27 Thought-Provoking Bits of Movie Trivia That’ll Impress the Hell Out of Even the Nerdiest Cinephiles Out There

Careful. There’s a lot of pressure that comes with the ‘film buff’ label
27 Thought-Provoking Bits of Movie Trivia That’ll Impress the Hell Out of Even the Nerdiest Cinephiles Out There

Before you delve into these film knowledge-rich tidbits, you should think about the path they’ll lead you down. See, when you start spouting off their knowledge at parties, people will see that you clearly know your stuff, and will start coming to you for your take on movies. 

Are you ready to bone up on every classic and current film out there? If you want to keep reading, you better be.

Mars Attacks

Mars Attacks is secretly Christmas-themed. PROP DAY The skeletons are bright green or bright red because the movie was scheduled to be released for Christmas. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM

The Social Network

Natalie Portman consulted on The Social Network. When she heard David Fincher was doing the movie, Portman (who went to Harvard from 1999 to 2003) called him over for dinner. She told him about how final clubs worked and how prestigious they were for underclassmen -- which made its way into the movie, as it starts with Zuck talking about how much he wants to join one. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM

El Mariachi

When making El Mariachi, Robert Rodriguez was too cheap to buy a can of black paint. His budget was so tight, he didn't paint the guitar case that had the weapons black (the color it was supposed to be). For shots of its exterior, he just used the Mariachi's case, which was black. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM

Grace Kelly

Star Wars got made partly thanks to Grace Kelly. She joined the board of directors of 20th Century Fox in 1975, and stayed quiet when they discussed Star Wars. The board was totally divided over the movie, so she was kind of the tiebreaker - and her silence was interpreted as approval, so the movie got greenlit. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM

Indiana Jones

Harrison Ford put a nod to his philosophy professor in The Last Crusade. When Indy says If it's truth you're looking for, Dr. Tyree's philosophy class is right down the hall, that's a reference to William Earl Tyree, Ford's old professor at Ripon College (where Ford majored in philosophy). NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM

Fight Club

Brad Pitt took out a bit of his front teeth for Fight Club. Не went to the dentist to have his teeth chipped, so he could really look like a guy who fights all the time. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM

Mulan

Mulan touches her hair a lot because her voice actress, Ming-Na Wen, does that. Disney animators noticed her doing that, and gave her character that habit. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM

Thanos

Thanos creator Jim Starlin hated a Thanos homage in Avengers: Endgame. Thanos' weapon is shaped like a helicopter blade, which is a nod to the dinky Thanos helicopter that showed up in a kids' comic. Starlin tried to forget about that helicopter, so he says he'll never forgive that homage. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM

The Social Network

The Social Network was supposed to be Aaron Sorkin's project. Then they brought it to David Fincher, who only took it after he made sure Sorkin definitely didn't want to direct it. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM

James Bond

They didn't let George Lazenby cry in On Her Majesty's Secret Service. When he's cradling his dead wife as Bond, he had tears running down his face, but the director told him to stop that because James Bond doesn't cry -- so they shot the scene without tears. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM

Hannibal Lecter

Hannibal Lecter was partly inspired by Anthony Hopkins' drama school teacher. His movement teacher Christopher Fettes had a cutting voice, and he would slice you to pieces. His analysis of what you were doing was so precise. So he made Lecter act the same way in Silence of the Lambs. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM

1917

Scofield getting knocked down on the battlefield in 1917 was a total accident. An extra just walked into George MacKay, and they kept filming. Screenwriter Krysty Wilson-Cairns loved it, though, and says it's one of her favorite scenes in the movie. I wish I wrote that, she said. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM

Parasite

The house in Parasite was stitched together using CGI. They built the first floor and the yard on an outdoor lot, and put a green screen above them --they'd later put the second floor there. The other rooms were built separately on soundstages. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM

Star Wars

The Phantom Menace even CGl'd Natalie Portman. She limped in some scenes because she had hurt her ankle, so the VFX team had to give her CGI legs in them. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM

Mad Max

The night-time sequence in Mad Max: Fury Road was shot in bright daylight. They just heavily overexposed the footage to turn it into a deep blue night. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM

Dallas Buyers Club

Dallas Buyers' Club total makeup budget was $250. But it won an Academy Award for Best Makeup and Hairstyling. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

Originally, Groot was going to be all grown up again in Guardians of the Galaxy 2. But James Gunn decided to keep him as baby Groot because he thought that'd be too repetitive. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM

The Matrix

The Matrix's code is a bunch of scrambled sushi recipes. To make the iconic code, production and concept designer Simon Whiteley scanned the kanji from his wife's Japanese cookbooks. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM

It

In It, when Pennywise's eyes look in opposite directions, that's not an effect. Bill Skarsgard can really do that with his eyes, so he did it in the movie. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM

Parasite

The trash can in the Parasite house cost $2,300. Bong Joon-ho wanted that specific model because it would look great in the movie: it opened and closed very smoothly, and it made a quiet sound instead of a loud clank. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM

First Man

In First Man, they recorded the sound of Ryan Gosling's breathing with a real lunar helmet. Gosling breathed through the helmet worn by Apollo 16 astronaut John Young. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM

Troy

Eric Bana made $550 off Brad Pitt in Troy. They had an agreement that they'd pay each other for hits during training for their fight scene - -5$0 for minor ones, and $100 for major ones. Eric Bana apparently got a whacking, because Pitt had to pay him $750 while he had to pay Pitt $200. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM

Baby Driver

C.J. Jones, who played Baby's deaf foster father in Baby Driver, is himself deaf. A bunch of hearing actors auditioned for the part after Jones did, but watching their auditions was very difficult for Wright after he'd seen Jones. Не says he couldn't give the part to someone else when a deaf actor can do it, so he just gave it to Jones. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM

The Godfather

Al Pacino nearly got fired from The Godfather. In the first couple of weeks, his performance totally baffled the filmmakers (except for Coppola, who supported him) and they wanted to replace him. They only changed their mind once they saw him in the restaurant scene -- if that scene hadn't worked, not even Coppola's support would have kept him in the movie. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM

Spartacus

The crowd noises for Spartacus were recorded at a college football game. Before a 1959 MSU vs. Notre Dame game, the Spartacus sound crew showed up and asked the 76,000 fans to scream as loud as they could. They screamed, among others, the legendary line I am Spartacus! NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM

Nickelodeon

Two movies had a bidding war over Who Let The Dogs Out back when it was released. Nickelodeon wanted to use it for Rugrats in Paris, and Disney wanted it for 101 Dalmatians. Nickelodeon won by paying for the music video and giving the band, The Baha Men, a live concert special. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM

Watchmen

We almost got a Watchmen movie in the '90s. Terry Gilliam was supposed to direct, and they wanted Schwarzenegger for Doctor Manhattan, while David Bowie wanted to play Rorschach. But it turned out to be too expensive, and anyway, Gilliam later decided Watchmen was too big for one movie. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM

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