YMMV / Magnum Force

• Alternate Character Interpretation: After Davis murders McCoy in the parking garage, a close up of his face (The Reveal that he is the killer) when he is taking control of the crowd who heard the shots suggests he really enjoyed being the center of attention that came with being the first on the scene. In other words, are he and the death squad really just the ruthless Knight Templar extremists they make themselves out to be, or is their motivation even more selfish and egotistical- plain old narcissism? Or was Davis putting on a brave, happy face for the crowd and wiping his brow indicates he regrets the idea of I Did What I Had to Do?
• Awesome Music: The title theme by Lalo Schifrin, which was remixed into Team Fortress 2's "Meet the Sniper" video soundtrack and was also used in the opening credits of Copshop.
• Catharsis Factor: After the sadistic pimp murders a prostitute by force-feeding her drain cleaner, it's quite satisfying to see him shot dead by one of the killer cops.
• Fridge Logic: Smith gets killed when he ignores the ringing phone (Callahan calling him to warn about the bomb) in favour of opening his mailbox. Wouldn't he go to answer the phone first, given that his mail can wait?
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • The pimp kills one of his prostitutes in a taxicab with a bottle of drain cleaner. Reportedly, the men who committed the infamous Hi-Fi murders in Ogden, Utah in 1974 had watched this scene numerous times, although when they actually tried it all they managed to do was cause an allergic reaction in their victims. They had to resort to shooting the victims.
  • The scenes where people are shot in their cars, but the one at the beginning is especially this after the shooting of Philando Castille, in pretty much the same circumstances, such as presenting a driver's license to a cop.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Hal Holbrook, David Soul and Tim Matheson, who plays the film's antagonists, would later have leading roles in Stephen King horror screen adaptations. Holbrook would appear in the King-penned anthology film Creepshow in the segment "The Crate" (where Holbrook notably uses a .44 Magnum, Dirty Harry's personal weapon of choice where Holbrook's character ironically said to Harry he disliked looking down one of those in this film, in an Imagine Spot), Soul would appear in the 'Salem's Lot miniseries in 1979 and Matheson would appear in Sometimes They Come Back.
  • Later viewers may wonder what Ken Hutchinson is doing in a vigilante cop squad. David Soul played both characters, but Hutch and Davis could not be more different, and Soul's performance here helped him land the role in Starsky & Hutch.
  • Hal Holbrook and Tim Matheson would later appear in Fletch films, both of them playing villains just like their roles in this film (Matheson in the first film would be armed with a .357 Magnum just like his character in this film and also get disposed of by his own partner-in-crime just like Matheson's character getting sacrificed by his accomplices in the Palancio hit in this film, while Holbrook would not be revealed to be the actual villain until the climax of the second film, just like how his character Briggs would not reveal his deception until this movie's climax).
  • This film's cast members Hal Holbrook and Mitchell Ryan would both later go work on John Carpenter horror movies. Holbrook would portray Father Malone in The Fog (1980), while Ryan would be The Other Darrin as Dr. Terence Wynn in Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers.
• I Am Not Shazam: At no point are the vigilante cops referred to as the "Magnum Force".
• Moral Event Horizon: The vigilante cops cross it when they begin murdering innocent women hanging out with the criminals and Charlie McCoy.
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • Robert Urich makes his film debut as Officer Mike Grimes.
  • Suzanne Somers makes an uncredited appearance as one of the victims in the pool scene early in the film.
  • An uncredited Carl Weathers can be seen briefly as one of the demonstrators protesting the Ricca verdict in front of the court house in the beginning of the movie.
  • David Soul, who plays Officer Davis here, would later become more known for playing another Californian cop.
• Special Effect Failure: When Davis goes after the mob boss in the skyscraper in the middle of his three way, the girl quite clearly turns into a mannequin (or possibly a blowup doll) when she falls off the balcony.
• Strawman Has a Point: Defied. John Milius suspected the audience could sympathize with the vigilante cops for doing away with some genuinely deserving scumbags, so he threw in a few scenes of them murdering collateral victims to keep that from happening. In the Ricca killing, the vigilante cop executes not just Ricca, but also his driver, his bodyguard and his attorney. The pool party massacre had a lot of collateral victims, many of whom probably had nothing to do with the organizer of the event. Davis' shooting of the pimp is probably one where you can sympathize for a few moments (because that man clearly deserved all six rounds after what he did to that prostitute). But in the Guzman killing, Davis not only shoots Guzman, but he also shoots two hangers-on who were in the room with Guzman at the time, and in the getaway also ends up shooting fellow officer Charlie McCoy.
• Tear Jerker: Charlie McCoy's death, as before he was at his wits end that includes getting divorced by his wife and losing custody of their children who are shown to be sweet tykes that he raised when Harry visits his former home to meet with his ex-wife. He did not deserve getting killed like that. Worse that he was one of Harry's Only Friends amongst the few aside from his work partners who also most if not all die when on duty with the former. Despite their strained relationship and estrangement, even his family whom he left behind were devastated by his death in contrast to his ex confiding to Harry she stopped caring about Charlie prior to then. Also, see The Woobie below for more information.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Some can feel this way for Charlie McCoy, as he was established as one of Harry's few friends, a fellow ex-marine (presumably during the Korean War much like his and Harry's actors) and was developed with the help of his actor Mitchell Ryan's spirited performance as a frustrated Tragic Hero who was despondent and suicidal at being helpless trying to administer proper justice because of the "snot-nosed bastards at the D.A.'s office" as he put it when confiding to Harry and was divorced because of his behavior as from what the audience see that Charlie was said to be a loving father of a bundle of sweet little children whom he would visit during his divorce. Besides that, his wife, who's indifferent and not understanding towards his suffering, even tries to seduce his Only Friend Harry (who unlike Charlie is a widower who never got the chance to raise a family) much to the latter's discomfort. It would be more interesting if he was a Supporting Protagonist, Harry's sidekick besides his assigned partner Early Smith and a Foil for Harry at their handlings of their passionate determination to bring in proper justice for the audience to showcase more of his character depths and witness his personal struggles that including his flat refusal to retire in spite of Harry's advice to do so during their only encounter in the film to understand him more throughout the film's narrative, rather than serving just as a Red Herring for the vigilante killings and later getting shot for being at the wrong place at the wrong time, which can be considered a sad end to a long-suffering person like Charlie.
• Values Dissonance: Charlie McCoy's rant about how cops are unfairly scrutinized any time they employ lethal force strikes as much less sympathetic in the 2000s considering multiple killings perpetrated by police which were ruled as unlawful have massively increased criticism of police tactics across the United States.
• Values Resonance: After the massive increased scrutiny into police brutality, this film has easily aged the most gracefully of the series, with its villains being other cops who take Harry's MO up to eleven and show how bad such a mentality really is for people who are supposed to protect and serve.
• The Woobie: Charlie McCoy, Harry's best friend and a veteran beat cop who was undergoing a mental breakdown following his frustrations with the flawed justice system, had Attempted Suicide, was divorced by his wife who not only gains full custody of their children, but who's indifferent to his suffering while writing him off as a burden to her and tried to cheat on him with his friend Harry much to the latter's discomfort, was a Red Herring in the eyes of his friend as a suspect in the vigilante killings because of his behavior within his presence and finally getting killed just because he was at the wrong place at the wrong time for his assailant wanting to Leave No Witnesses, smiling just before at seeing what he thinks is his fellow traffic cop here to assist him.

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