_Battle_Carbine a custom FAL carbine]] with a shortened barrel, a reflex sight and an extended magazine, which was built in an armory in the UK specifically for the film.
** The mercenaries use a Vickers water-cooled machine gun in their final confrontation with the Simbas towards the end of the film.

* MyCarHatesMe: A truck breaks down in the middle of the bridge, leaving them vulnerable to an attacking aircraft. [[ManOnFire Armed with napalm.]]

* BaitAndSwitchGunshot: Haddad is walking through the forest with Kathy while a man with a scoped rifle takes aim...and shoots a boar. This CatScare [[GladToBeAliveSex gives a plot excuse]] for the subsequent CoitusEnsues moment.

* KillEmAll: The 200 guards at the prison camp, with cyanide gas.

->''"There's a clause in all my contracts, that my liver is to be buried separately, and with honours."''
-->-- '''Allen Faulkner'''

* LargeHam: Creator/PatrickStewart's cameo as a boisterous Soviet general is a surprise to those used to him as the staid [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Captain Picard]] and that was before his later two equally boisterous roles as [[WesternAnimation/ThePagemaster Adventure]] and [[WesternAnimation/JimmyNeutronBoyGenius King Goobot V]]. Unlike those later roles however, Stewart himself regarded the scene as his [[OldShame most embarrassing role]].

Allen Faulkner (Creator/RichardBurton) is a retired British Army colonel now making his trade as a mercenary. He is recruited by the magnate Sir Edward Matheson (Stewart Granger) to lead an operation into the fictional African nation of Zembala to rescue President Julius Limbani (Winston Ntshona), a good leader - all too rare in postcolonial Africa - who has been overthrown by a military coup d'etat. Limbani is still highly regarded by the people of Zembala and Matheson aims to use the threat of his return as a bargaining chip to negotiate favourable mining contracts with the new regime. Chief of the minerals is copper, the taste of blood...

* MohsScaleOfViolenceHardness: It scores a 7.

* FairForItsDay: The medic Witty is a walking stereotype of CampGay and his character would be cringeworthy for most viewers today. On the other hand Witty is portrayed as brave and devoted to his comrades, and is fully accepted by them in turn. Neither of which one would expect from a masculine action movie of the '70s.

* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: [[spoiler:Reed-Henry shoots RSM Murphy after the operation is over and in particular [[AvengingTheVillain to presumably avenge Hourigan's death whom Murphy killed]].]]

* HeKnowsTooMuch: Hess is suggested to be still in prison because he knows scandalous political secrets that could shake the modern world, though it's a bit vague what they are. Whether for this or just on principle because he's a former top Nazi, the DirtyCommunists would rather have him dead.

** The film features many different versions of FN FAL rifles. Of particular note is [[http://www.imfdb.org/wiki/Wild_Geese,_The#Custom_L1A1_Battle_Carbine a custom FAL carbine]] with a shortened barrel, a reflex sight and an extended magazine, which was built an armory in the UK specifically for the film.

* YouShallNotPass: Witty fends off the Simbas with an Uzi and a knife so Faulkner and others can escape. His FamousLastWords have plenty of HomoeroticSubtext.