Wild Geese II
Encyclopedia
Wild Geese II is a 1985 British
action-thriller film, based on the 1982 novel The Square Circle
by Daniel Carney
, in which a group of mercenaries are hired to spring Rudolf Hess
from Spandau Prison
in Berlin
. The film is a sequel to the 1978 film The Wild Geese
, which was also adapted from a novel by Carney. Actor Richard Burton
, who starred in the first film as Colonel Allen Faulkner, was planning to reprise his role for the sequel, but he died before filming began. The sequel has Faulkner's brother (played by Edward Fox
) leading the mercenaries. No other characters from the original are featured in the sequel.
Veteran Mercenary Allen Faulkner trains and then leads a group of fifty hired soldiers in an attempt to rescue deposed President Julius Limbani. After initially being successful the mission begins to fall apart, double-crossed and caught in the open, an enemy plane strafes Faulkner's men. With what few men remain Faulkner looks to escape the country in an old Dakota aeroplane
. With only his best friend Rafer Janders is left to board the plane, Janders is shot in the leg and can't catch the taxiing plane. As the hoardes of ferocious Simbas
are virtually upon him, Janders calls for Faulkner to kill him, which he regretfully does.
As the only surviving Nazi leader in captivity, Rudolf Hess (Laurence Olivier
) has secrets that could destroy the careers of prominent political figures, secrets an international news network will pay any price to get. As Alex Faulkner (Edward Fox
) arrives for a meeting, Robert McCann (Robert Webber
) is arguing with Michael Lukas about the delay of a planned rescue of Rudolf Hess. Faulkner is escorted into the office where he meets Michael and Kathy Lukas (John Terry
and Barbara Carrera
) where they show him a brief video tape and offer to let him name his price to rescue Hess. At first Faulkner thinks they are joking, but when he finds out they are serious, he tells them about the possible consequences of Hess's rescue. Faulkner refuses the offer but recommends John Haddad (Scott Glenn
) to them as a substitute. As former Lebanese soldier turned mercenary Haddad avoids Palestinian hitmen in London
. Later network executives Kathy and Michael Lukas hire Haddad to free Hess and get him safely out of West Berlin.
When Haddad arrives in West Berlin he stakes out the outside of Spandau as a jogger while being spied on. He drafts plans of the outside of the prison including guard towers and entrances. The next day Haddad joins a construction team and sneaks away to get into the prison guard entrance. Carefully eluding the guards by studying their timed patrols he drafts floor plans of the hallways and cell blocks. When he leaves the prison with the construction crew, Haddad is abducted by East German spy
Karl Stroebling. Tortured into telling Stroebling about his mission, Haddad escapes and survives by overpowering the thugs and rolls across the street being barely missed run over from an oncoming truck as the police arrive as witnesses to the incident. While recovering in hospital, Haddad is visited by British Colonel Reed-Henry (Kenneth Haigh
). Reed-Henry questions Haddad but to no avail; he leaves Haddad but suspects he is there to rescue Hess. Haddad leaves the hospital and along with Kathy goes to Bavaria to plan the mission without interference from Stroebling. Haddad enlists his old mercenary comrade Colonel Alex Faulkner to watch his back. Faulkner, a former British Army officer, is working as an assassin
and is an expert marksman. As romance between Haddad and Kathy blossoms, the trio return to West Berlin to find that Reed-Henry will help Haddad release Hess. Once again Stroebling's thug's attempt to kill Haddad, but this time Faulkner helps him kill all but one of them. Meeting with Reed-Henry to discuss his plan, Haddad agrees to hand over Hess to the Colonel in exchange for help from Regimental Sergeant Major James Murphy (Paul Antrim). Murphy, an ex-warden at Spandau prison, informs Haddad of the prison routine and helps make the mercenaries look like British Royal Military Police. Stroebling offers to remove a contract on Haddad's life in exchange for Hess and the death of Faulkner. Haddad refuses and Stroebling leaves, frustrated.
