FAQ for
Magnum Force (1973) More at IMDbPro »

The following FAQ entries may contain spoilers. Only the biggest ones (if any) will be covered with spoiler tags. It is assumed that no one who is diligently avoiding spoilers will be visiting this page in the first place.

Because the film is careful to avoid showing the motorcycle cops' faces when they kill criminals, it is hard to tell which cop is at which crime scene. Additionally, the voices of the cops in the two traffic stops are made to sound similar so you can't make a voice recognition. Some believe Red Astrachan is responsible for either the execution of Ricca and everyone in his car or for the pool massacre, and Mike Grimes for the other one. It is presumed by Captain Avery in the morgue scene that Sweet is responsible for executing the pimp.

Of the four motorcycle cops, only John Davis is certainly responsible for the assassination of Lou Guzman and his associates, as well as Charlie McCoy, given that we see him taking off his helmet when speaking to DiGeorgio after shooting McCoy in the parking garage.

However, it is also very likely that Davis might have carried out some of the other assassinations shown on-screen, such as the pimp. You'll notice that Sweet has dark colored hair whenever you do see him without his helmet on. However, there is a closeup of the killer cop's face when he is asking the pimp for his license and vehicle registration, where you can clearly see underneath his helmet that he has sandy-colored hair, and Davis is the only one of the four motorcycle cops to have sandy hair. This makes Avery's reference at the morgue that Sweet was responsible for the pimp killing a continuity error.

Sweet is killed by Palancio in the dockside shootout. Grimes is killed by Harry running his motorbike over with his car. Red Astrachan is killed by Harry using karate blows to the neck on board the aircraft carriers. Davis rides his motorbike off the side of the aircraft carrier and into the bay whilst pursuing Harry where he is knocked unconscious and drowns. Harry blows Briggs up using the bomb from his mailbox. Ironically this is the only film in the Dirty Harry series where Harry doesn't kill any of the villains by shooting them