While the character of Idi Amin and the events surrounding him in the movie are mostly factual, Garrigan is a fictional character. His story is loosely based on events in the life of English-born Bob Astles. Like the novel on which it is based, the film mixes fiction with real events in Ugandan history to give an impression of Amin and Uganda under his authoritarian rule. While the basic events of Amin's life are followed, the film often departs from actual history in the details of particular events.

In real life and in the book, Kay Amin was made pregnant by her lover Dr. Mbalu Mukasa. She died during a botched abortion operation by Mukasa, who subsequently committed suicide. (source and verification of these claims?) Astles believes that her body was cut up not on Amin's orders, but by Mukasa while attempting to hide it. Amin never had a son named Campbell.

Despite the wording of the film's coda, three hostages died during Operation Entebbe. The body of a fourth hostage, 75-year-old Dora Bloch, who was killed by Ugandan army officers at a nearby hospital was eventually returned to Israel and buried with state honors in Jerusalem's Mount of Quietudes.