Watching These Movies Might Feel Different When You Read These 35 Rare Movie Facts Found Online
Ever since the first motion picture film was made in 1888, cinema has captured our minds and our hearts, starting something that brought countless unforgettable stories to our lives.
But some of those stories never reach the final cut, let alone get caught on camera. Since this makes them relatively unknown, they become all the more interesting, and that is precisely why people online love to share these facts, just like in this thread. Scroll down to read what these Redditors said, and if this list proves insufficient, we’ve got plenty more truths and secrets to satisfy your curiosity!
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Lotr fans are known for knowing every single trivia. but i find it weird that not more people know that Gandalf says you shall not pass because the allies motto during ww1 was they shall not pass and Tolkien served during ww1.
In ‘Contagion’, the autopsy performed on Gwyneth Paltrow used a prop head that was originally made for the finale of ‘Seven’. The latter decided against showing what was in the box and thus, years later it was repurposed.
In other words, we finally got to see what was in the box.
Anthony Hopkins was on screen less than 17 minutes in Silence of the Lambs. This did not stop him from winning Best Actor academy award.
Anthony Hopkins is an incredible mimic. Throughout his career, he’s looped (post production sound re-recording) many well known co stars who were unavailable for re-recording sessions. He’s never taken credit for this.
The crew agreed to do the shower scene in Starship Troopers so long as the director was also naked. And he was
In Edward Scissorhands, the version shown to critics and reviewers contained a scene that got cut from the final theatrical version. The scene was during the opening when the grandmother starts telling her story to the little girl. Essentially, it made it clear that everything we are seeing in Edward’s story is not as it actually occurred, but rather we’re peering inside the little girl’s imagination, seeing how she’s interpreting what her grandmother is telling her. This brings whole new meaning to things like the way the houses are painted, how all the dads leave for work at exactly the same time, and the quirkiness of how everyone behaves. Once you know that this scene exists, you see the movie in a very different way. Much of what we think of a “Tim Burton weirdness” is actually childlike imagination once you know.
So, go watch it again. It’s not a whole new movie, but it feels and comes across in a whole new way.
I've only ever seen it with cut scene added back. I still appreciate knowing this though and it makes a lot of sense.
Robert Eungland, Freddie Kreuger...originally auditioned to be Luke Skywalker... but didnt get the role. He told his roommate Mark Hamil to go try out instead.
In Fight Club, Marla's original line after having sex with Tyler was "I want to have your abortion". The studio deemed this WAAY too offensive, and demanded it be changed. The producer agreed to change it only after the studio agreed that whatever he changed it to, they would have no say in it.
He changed it to "I haven't been f****d like that since grade school"
In Wayne’s World, when Wayne plays Stairway to Heaven and the store clerk points to a sign that says No Stairway to Heaven, the audience is led to believe the clerks banned the song because they were tired of hearing it. However, the actual song was supposed to be featured in the movie but Led Zeppelin’s PR people pulled the plug at the last minute. So when Wayne says “no stairway, denied”. That’s what he means.
Guitar Center calls it the forbidden riff. Also applies to " Smoke on the Water :"
The original choice for Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story was Billy Crystal. He turned it down and went on to say it was one of the biggest mistakes of his career. When the opportunity to voice Mike in Monsters Inc came up he jumped at it, as he didn’t want to make the same mistake twice.
It is a widely discussed easter egg in Toy Story 3 that at the beginning of the film, there is a garbage man who wears the same t-shirt that Sid wore in the first movie. Many online outlets were quick to point this out, theorizing that this might actually be Sid now grown up. What all of these outlets failed to realize is that while they were distracted by the credits sequences, Sid was actually listed in the credits. So yes, it is Sid. Hard confirm. You are not a sleuth for noticing this.
I find it funny they always tried to make out like he was destined to be a failure as a human, but I’ve met garbage truck drivers in aus, sub contractors earn so much money and the regular drivers arnt bad off pay wise either.
