Code Name: Wild Geese
Encyclopedia
Code Name: Wild Geese is a 1984 Italian
"macaroni combat
" war film
directed by Antonio Margheriti
and starring Lewis Collins
.
, DEA
man Fletcher (Borgnine
) heads up an operation to cut off the supply of opium
to the west; to fund this operation Fletcher has found himself allied with wealthy American
businessman Brenner.
Brenner and his partner, ex-mercenary Charlton, employ Robin Wesley, a father who's still grieving over his dead heroin addict son, to destroy opium factories in the Golden Triangle
. Wesley's team consists of other mercenaries from around the world, some who have been on the wrong side of the law (China and Klein).
As the team enters the Golden Triangle by boat, while Fletcher, Brenner and Charlton remain in Hong Kong waiting on every piece of news transmitted from their base. After travelling a distance down river, the team disembark for a march through the jungle, where they meet up with Kim and his guerrilla fighters. Kim and his men guide Wesley's team through the jungle to a remote base located in a quarry, one of Kim's men and Klein eliminate a sentry in a watch tower each. As Wesley, China, Klein, Stone and Kim and his men prepare to descend the steep incline into the quarry, Arbib and Kowalski rig a rope slide across the top of the quarry. Kowalski firstly slides over the communications hut before dropping through the bamboo roof, killing one soldier and capturing the other even though he's been impaled through his upper left arm by a foot long piece of bamboo. Then Arbib drops into the sleeping quarters hut, there he's forced to kill all the occupants who are awakened and try to attack him. The rest of the commandos descend the steep quarry sides and shoot any enemy that escape Kowalski and Arbib, except for China who secures the bases lone helicopter and readies it for flight. With the base secured, Kim removes the bamboo splinter from Kowalski's arm and bandages it while Wesley uses the base's radio to inform his own base that they have captured the helicopter intact. Leaving Kowalski with two of Kim's men to guard the base and its radio, the rest join China aboard the helicopter before China takes off and heads deeper into the triangle.
While Brenner and Charlton are enjoying a round of golf, Fletcher interrupts them to let them know that Wesley had neutralized the quarry base and captured the helicopter. As China pilots the helicopter towards the opium manufacturing depot, the depot radios the quarry to see if the radar contact they have is the quarry's helicopter. The lone survivor at the quarry confirms it is and is just on a routine trip, under the watchful eye and gun of Kowalski. Satisfied, the depot allows the helicopter to land and the commandos shoot their way out of the helicopter, killing all the enemy soldiers that stray into their sight. As Wesley, Arbib and Stone destroy heroin laboratories with C4
, Klein blows the opium container silos with grenades and C4. While the destruction is happening, Stone is unfortunately wounded and Klein and Chine race to help him and Kim and his men locate prisoners and free them. All return to their homes except for a North American
woman who behaves in a bizarre manner. China intervenes when he misjudges Kim to be attacking the woman, only for Arbib to point out that the woman is a heroin addict with puncture marks on her forearm. Wesley enters an office and rifles through a safe, when he finds a computer disk, which he loads on a nearby computer and browses its contents.
The story follows the much the same as The Wild Geese
; as the survivors get fewer and fewer, it is left to Wesley to act out his revenge.
Cinema of Italy
The history of Italian cinema began just a few months after the Lumière brothers had patented their Cinematographe, when Pope Leo XIII was filmed for a few seconds in the act of blessing the camera.-Early years:...
"macaroni combat
Euro War
Macaroni Combat, also known as Macaroni War or Euro War films, is a nickname for a broad sub-genre of war film that emerged in the mid-1960s, so named because most were produced and directed by European co-productions notably Italians....