As the plan is finalised with the News network, Reed-Henry and Stroebling each believing they will receive Hess. Part of the plan involves a staged traffic accident so Haddad employs a fair ground wheel of death rider, Pierre (Malcolm Jamieson) to perform the deliberate crash. Attempting to (subjugate) Haddad into a vulnerable position using blackmail
, Stroebling kidnaps Kathy. In exchange for guaranteeing her safety, Haddad must have a member of Stroebling's gang Patrick Hourigan (Derek Thompson) join the rescue group. Haddad and Faulkner are now joined by Kathy's brother and Lebanese mercenaries Joseph and Jamil. The group now including Hourigan are trained by Murphy. During one of Faulkner's fever spells, Hourigan substitutes Faulkner's medication with LSD
tablets causing hallucination
s. Hourigan taunts Murphy about an IRA
ambush he participated in. Murphy shoots Hourigan dead, putting Haddad in a dilemma over Kathy's existing safety. Haddad enlists his final team members, Arab businessman Mustapha El Ali (Stratford Johns
) and his employees, to do a couple of minor parts of the rescue. To appease Stroebling, Haddad offers Michael as extra insurance.
Launching a coup that will change the shape of the world, Haddad must also rescue Michael and Kathy from the clutches of Stroebling. Michael creates a diversion for him and Kathy to escape but he is killed during the struggle when the guard retrieves his handgun and shoots him. Moments later Haddad kills the guards and rescues Kathy. The plan goes ahead as scheduled but Pierre is killed in the flaming wreck from the staged accident. Hess is sedated with an anasthetic, and switched with the look-alike corpse from the other ambulance and placed into a waiting jeep. At the rendezvous point at the Kaiser Wilhelm
memorial
Reed-Henry tries to intercept Hess, but discovers that he has been duped into killing Stroebling disguised as a guard. Kathy, Haddad and Faulkner take a drugged Hess to and from a soccer game with international passengers to their plane flight, and escape from being caught by murdering a customs officer. Reed-Henry confesses to his superiors that Hess has escaped with his rescuers and is nowhere to be found. He accepts execution via being shot with his own pistol
from his superiors as his punishment.
, he insists on knowing why he was drugged while Kathy talks to McCann about the rescue and Michael's death. Hess, knowing that he is being exploited, overhears the conversation and tells Kathy, Haddad and Faulkner that he has no desire to be a part of modern society. Haddad and Faulkner try to talk him into accepting his freedom, but he insists on going back to Spandau to live the rest of his life. The following day Haddad, Kathy and Faulkner take Hess to the French embassy where he turns himself in. An article of a newspaper in the following days tells a story about a false rumour of Hess's escape.
refused to reprise his role from The Wild Geese feeling the film wasn't right for him
Cinema of the United Kingdom
The United Kingdom has had a major influence on modern cinema. The first moving pictures developed on celluloid film were made in Hyde Park, London in 1889 by William Friese Greene, a British inventor, who patented the process in 1890. It is generally regarded that the British film industry...
action-thriller film, based on the 1982 novel The Square Circle
The Square Circle
The Square Circle is a novel by Daniel Carney.After the success of his first novel, The Thin White Line, author Daniel Carney was asked by producer Euan Lloyd to write a follow up novel. Lloyd had already turned the Thin White Line into the hit movie The Wild Geese and was constantly being asked to...
by Daniel Carney
Daniel Carney
Daniel Carney was a white Zimbabwean novelist. Three of his novels have been made into films.-Biography:Daniel Carney was born in Beirut in 1944. In 1963 he settled in Rhodesia and joined the British South Africa Police, where he served for three and a half years...
, in which a group of mercenaries are hired to spring Rudolf Hess
Rudolf Hess
Rudolf Walter Richard Hess was a prominent Nazi politician who was Adolf Hitler's deputy in the Nazi Party during the 1930s and early 1940s...
from Spandau Prison
Spandau Prison
Spandau Prison was a prison situated in the borough of Spandau in western Berlin, constructed in 1876 and demolished in 1987 after the death of its last prisoner, Rudolf Hess, to prevent it from becoming a neo-Nazi shrine. The prison was near, though not part of, the Renaissance-era Spandau Citadel...
in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
. The film is a sequel to the 1978 film 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...
