31 Thornton’s Drunken Escalator Stunt
Billy Bob Thornton actually got drunk for his scenes in “Bad Santa” (2003). During the escalator fall scene, he passed out after consuming three glasses of red wine for breakfast, followed by vodkas with cranberry juice, and then a few Bud Lights.
32 Foster’s Role in Taxi Driver
Jodie Foster, who was cast as a child prostitute in “Taxi Driver,” underwent psychiatric assessments and had a social worker accompany her all the time on set. Her older sister, Connie, served as her stand-in for sexually suggestive scenes.
33 Saving Private Ryan’s Costly Scene
The Normandy beach landing scene in “Saving Private Ryan” cost $12 million and involved up to 1,500 extras, including members of the Irish Reserve Defense Force. It is often hailed as one of the best battle scenes of all time.
34 Mr. Robot’s Realistic Hacking
The TV show “Mr. Robot” employed hackers and cybersecurity experts as advisors to ensure accurate depictions of hacking. The technical team performed hacking scenes in real life, which were then recorded and recreated using Flash animation.
35 Caan’s Improvisation in The Godfather
While filming “The Godfather,” actor James Caan improvised a scene by breaking the FBI character’s camera in a heated moment. Drawing from his upbringing, he instinctively paid for the damages before walking away.
36 Laughter on Young Frankenstein Set
The crew of “Young Frankenstein” (1974) often ruined takes with their laughter, necessitating reshoots. The actors maintained their composure, but the crew’s amusement disrupted filming.
37 V for Vendetta’s Domino Spectacle
The falling dominoes scene in “V for Vendetta” involved 22,000 dominoes, which four professional domino assemblers set up over a two-day shoot.
Latest FactRepublic Video:
15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
38 Rain Man’s Edited Airline Scene
Upon its release, many airlines edited “Rain Man” to remove Ray’s mention of crash records for specific airlines. However, Qantas showed the scene in full, as Ray stated they “never crashed.”
39 Psycho’s Toilet Scene Controversy
The scene in Hitchcock’s “Psycho,” where Marion flushes money down the toilet, was very controversial because it marked the first appearance of a flushing toilet in mainstream U.S. film and television.
40 Skarsgård Scares It Cast
The young cast of “It” received warnings about Bill Skarsgård’s unsettling portrayal of Pennywise before they met him. They initially dismissed the warnings, but during their first scene together, Skarsgård scared them so much that many started crying or screaming.
RE: Fact #26 (Real 747 Crash in “Tenet”) – Wonder if he’ll ever figure out how to make dialogue you can actually hear.
Seriously, it’d probably be cheaper to just hire someone to sit next to you at the movies and whisper the lines.
RE: Fact #1 (Keaton’s Batman Whisper on Set) – He was a really great villain. I think he managed to make Vulture feel intimidating for the first time ever.
Yeah, totally. Vulture in the comics always seemed like a pretty basic bad guy for Spiderman, especially when you think about characters like Venom, Green Goblin, Hobgoblin, Kraven, and my personal fave, Carnage.
Even Rhino has his good moments. The Lizard and Doctor Octopus have a personal connection to Peter. Mysterio had one solid moment early on in Old Man Logan. But the Vulture, Chameleon, and Shocker always felt like they were just there to get beat up in the comics.
And it’s funny, the stronger his villains were, the less threatening they felt sometimes, like Sandman, Hydroman, and The Spot. If those guys just stayed put in the desert, in the ocean, or didn’t exhaust themselves punching themselves, they probably could’ve taken on anyone who wasn’t a reality bender.
He’s really rocking that vibe of, “You mess with my ability to provide for my family, and there’s no limit to what I’ll do to hurt you!”
He’s also given the character a vibe that’s not exactly villainous, but not good either. The writers managed to turn a really dumb villain into someone you can actually believe in.
Yeah, not only is that villain intimidating, but the script also made them really understandable. Keaton totally nailed it.
I totally get why he’s one of your favorite MCU villains. You can really see how everything that happened pushed him to where he ended up, and his goals felt totally in line with who he was.
He’s probably the best villain we’ve seen in the MCU films. His motive makes sense, he’s genuinely intimidating, and his plan is easy to follow. Plus, the final showdown isn’t just a simple punch-up between two equally matched characters, and he even gets a little moment of redemption at the end.
RE: Fact #34 (Mr. Robot’s Realistic Hacking) – Honestly, what’s the point? After watching “The Net,” can any other show really be more realistic than that?
RE: Fact #11 (Psychologists Influence Dinosaur Consolation Scene) – Man, Rooter was kind of a jerk for just ditching Littlefoot right after they talked. Like, poof, gone. Just leaving the kid there to fend for themselves.
RE: Fact #21 (Clown Attraction Surge Post-“It” (2017)) – Pornhub noticed a 213% jump in clown porn searches, and surprisingly, women were 33% more likely to search for it than men.