In Titanic, the lake in Wisconsin where Jack says he fell through the ice didn't exist yet. When Jack told Rose about how cold the water in the North Atlantic was, he mentioned himself falling through the ice in Lake Wissota, Wisconsin. Titanic sank in 1912, and Lake Wissota wasn't created until 1917.
Grew up swimming in that lake. The name was a business decision to combine the names of Minnesota and Wisconsin. The waters are stained with tannin from the peatbogs of northern Wisconsin. Very dark and spooky six feet down with a snorkeling rig.
The couple kissing in Hook as Peter and Tinkerbell fly over them are George Lucas snd Carrie Fisher.
Elle Woods has a different hairstyle in every scene in Legally Blonde
John Candy was paid less than $500 to appear as Gus Polinski in Home Alone.
Not everyone can walk the tightrope between tragedy and comedy like John Candy did.
When Iron Man mentions shawarmas at the end of Avengers, he didn't know they were filming, and neither did he when he offered Banner blueberries at one point.
In Pixar's Coco, the boy who was going to play Miguel hit puberty, changing his voice. The people in charge replaced him with someone younger. The original boy got a cameo where he is the guy working the stage asking him if he's ready to go on.
This is why kids are so often voiced by adult women, who can mimic the voice of a preteen boy without this kind of worry...if they do it well, that is.
In _Fight Club_, in the scene where Ed and Brad wreck in the car, Ed crawls out of the driver's side, an early clue that he is Tyler. the part that few know is that there was an argument about it. Production thought it was a continuity error. Fincher was like 'nah' and didn't explain.
There's also another scene where Ed received a call from Tyler on a payphone. The phone had a sticker on it saying that it can not receive incoming calls.
The original Halloween (1978) took place in Illinois in October. However, it was filmed in California in the springtime. To make it more believable, they had bags of dead autumn leaves shipped in.
There was a person whose job it was to scatter the leaves around the set, then bag them back up and move them to the next filming location.
Every single scene in Home Alone contains something red and green in it.
Go check for yourself if you don’t believe me
Just watched it again and after thinking how 80s the home's decor was, I also realized that I really loved the color scheme and decor.
The ship built for the Titanic set was 90% the size of the real thing.
James Cameron spent more time with the real Titanic than those who sailed on her.
I read yesterday that Cameron only employed extras 5 foot 8 inches or shorter to make the sets look larger
Who Framed Rodger Rabbit
Judge Doom (played by Christopher Lloyd) never blinks once the entire movie. I won’t say why for the sake of spoilers.
I could talk at length about the crazy techniques and control rigs they developed to create what was the best ever integration of live action and animation, but that’s my favorite fact.
Cary Elwes broke his toe on a 4 wheeler during filming The Princess Bride. He was worried Rob Reiner might fire him so he kept it a secret. He worked the scenes before the Fire Swamp to make his character kind of nonchalant but really he couldn't put much weight on his foot.
He talks about this at length in his behind-the-scenes book As You Wish. It was Andre's four wheeler that they'd given him to help with his mobility issues, which he encouraged Cary to try out. On the long shot when Westly and Buttercup are running towards the Fire Swamp, you can see Cary lurching around ridiculously.
In Casablanca with Humphry Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, there is a farewell scene with the two stars kissing inside an airplane hangar. The hanger has a plane outside (Lockheed Electra 12A) with a bunch of people working around it.
The production was not allowed to film at an airport after dark for security reasons, so they used a sound stage with a small cardboard cutout airplane and forced perspective. The strange part is to give perspective of distance, they used little people for the workers.
I wouldn't describe it as A scene, but rather THE scene. The one with "We'll always have Paris" and "Here's looking at you kid". One of the most iconic scenes in Hollywood history.
Most of the cast of The Sound of Music, particularly Christopher Plummer, thought the movie was corny as hell. Not that they don’t appreciate its legacy or impact - it’s just objectively a ridiculously saccharine, albeit classic, film. Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer were so overcome by the corn fest that is the song “Something Good” that they couldn’t get through a take without laughing and giggling. The decision was made to obscure their faces slightly, which is why the scene we see today is in silhouette.