" war film
War film
War films are a film genre concerned with warfare, usually about naval, air or land battles, sometimes focusing instead on prisoners of war, covert operations, military training or other related subjects. At times war films focus on daily military or civilian life in wartime without depicting battles...
directed by Antonio Margheriti
Antonio Margheriti
Antonio Margheriti , also known under the pseudonym Anthony M. Dawson, was a prolific Italian filmmaker. He was born in Rome and died in 2002 from a heart attack in Monterosi, Viterbo, near Rome at the age of 72....
and starring Lewis Collins
Lewis Collins
Lewis Collins is an English actor best known for his tough-guy role as Bodie in The Professionals. He was educated at Bidston Primary and Grange School in Birkenhead. He started out as a ladies' hairdresser before playing drums and guitar in pop groups. He had a number of other jobs before...
.
Plot
In Hong KongHong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
, DEA
DEA
DEA is the commonly used acronym for the Drug Enforcement Administration, a United States law enforcement agency.DEA or Dea may also refer to:- Organizations :* DEA , UK development education charity...
man Fletcher (Borgnine
Ernest Borgnine
Ernest Borgnine is an American actor of television and film. His career has spanned more than six decades. He was an unconventional lead in many films of the 1950s, including his Academy Award-winning turn in the 1955 film Marty...
) heads up an operation to cut off the supply of opium
Opium
Opium is the dried latex obtained from the opium poppy . Opium contains up to 12% morphine, an alkaloid, which is frequently processed chemically to produce heroin for the illegal drug trade. The latex also includes codeine and non-narcotic alkaloids such as papaverine, thebaine and noscapine...
to the west; to fund this operation Fletcher has found himself allied with wealthy American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
businessman Brenner.
Brenner and his partner, ex-mercenary Charlton, employ Robin Wesley, a father who's still grieving over his dead heroin addict son, to destroy opium factories in the Golden Triangle
Golden Triangle (Southeast Asia)
The Golden Triangle is one of Asia's two main illicit opium-producing areas. It is an area of around that overlaps the mountains of four countries of Southeast Asia: Burma, Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand. Along with Afghanistan in the Golden Crescent and Pakistan, it has been one of the most...
. Wesley's team consists of other mercenaries from around the world, some who have been on the wrong side of the law (China and Klein).
As the team enters the Golden Triangle by boat, while Fletcher, Brenner and Charlton remain in Hong Kong waiting on every piece of news transmitted from their base. After travelling a distance down river, the team disembark for a march through the jungle, where they meet up with Kim and his guerrilla fighters. Kim and his men guide Wesley's team through the jungle to a remote base located in a quarry, one of Kim's men and Klein eliminate a sentry in a watch tower each. As Wesley, China, Klein, Stone and Kim and his men prepare to descend the steep incline into the quarry, Arbib and Kowalski rig a rope slide across the top of the quarry. Kowalski firstly slides over the communications hut before dropping through the bamboo roof, killing one soldier and capturing the other even though he's been impaled through his upper left arm by a foot long piece of bamboo. Then Arbib drops into the sleeping quarters hut, there he's forced to kill all the occupants who are awakened and try to attack him. The rest of the commandos descend the steep quarry sides and shoot any enemy that escape Kowalski and Arbib, except for China who secures the bases lone helicopter and readies it for flight. With the base secured, Kim removes the bamboo splinter from Kowalski's arm and bandages it while Wesley uses the base's radio to inform his own base that they have captured the helicopter intact. Leaving Kowalski with two of Kim's men to guard the base and its radio, the rest join China aboard the helicopter before China takes off and heads deeper into the triangle.
While Brenner and Charlton are enjoying a round of golf, Fletcher interrupts them to let them know that Wesley had neutralized the quarry base and captured the helicopter. As China pilots the helicopter towards the opium manufacturing depot, the depot radios the quarry to see if the radar contact they have is the quarry's helicopter. The lone survivor at the quarry confirms it is and is just on a routine trip, under the watchful eye and gun of Kowalski. Satisfied, the depot allows the helicopter to land and the commandos shoot their way out of the helicopter, killing all the enemy soldiers that stray into their sight. As Wesley, Arbib and Stone destroy heroin laboratories with C4
C4
C4, C04, C.IV or C-4 may refer to:* C-4 , a type of plastic explosive* Hafdasa C-4, an Argentine submachine gunIn biology:* C4 carbon fixation, a pathway for carbon fixation in photosynthesis...
