48 Wildly Interesting Movie Facts You Didn’t Know – Part 9

The set of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" was a real mental hospital and many of the extras were authentic mental patients.

27. In the famous 'Casablanca' scene where French refugees defy the Nazis by singing their national anthem, many are played by actual refugees who had just fled the Nazis, which is why many are visibly weeping as they sing.

28. The pool under the gym floor from "It's a Wonderful Life" is a real pool, and it is still in operation today at Beverly Hills High.

29. During the filming of the movie "The Viking" (1931) 25 crew members and a stowaway were killed when the ship SS Viking exploded among icebergs. It is still the largest loss of life in film-making history.

30. The "Burning of Atlanta" scene in "Gone with the Wind" was shot with full-size burning facades and all of the only seven Technicolor cameras in existence at the time.

The scene in Jaws where Matt Hooper is attacked in the cage was actually performed by a 4'9" horse jockey in a smaller cage to make the sharks look bigger.

32. The streaking scene in 'Old School' was filmed at night and every store was closed except a 24 hour gym. On the first take, several people in the gym shrieked in horror as a naked Will Ferrell passed by them. In the ensuing takes no one was near the gym's windows.

33. The movie 'Magical Mystery Tour' was largely unscripted. The Beatles simply told the crew and cast to "be on the coach on Monday morning". The movie didn't even have a stunt driver. In the race scene, the bus was driven by Ringo.

34. The movie 'Whiplash' (2014), was shot in 19 days, with a schedule of 14 hours of filming per day. Also, Chazelle (Director) was involved in a serious car accident in the third week of shooting and was hospitalized with a possible concussion, but he returned to set the next day to finish the film on time.

35. During the filming of the 1978 film "Invasion of the Body Snatchers", actress Veronica Cartwright was not told the film would end with Donald Sutherland delivering his infamous pod shriek rather than meeting him for an actual conversation. She was genuinely terrified when Sutherland shrieked at her.

While filming Reservoir Dogs, Tim Roth had lain in the pool of fake blood for so long that the blood dried out and he had to be peeled off the floor, which took several minutes.

37. The dancers in the movie 'Fame' (1980) didn't dance to the title track 'Fame' in the street scene. They danced to a different song, to Donna Summer's 'Hot Stuff' as at the time of the three-day shoot, the song hadn't been written.

38. The odd little 'glove guns' used in the Quentin Tarantino movie 'Inglorious Basterds' are a real thing. Known as the Sedgley OSS .38’s they were originally designed for covert operations and assassinations in the Pacific Theater during WW2.

39. The shadows on the Velociraptor in this scene in Jurassic Park are DNA nucleotide sequences.

40. The 1980 film 'Airplane!' was released as "The Incredible Journey in a Crazy Plane" in Germany; "The Craziest Plane in the World" in Italy; and some variation of "Is There a Pilot on This Plane?" in France, Croatia, and Peru.

The handshake in agreement meme is based on this scene from "Predator" and the arms in the meme represent Arnold Schwarzenegger and Carl Weathers respectively.

42. Whilst filming 'Man on the Moon' at Universal Studios in 1999, Jim Carrey once dressed as Mrs. Bates from 'Psycho' and terrorised a tram of tourists passing the film's sets on the Studio Tour. As a result, the tour has included an actor that slowly approaches the trams as they pass ever since.

43. In the movie 'The Princess Bride', when Count Rugen knocks Westly played by Cary Elwes on the head the tap came a little too hard and Elwes was knocked legitimately unconscious. He later awoke in the hospital. It's that take, with Elwes actually passing out, that appears in the film.

44. While filming a scene for the film "Vampire’s Kiss" (1988), Nicholas Cage ate real cockroaches and it was his idea to do so.

45. The 2007 film "The Simpsons movie" was outsourced to North Korea's SEK studios.

The Wicked Witch in 'The Wizard of Oz' wore extremely toxic paint to make her face green. It contained high levels of copper. Actress, Margaret Hamilton, had to be on a strict liquid diet while filming due to this.

47. The gangster scene in Home Alone was from a fake movie called "Angels with Filthy Souls" and was specifically shot for Home Alone.

48. In the 1987 film 'Predator', the monster was originally designed to look like a giant bug-eyed lizard thing and was actually played by Jean-Claude Van Damme. The monster scenes were later reshot with the new predator designed by Stan Winston.