Julie and Christopher would jokingly call it, "The Sound of Mucus". The reason they couldn't stop giggling during the scene for "Something Good" is because there was a sound emitting from one of the lights that sounded like farting. The director solved the problem by filming their shadowed profiles instead
In the first Shrek movie Lord Farquaad is removing all the fairy tale creatures from the swamp. He wants Shreks home too. In the old DVD extras they explain it’s because he wants to build a theme park there. It’s not explained at all in the movie.
We’re so used to movies where the king just takes it for the hell of it that I guess I never questioned it
In Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, when the Candyman starts singing the Candyman Can song there is a scene where he lifts the counter to walk out and the counter smacks this little girl in the head.
this started his spree of murder later leaving to his own movie Candyman (1992)
Annie (1982, Carol Burnett and, a propos to this tale, Albert Finney)
The scene where we first meet Daddy Warbucks (Albert Finney), he's looking at the Mona Lisa and tells the servants to "Take her away!" Then he changes his mind saying, "She has an interesting smile. I could get used to that smile. Hang her in the bathroom!" The joke here is that the first owner after Leonardo died was King Francis I of France, who had her hanging in his bathing room.
When filming the rooftop scene in The Departed, a giant inflatable Arthur the Aardvark on top of a nearby children's museum would have dominated the background of many of the shots. The museum graciously agreed to temporarily deflate and remove Arthur.
For anyone interested, this movie is currently available for free viewing on TUBI.
In The Neverending Story, the horse (Artax) didn’t die- however, Noah Hathaway almost drowned during the famous scene where the horse sinks in the swamp. The horse was standing on a platform that sunk into the mud, and Hathaway’s shoe got caught in the mechanism and started to drag him under.
Carrie Fisher said that one time Alec Guinness gave Mark Hamill £10 to leave him alone. 😂
The theme song from Mission Impossible spells out MI in Morse code in repeat.
"Theme from Mission: Impossible" is the theme tune of the TV series Mission: Impossible (1966–1973). The theme was written and composed by Argentine composer Lalo Schifrin and has since gone on to appear in several other works of the Mission: Impossible franchise, including the 1988 TV series, the film series, and the video game series. The theme is written in a 5/4 time signature, which Schifrin has jokingly explained as being "for people who have five legs". The Morse code for M.I. is two dashes followed by two dots ▄▄▄ ▄▄▄ ▄ ▄ ; if a dot is one beat and a dash is one and a half beats, then this gives a bar of five beats, exactly matching the theme's underlying rhythm. It has been suggested that Schifrin consciously used the Morse code as a starting point for his composition, but this cannot be verified.
Thanks for the breakdown, I genuinely needed that and I appreciate your explanation and the theme tune even more 👍
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And the "bu-bu-bu-bump bu-bu-bu-bump" of Doctor Who's theme song turned out to be the heartbeat of the Doctor, who has two hearts.
The main theme of the "Inspector Morse" tv series is actually the name Morse in Morse code reproduced in music. A beautiful music, btw
Using the cadence of the shows name as a "seed" is actually more common than we realise, even Doctor Who did it. Composers do it either in case someone wants to add lyrics later on, or just for the sake of inspiration. Here's a video with an extensive breakdown of this happening in many theme shows: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTUdzhKuSsU
For *My Cousin Vinny*, the director did research at actual criminal trials in the South, and that's where they got those gems like "Hiy-einous crime" and "all our little ol' ancestors."
(source: DVD commentary)
The director, Jonathan Lynn, has a law degree from Cambridge University. He was determined the film would be as legally accurate as possible.
"E.T." and "Poltergeist" were developed from the same story about alien abductions.
Steven Spielberg wrote a story treatment called "Watch the Skies" and had John Sayles flesh it out as a draft called "Night Skies." Spielberg later decided to shift it in a more heartwarming direction, resulting in "E.T.", so he tapped Tobe Hooper to film the original version, but Hooper replaced aliens with the paranormal and it became "Poltergeist."