, which was also adapted from a novel by Carney. Actor Richard Burton
Richard Burton
Richard Burton, CBE was a Welsh actor. He was nominated seven times for an Academy Award, six of which were for Best Actor in a Leading Role , and was a recipient of BAFTA, Golden Globe and Tony Awards for Best Actor. Although never trained as an actor, Burton was, at one time, the highest-paid...
, who starred in the first film as Colonel Allen Faulkner, was planning to reprise his role for the sequel, but he died before filming began. The sequel has Faulkner's brother (played by Edward Fox
Edward Fox (actor)
Edward Charles Morice Fox, OBE is an English stage, film and television actor.He is generally associated with portraying the role of the upper-class Englishman, such as the title character in the film The Day of the Jackal and King Edward VIII in the serial Edward & Mrs...
) leading the mercenaries. No other characters from the original are featured in the sequel.
Prologue
Africa 1977Veteran Mercenary Allen Faulkner trains and then leads a group of fifty hired soldiers in an attempt to rescue deposed President Julius Limbani. After initially being successful the mission begins to fall apart, double-crossed and caught in the open, an enemy plane strafes Faulkner's men. With what few men remain Faulkner looks to escape the country in an old Dakota aeroplane
Douglas DC-3
The Douglas DC-3 is an American fixed-wing propeller-driven aircraft whose speed and range revolutionized air transport in the 1930s and 1940s. Its lasting impact on the airline industry and World War II makes it one of the most significant transport aircraft ever made...
. With only his best friend Rafer Janders is left to board the plane, Janders is shot in the leg and can't catch the taxiing plane. As the hoardes of ferocious Simbas
The Thin White Line (novel)
The Thin White Line is a novel by Rhodesian author Daniel Carney, it became better known when it was turned into the film The Wild Geese. At first Carney could not get his novel published, but for a chance meeting with film producer Euan Lloyd. Lloyd loved the story about Mercenaries in Africa on a...
are virtually upon him, Janders calls for Faulkner to kill him, which he regretfully does.
Story
London 1982As the only surviving Nazi leader in captivity, Rudolf Hess (Laurence Olivier
Laurence Olivier
Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM was an English actor, director, and producer. He was one of the most famous and revered actors of the 20th century. He married three times, to fellow actors Jill Esmond, Vivien Leigh, and Joan Plowright...
) has secrets that could destroy the careers of prominent political figures, secrets an international news network will pay any price to get. As Alex Faulkner (Edward Fox
Edward Fox (actor)
Edward Charles Morice Fox, OBE is an English stage, film and television actor.He is generally associated with portraying the role of the upper-class Englishman, such as the title character in the film The Day of the Jackal and King Edward VIII in the serial Edward & Mrs...
) arrives for a meeting, Robert McCann (Robert Webber
Robert Webber
Robert L. Webber was an American actor who starred as Juror #12 in the 1957 film 12 Angry Men.Webber was born in Santa Ana, California, the son of Alice and Robert Webber, who was a merchant seaman. He was a U.S. Marine during World War II serving on Guam and Okinawa...
) is arguing with Michael Lukas about the delay of a planned rescue of Rudolf Hess. Faulkner is escorted into the office where he meets Michael and Kathy Lukas (John Terry
John Terry (actor)
John Terry is an American film, television, and stage actor.-Early life:Terry was born in Florida, where he attended Vero Beach High School. He was also educated at the prestigious Loomis Chaffee prep school in Windsor, Connecticut, and began a career building original custom log homes in North...
and Barbara Carrera
Barbara Carrera
Barbara Carrera is a Nicaraguan-born American film and television actress as well as a former model. She is best known for her roles as Bond girl Fatima Blush in Never Say Never Again and as Angelica Nero on the soap opera Dallas.-Early life:Barbara Kingsbury was born in San Carlos, Río San Juan,...
) where they show him a brief video tape and offer to let him name his price to rescue Hess. At first Faulkner thinks they are joking, but when he finds out they are serious, he tells them about the possible consequences of Hess's rescue. Faulkner refuses the offer but recommends John Haddad (Scott Glenn
Scott Glenn
Theodore Scott Glenn is an American actor. His roles have included Wes Hightower in Urban Cowboy , astronaut Alan Shepard in The Right Stuff ,Emmett in Silverado , Commander Bart Mancuso in The Hunt for Red October , Jack Crawford in The Silence of the Lambs and The Wise Man in Sucker Punch -Early...
