Trivia
Richard Burton was set to play his character from The Wild Geese, Allen Faulkner, but died just days before filming began. Edward Fox stepped in and the character's name was changed to Alex.
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Patrick Stewart has said in interviews that this project is the only acting job he regretted doing.
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Originally the film was supposed to star Richard Burton and Roger Moore. However, Moore did not like the script and after Burton's death he decided to pull out.
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As Rudolf Hess, 77-year-old Laurence Olivier was in poor health during filming and required a nurse to accompany him during production. Olivier was also beginning to suffer with memory problems and labored for hours on his one long speech, despite having trouble with the dialogue.
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Patrick Stewart describes his role in the movie as the most embarrassing role of his career.
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The film's opening titles feature a dedication to The Wild Geese actor Richard Burton with a short summary of this movie.
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The film was made and released about three years after its source novel "The Square Circle" by Daniel Carney had been first published in 1982.
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According to an interview with producer Euan Lloyd, Edward Fox's salary on this picture was significantly lower than what would have been paid to Richard Burton.
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After Richard Burton had died, producer Euan Lloyd had to re-cast his part. Lloyd contacted Edward Fox who was in the country working on his house. Fox agreed to do the movie so he could add another wing onto his home.
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Second of two movies that both actress Ingrid Pitt and actor Robert Webber made with producer Euan Lloyd. The two had both appeared in Lloyd's earlier The Final Option made and released around three years earlier.
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According to Ingrid Pitt's personal website, Pitt, who did not have any scenes in this film with acting legend Laurence Olivier, did however have dinner with him during the shoot, saying that Olivier was "very old and frail by this time but very gallant".
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The original film in the series was called The Wild Geese but for this sequel the word "The" was dropped from the title making the film called Wild Geese II rather than "The Wild Geese II".
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After the success of The Wild Geese novelist Daniel Carney was asked by producer Euan Lloyd to write a sequel. Carney originally refused has he could not think up a storyline until producer Euan Lloyd gave him one, this film's high-concept: the kidnap of Rudolph Hess from Spandau Prison.
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According to actor Edward Fox, Laurence Olivier had trouble with his dialogue and struggled for hours on his one long speech.
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The film's script had been written with Richard Burton in mind for his character. Due to the late death of Burton so close to the start of principal photography, Burton's part could not be re-written bar for the change of the character's name, and as such, actor Edward Fox had to say dialogue which had been written for Burton.
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After the success of The Wild Geese, over the ensuing years, producer Euan Lloyd was constantly asked for a sequel by the public.
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One of the final cinema movies of acting legend Sir Laurence Olivier, whose final theatrical feature film credit was in Derek Jarman's War Requiem.
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Second and final "Wild Geese" movie in the two-film franchise originating with The Wild Geese.
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According to Donald Spoto's "Laurence Olivier: A Biography" (1991), Rudolph Hess' son Wolfgang Rüdiger Hess (aka Wolf Rudiger Hess) thought that the likeness of Laurence Olivier compared to his father was "uncannily accurate".
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Around a year before this movie was made and released, a similarly titled low-budget Italian-West German film, which appeared to be a sequel to The Wild Geese, had been made and released. It was called "Code Name: Wild Geese" (Code Name: Wild Geese), and was not a sequel, but a knock-off. Ironically, like The Wild Geese, it had a great lead cast, arguably better than this sequel.
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Lewis Collins has said that he was originally hired to play Haddad due to a contract with producer Euan Lloyd. Collins had headlined Lloyd's The Final Option movie around three years earlier. However, the part was cast with American Scott Glenn. Collins ironically had starred in "The Wild Geese" rip-off movie "Code Name: Wild Geese" (Code Name: Wild Geese) which may have been a factor in his non-inclusion in this sequel.
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No characters from the original The Wild Geese movie appear in this sequel. Ironically, the film's trailer states "The Wild Geese are back!" and "This time the Wild Geese are flying higher than ever before and further than ever before!". Moreover, one of the film's taglines states, "They fly again...".
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