The Old Guard is an action movie based on comic books about heroic, hard-to-kill super-soldiers, so there are a lot of exciting, heavily choreographed fight scenes. Many are faithful re-creations of scenes drawn by artist Leandro Fernández, but one of the most memorable and entertaining set-pieces in the movie doesn't actually appear in the comic at all. It happens to be particularly plot-propulsive, character-building, and darkly funny — humor being kind of rare in the comic book version.
After convincing Nile to come with her to France to meet the rest of her mercenary group, Andy gets her into a cargo plane carrying drugs. Nile wonders if such a transport is safe, and Andy subtly and wryly informs her that such things don't really matter to immortals, but Nile isn't quite yet convinced of her own powers, so much so that she straps herself into her seat. Andy, by contrast, casually grabs on to the ceiling of the cabin and takes swigs from a bottle of vodka.
As the flight progresses, Nile attempts to take control, engaging in some brutal fisticuffs with Andy, ultimately restraining her and attempting to hijack the plane. Andy calls her bluff and, amazingly, shoots the pilot. But hey, it turns out she only pretended to shoot him, and that cryptic phrase she uttered to him in Russian was "pretend to be dead" — which gets a callback in the movie's climax.