) to them as a substitute. As former Lebanese soldier turned mercenary Haddad avoids Palestinian hitmen in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. Later network executives Kathy and Michael Lukas hire Haddad to free Hess and get him safely out of West Berlin.
When Haddad arrives in West Berlin he stakes out the outside of Spandau as a jogger while being spied on. He drafts plans of the outside of the prison including guard towers and entrances. The next day Haddad joins a construction team and sneaks away to get into the prison guard entrance. Carefully eluding the guards by studying their timed patrols he drafts floor plans of the hallways and cell blocks. When he leaves the prison with the construction crew, Haddad is abducted by East German spy
SPY
SPY is a three-letter acronym that may refer to:* SPY , ticker symbol for Standard & Poor's Depositary Receipts* SPY , a satirical monthly, trademarked all-caps* SPY , airport code for San Pédro, Côte d'Ivoire...
Karl Stroebling. Tortured into telling Stroebling about his mission, Haddad escapes and survives by overpowering the thugs and rolls across the street being barely missed run over from an oncoming truck as the police arrive as witnesses to the incident. While recovering in hospital, Haddad is visited by British Colonel Reed-Henry (Kenneth Haigh
Kenneth Haigh
Kenneth Haigh is a British actor. He played the central role of Jimmy Porter in the very first production of John Osborne's seminal play Look Back in Anger in 1956. His performance in a 1958 Broadway theatre production of that play so moved one young woman in the audience that she mounted the...
). Reed-Henry questions Haddad but to no avail; he leaves Haddad but suspects he is there to rescue Hess. Haddad leaves the hospital and along with Kathy goes to Bavaria to plan the mission without interference from Stroebling. Haddad enlists his old mercenary comrade Colonel Alex Faulkner to watch his back. Faulkner, a former British Army officer, is working as an assassin
Assassination
To carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...
and is an expert marksman. As romance between Haddad and Kathy blossoms, the trio return to West Berlin to find that Reed-Henry will help Haddad release Hess. Once again Stroebling's thug's attempt to kill Haddad, but this time Faulkner helps him kill all but one of them. Meeting with Reed-Henry to discuss his plan, Haddad agrees to hand over Hess to the Colonel in exchange for help from Regimental Sergeant Major James Murphy (Paul Antrim). Murphy, an ex-warden at Spandau prison, informs Haddad of the prison routine and helps make the mercenaries look like British Royal Military Police. Stroebling offers to remove a contract on Haddad's life in exchange for Hess and the death of Faulkner. Haddad refuses and Stroebling leaves, frustrated.
As the plan is finalised with the News network, Reed-Henry and Stroebling each believing they will receive Hess. Part of the plan involves a staged traffic accident so Haddad employs a fair ground wheel of death rider, Pierre (Malcolm Jamieson) to perform the deliberate crash. Attempting to (subjugate) Haddad into a vulnerable position using blackmail
Blackmail
In common usage, blackmail is a crime involving threats to reveal substantially true or false information about a person to the public, a family member, or associates unless a demand is met. It may be defined as coercion involving threats of physical harm, threat of criminal prosecution, or threats...
, Stroebling kidnaps Kathy. In exchange for guaranteeing her safety, Haddad must have a member of Stroebling's gang Patrick Hourigan (Derek Thompson) join the rescue group. Haddad and Faulkner are now joined by Kathy's brother and Lebanese mercenaries Joseph and Jamil. The group now including Hourigan are trained by Murphy. During one of Faulkner's fever spells, Hourigan substitutes Faulkner's medication with LSD
LSD
Lysergic acid diethylamide, abbreviated LSD or LSD-25, also known as lysergide and colloquially as acid, is a semisynthetic psychedelic drug of the ergoline family, well known for its psychological effects which can include altered thinking processes, closed and open eye visuals, synaesthesia, an...