The movie Dead Zone and Christmas Story were being filmed only a couple miles away from each other at the same time. Both productions were waiting for snow so they could film. It was an usually snowless winter.
Finally late in the season there was a significant snowfall. The scene where Sheriff Bannerman arrives at Johnny’s house is being filmed at the exact moment of the tongue to the flag pole scene.
Most of the snow in A Christmas Story was actually instant mashed potatoes.
Note: this post originally had 47 images. It’s been shortened to the top 35 images based on user votes.
In Godzilla Minus One, the final act gets really blurry and hard to see. This is a reference to the fact that I wasnt expecting to cry during a Godzilla film (I stole this joke from a reddit screenshot btw)
But also, in Godzilla vs Kong, when Kong shoves his axe in Godzilla's mouth, its a reference to King Kong shoving a tree in Godzillas mouth in the 1962 film, King Kong vs Godzilla. Godzilla and Kong also occasionally use their 1962 roars in the movie. TBH, all monsterverse films (Godzilla 2014, Godzilla Kotm, GvK, and likely GxK) are so full of references it seems like they might actually just be copying minor plot details. Also several references to Godzilla (1954) are made in Godzilla Minus One but I dont wanna spoil. I will say that one scene (you'll know which one when u watch it) is inspired by Jaws and it is so awesome :3
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In The Big Lebowsky bathtub scene, the intruders have a ferret, but The Dude calls it a marmot in that scene and in the scene where he and the guys are discussing it later. The script originally called for a marmot, but in filming, the marmot was deemed too large for the scene, so they switched it with a ferret, but did not adjust the script to reflect the change.
10 - 20 (depending on the source) of the small boats we see on screen in "Dunkirk" were actually part of the real Operation Dynamo back in 1940
One of my favorite weird film trivia bits comes from a cheesy 1990s Hulk Hogan move called Mr. Nanny. In one scene where Hulk's riding down the road on his motorcycle, you can see some guy throwing a dog into a river in the background. This was a random background event not intended to be in the film at all by the director, they just left it in when editing the movie because it was easier than re-shooting that sequence.
These shows are part of why I haven't watched much tv/cable at all since early 2019. I gave up!
In Godzilla Minus One, the final act gets really blurry and hard to see. This is a reference to the fact that I wasnt expecting to cry during a Godzilla film (I stole this joke from a reddit screenshot btw)
But also, in Godzilla vs Kong, when Kong shoves his axe in Godzilla's mouth, its a reference to King Kong shoving a tree in Godzillas mouth in the 1962 film, King Kong vs Godzilla. Godzilla and Kong also occasionally use their 1962 roars in the movie. TBH, all monsterverse films (Godzilla 2014, Godzilla Kotm, GvK, and likely GxK) are so full of references it seems like they might actually just be copying minor plot details. Also several references to Godzilla (1954) are made in Godzilla Minus One but I dont wanna spoil. I will say that one scene (you'll know which one when u watch it) is inspired by Jaws and it is so awesome :3
Load More Replies... In The Big Lebowsky bathtub scene, the intruders have a ferret, but The Dude calls it a marmot in that scene and in the scene where he and the guys are discussing it later. The script originally called for a marmot, but in filming, the marmot was deemed too large for the scene, so they switched it with a ferret, but did not adjust the script to reflect the change.
10 - 20 (depending on the source) of the small boats we see on screen in "Dunkirk" were actually part of the real Operation Dynamo back in 1940
One of my favorite weird film trivia bits comes from a cheesy 1990s Hulk Hogan move called Mr. Nanny. In one scene where Hulk's riding down the road on his motorcycle, you can see some guy throwing a dog into a river in the background. This was a random background event not intended to be in the film at all by the director, they just left it in when editing the movie because it was easier than re-shooting that sequence.
These shows are part of why I haven't watched much tv/cable at all since early 2019. I gave up!