, Klein blows the opium container silos with grenades and C4. While the destruction is happening, Stone is unfortunately wounded and Klein and Chine race to help him and Kim and his men locate prisoners and free them. All return to their homes except for a North American
North American
North American generally refers to an entity, people, group, or attribute of North America, especially of the United States and Canada together.-Culture:*North American English, a collective term used to describe American English and Canadian English...
woman who behaves in a bizarre manner. China intervenes when he misjudges Kim to be attacking the woman, only for Arbib to point out that the woman is a heroin addict with puncture marks on her forearm. Wesley enters an office and rifles through a safe, when he finds a computer disk, which he loads on a nearby computer and browses its contents.
The story follows the much the same as The Wild Geese
The Wild Geese
The Wild Geese is a British 1978 film about a group of mercenaries in Africa. It stars Richard Burton, Roger Moore, Richard Harris and Hardy Krüger...
; as the survivors get fewer and fewer, it is left to Wesley to act out his revenge.
Cast
- Lewis CollinsLewis CollinsLewis Collins is an English actor best known for his tough-guy role as Bodie in The Professionals. He was educated at Bidston Primary and Grange School in Birkenhead. He started out as a ladies' hairdresser before playing drums and guitar in pop groups. He had a number of other jobs before...
as Captain Robin Wesley - Lee Van CleefLee Van CleefLee Van Cleef was an American film actor who appeared mostly in Western and action pictures. His sharp features and piercing eyes led to his being cast as a villain in scores of films such as High Noon, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and The Good The Bad and the Ugly.-Early life:Van Cleef was...
as China - Ernest BorgnineErnest BorgnineErnest Borgnine is an American actor of television and film. His career has spanned more than six decades. He was an unconventional lead in many films of the 1950s, including his Academy Award-winning turn in the 1955 film Marty...
as Fletcher - Klaus KinskiKlaus KinskiKlaus Kinski, born Klaus Günter Karl Nakszynski , was a German actor. He appeared in more than 130 films, and is perhaps best-remembered as a leading role actor in Werner Herzog films: Aguirre, the Wrath of God , Nosferatu the Vampyre , Woyzeck , Fitzcarraldo and Cobra Verde .-Early...
as Charleton - Manfred Lehmann as Klein
- Mimsy FarmerMimsy FarmerMimsy Farmer is an American actress. Her nickname came from a line in Lewis Carroll's Jabberwocky; "All mimsy were the borogoves".-Career:...
as Kathy Robson - Thomas DannebergThomas DannebergThomas Danneberg is a German actor and voice-actor. He is best known as Charles Emerson in the 1967 Edgar Wallace film The Blue Hand and for dubbing over the actors Arnold Schwarzenegger Terence Hill, Sylvester Stallone, John Cleese, Dan Aykroyd, Adriano Celentano, Nick Nolte, John Travolta,...
as Arbib - Frank Glaubrecht as Stone
- Hartmut NeugebauerHartmut NeugebauerHartmut Neugebauer is a German actor, voice actor and dialogue director.He is the German dub-over voice of actors Gene Hackman, John Goodman, and Robbie Coltrane...
as Brenner - Wolfgang Pampel as Baldwin
- Luciano PigozziLuciano PigozziLuciano Pigozzi is an Italian film actor. He appeared in 105 films between 1954 and 1989. He was often credited under the pseudonym Alan Collins and occasionally Alan Collin....
as Priest - Rene Abadeza as Kim the Guide (uncredited)
- Bruce BaronBruce BaronBruce Baron is an American movie actor.Born in New York, he graduated from Cornell University . He starred in several Asian movies, playing over a dozen lead roles in Hong Kong and Manila productions, including among others, in Godfrey Ho's "Ninja" features and Filipino low-budget action films for...
as Kowalski (uncredited) - Protacio Dee as General Khan (uncredited)
- Eric Hahn as Freedom fighter (uncredited)
- John Ladalski as Klaus's gang soldier (uncredited)