tablets causing hallucination
Hallucination
A hallucination, in the broadest sense of the word, is a perception in the absence of a stimulus. In a stricter sense, hallucinations are defined as perceptions in a conscious and awake state in the absence of external stimuli which have qualities of real perception, in that they are vivid,...
s. Hourigan taunts Murphy about an IRA
Provisional Irish Republican Army
The Provisional Irish Republican Army is an Irish republican paramilitary organisation whose aim was to remove Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom and bring about a socialist republic within a united Ireland by force of arms and political persuasion...
ambush he participated in. Murphy shoots Hourigan dead, putting Haddad in a dilemma over Kathy's existing safety. Haddad enlists his final team members, Arab businessman Mustapha El Ali (Stratford Johns
Stratford Johns
Stratford Johns, born Alan Edgar Stratford-Johns, was a popular British stage, film and television actor who is best remembered for his starring role as Detective Inspector Charlie Barlow in the innovative and long-running BBC police series Z-Cars, created by Troy Kennedy-Martin.-Early life:Johns...
) and his employees, to do a couple of minor parts of the rescue. To appease Stroebling, Haddad offers Michael as extra insurance.
Launching a coup that will change the shape of the world, Haddad must also rescue Michael and Kathy from the clutches of Stroebling. Michael creates a diversion for him and Kathy to escape but he is killed during the struggle when the guard retrieves his handgun and shoots him. Moments later Haddad kills the guards and rescues Kathy. The plan goes ahead as scheduled but Pierre is killed in the flaming wreck from the staged accident. Hess is sedated with an anasthetic, and switched with the look-alike corpse from the other ambulance and placed into a waiting jeep. At the rendezvous point at the Kaiser Wilhelm
Kaiser Wilhelm
Kaiser Wilhelm is a common reference to two German emperors:* Wilhelm I, German Emperor , King of Prussia; became the first Kaiser of a united Germany...
memorial
Memorial
A memorial is an object which serves as a focus for memory of something, usually a person or an event. Popular forms of memorials include landmark objects or art objects such as sculptures, statues or fountains, and even entire parks....
Reed-Henry tries to intercept Hess, but discovers that he has been duped into killing Stroebling disguised as a guard. Kathy, Haddad and Faulkner take a drugged Hess to and from a soccer game with international passengers to their plane flight, and escape from being caught by murdering a customs officer. Reed-Henry confesses to his superiors that Hess has escaped with his rescuers and is nowhere to be found. He accepts execution via being shot with his own pistol
Pistol
When distinguished as a subset of handguns, a pistol is a handgun with a chamber that is integral with the barrel, as opposed to a revolver, wherein the chamber is separate from the barrel as a revolving cylinder. Typically, pistols have an effective range of about 100 feet.-History:The pistol...
from his superiors as his punishment.
Epilogue
Haddad, and Kathy and Faulkner take Hess to a hotel in Vienna, Austria where he awakens to find himself in an unfamiliar environment. Although he is offered the best hospitalityHospitality
Hospitality is the relationship between guest and host, or the act or practice of being hospitable. Specifically, this includes the reception and entertainment of guests, visitors, or strangers, resorts, membership clubs, conventions, attractions, special events, and other services for travelers...
, he insists on knowing why he was drugged while Kathy talks to McCann about the rescue and Michael's death. Hess, knowing that he is being exploited, overhears the conversation and tells Kathy, Haddad and Faulkner that he has no desire to be a part of modern society. Haddad and Faulkner try to talk him into accepting his freedom, but he insists on going back to Spandau to live the rest of his life. The following day Haddad, Kathy and Faulkner take Hess to the French embassy where he turns himself in. An article of a newspaper in the following days tells a story about a false rumour of Hess's escape.
Cast
- Scott GlennScott GlennTheodore Scott Glenn is an American actor. His roles have included Wes Hightower in Urban Cowboy , astronaut Alan Shepard in The Right Stuff ,Emmett in Silverado , Commander Bart Mancuso in The Hunt for Red October , Jack Crawford in The Silence of the Lambs and The Wise Man in Sucker Punch -Early...
