Power Play (also known as Coup d'Etat,[2] A State of Shock and Operation Overthrow) is a 1978 British-Canadian political thriller film directed by Martyn Burke and starring Peter O'Toole and David Hemmings.

[3] It was written by Burke and Edward N. Luttwak based on the latter's 1968 non-fiction strategy book Coup d'État: A Practical Handbook.

[4] A small group of military officers frustrated by the corruption and brutality of any fictional contemporary European or American government decide that they must overthrow the current administration.

Colonel Narriman, an idealistic and soon-to-retire army officer, becomes sickened by the government's use of extra-judicial killing and torture to suppress the terrorist insurgency that their incompetence and corruption has fostered.

[citation needed] The Canadian Armed Forces also provided aircraft, armoured fighting vehicles (including Centurion tanks), and soldiers for the filming.