- John Haddad - Barbara CarreraBarbara CarreraBarbara Carrera is a Nicaraguan-born American film and television actress as well as a former model. She is best known for her roles as Bond girl Fatima Blush in Never Say Never Again and as Angelica Nero on the soap opera Dallas.-Early life:Barbara Kingsbury was born in San Carlos, Río San Juan,...
- Kathy Lukas - Edward FoxEdward Fox (actor)Edward Charles Morice Fox, OBE is an English stage, film and television actor.He is generally associated with portraying the role of the upper-class Englishman, such as the title character in the film The Day of the Jackal and King Edward VIII in the serial Edward & Mrs...
- Alex Faulkner - Laurence OlivierLaurence OlivierLaurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM was an English actor, director, and producer. He was one of the most famous and revered actors of the 20th century. He married three times, to fellow actors Jill Esmond, Vivien Leigh, and Joan Plowright...
- Rudolf Hess - Robert WebberRobert WebberRobert L. Webber was an American actor who starred as Juror #12 in the 1957 film 12 Angry Men.Webber was born in Santa Ana, California, the son of Alice and Robert Webber, who was a merchant seaman. He was a U.S. Marine during World War II serving on Guam and Okinawa...
- Robert McCann - Kenneth HaighKenneth HaighKenneth Haigh is a British actor. He played the central role of Jimmy Porter in the very first production of John Osborne's seminal play Look Back in Anger in 1956. His performance in a 1958 Broadway theatre production of that play so moved one young woman in the audience that she mounted the...
- Colonel Reed-Henry - Stratford JohnsStratford JohnsStratford Johns, born Alan Edgar Stratford-Johns, was a popular British stage, film and television actor who is best remembered for his starring role as Detective Inspector Charlie Barlow in the innovative and long-running BBC police series Z-Cars, created by Troy Kennedy-Martin.-Early life:Johns...
- Mustapha El Ali - John TerryJohn Terry (actor)John Terry is an American film, television, and stage actor.-Early life:Terry was born in Florida, where he attended Vero Beach High School. He was also educated at the prestigious Loomis Chaffee prep school in Windsor, Connecticut, and began a career building original custom log homes in North...
- Michael Lukas - Robert FreitagRobert FreitagRobert Freitag was an Austrian-Swiss stage and screen actor and film director.- Life :...
- Karl Stroebling - Ingrid PittIngrid PittIngrid Pitt was an actress best known for her work in horror films of the 1960s and 1970s.-Background:Pitt was born Ingoushka Petrov in Warsaw, Poland to a German father of Russian descent and a Polish Jewish mother. During World War II she and her family were imprisoned in a concentration camp...
- Hooker - Patrick StewartPatrick StewartSir Patrick Hewes Stewart, OBE is an English film, television and stage actor, who has had a distinguished career in theatre and television for around half a century...
- Russian General - Paul Antrim - RSM. Murphy
- Derek Thompson - Patrick Hourigan
- Michael N. Harbour - KGB Man
- David Lumsden - Joseph
- Richard Burton - Allen Faulkner (archive footage)
- Richard HarrisRichard HarrisRichard St John Harris was an Irish actor, singer-songwriter, theatrical producer, film director and writer....
- Rafer Janders (archive footage) - Winston NtshonaWinston NtshonaWinston Ntshona is a South African playwright and actor.Born in Port Elizabeth, Ntshona worked alongside fellow South African Athol Fugard on several occasions and played a minor role in Richard Attenborough's acclaimed film Gandhi....
- Julius Limbani (archive footage) - Brook WilliamsBrook WilliamsBrook Richard Williams was an English stage actor who also made numerous film and television appearances in small roles....
- Private Samuels (archive footage) - Glyn Baker - Private Esposito (archive footage)
Production
The film opens to a dedication to actor Richard Burton, a brief summary of the previous film then follows. Roger MooreRoger Moore
Sir Roger George Moore KBE , is an English actor, perhaps best known for portraying British secret agent James Bond in seven films from 1973 to 1985. He also portrayed Simon Templar in the long-running British television series The Saint.-Early life:Moore was born in Stockwell, London...
refused to reprise his role from The Wild Geese feeling the film wasn't right for him