Miss Quin, a 29-year-old performer who identifies as a coulrophiliac, didn’t always feel comfortable with her attraction to clowns. She mentioned that her first serious lover shamed her for it, so she kept it private for years. About a year before she started making and selling videos on Clips4sale in 2012, she saw it as a way to safely explore something she’d hidden. She felt it was time to prioritize her own happiness, and by being open, she encouraged others. Now, there’s a lot more clown porn available for everyone to enjoy and be a little confused by.
In her videos, Miss Quin plays three main characters: The Ringleader, who’s more dominant and wicked; Slut Clown, focused on pleasure; and Purple Clown, a mix of the two with a more classic clown sense of humor. She uses props like juggling balls and cream pies, and enjoys smearing her partner with clown makeup, turning them into a piece of art.
There’s a definite BDSM aspect to this fetish, with spankings, bondage, and domination being common. It can get pretty messy, often involving shaving cream pies (easier to clean than real food), squeaky hammers, rubber chickens, whoopie cushions, and dildos for role-swapping and keeping things interesting.
Just talking about clown sex excites them now. They might share a knowing glance if they see someone get pied in a comedy, or Miffy might spot an item of clothing while shopping and say, “This would be great for M.” They have a private code for discussing it in public.
Even just putting on a clown suit can be a turn-on for Jason. He has the full outfit, including floppy shoes and accessories, and often wears it alone to masturbate as his colorful alter ego. His clown fetish often blends with his cross-dressing fetish, and while he usually dresses as a male clown, he sometimes enjoys being a flamboyant lady clown, dreaming of becoming an over-the-top clown drag queen.
What’s so appealing about clowns? Everyone interviewed pointed to the fun and silly aspects. Blitz explained it’s about the freedom to be silly and not take sex too seriously. Sex often comes with pressure about body image, pleasing a partner, and romantic expectations. Clown sex, on the other hand, is intentionally spontaneous, silly, and awkward, making it a different kind of fun.
I’m picturing a funny video like a clown car situation, where a woman gets picked up by a small fake taxi. Then, when you see inside, there are like 50 clowns all ready to go.
If I see someone with a bunch of shaving cream in their cart, I’ll totally think of this!
I used this as a way to help my disabled kid with therapy for years. If they look like a tired parent or teacher, it’s probably not anything scandalous going on.
When the guy orgasms, does it come out of the little flower?
It looks like a bunch of handkerchiefs all strung together.
RE: Fact #2 (Oscar Isaac’s Yavin 4 Connection) – That’s pretty neat, but I’ve got to be the pedant here: Yavin 4 is actually a moon, not a planet. The gas giant itself is called Yavin, and Yavin 4 is its fourth moon.
Could a moon actually be a place where life could exist? Or would the fact that it’s orbiting a planet that’s circling a sun make that kind of thing trickier, for real?
Pandora in Avatar was a moon.
It’s tough to be sure since we only have one example of an inhabitable world right now, but I bet there would be some extra difficulties. For instance, gas giants usually have huge magnetic fields that would blast the surface with intense radiation. But hey, if we’re going to get picky about Star Wars’ science, we’ll be here all day!
I’m not sure, but the forest moon of Endor makes me think “yes.”
RE: Fact #21 (Clown Attraction Surge Post-“It” (2017)) – It’s pretty much a given that if there’s a male monster, there will be women who find it attractive, just like how men tend to fetishize female characters.
Yeah, it’s wild how some truly awful people like Dahmer and Bundy still had tons of female fans.
I never quite got that either. He was known as a gay, cannibalistic pedophile who wasn’t interested in women. But that one interview was pretty funny when he said he’s a monster, not a racist.
When I think of fu*king monsters, I picture things like sexy ghosts. But apparently, women think of serial killers.
Remember that animated movie, The Lorax? A lot of women really liked the character, the Once-ler, and ended up writing fan-fiction stories about him.
it gets even better than that, since they didn’t have any good character pairings for him, they ended up shipping him with himself. The main pairing was the hopeful start of the movie Onceler with the “how bad can I be” version of Onceler.
RE: Fact #47 (Snow White’s Real Blush Innovation) – Nah, this is just an old rumor that’s been busted. They used a reddish dye for it, and pretty much all the inking was done by this one person, Helen Ogger.
Honestly, I’m not sure what to think anymore.
RE: Fact #32 (Foster’s Role in Taxi Driver) – Seriously, what the fu*k?
RE: Fact #12 (Director Joins Cast in BattleTroopers) – I’m totally sure Verhoeven would be down for that.
He’s Dutch, and we’re not prudish.
I guess he was planning to do it without them asking.
RE: Fact #35 (Caan’s Improvisation in The Godfather) – So, Caan was in the Don Corleone office scene and, with no lines, he just turned away from Brando and grabbed some peanuts. Brando then ad-libbed, “Hey! You wanna pay attention here?” For the rest of the scene, Caan was totally wondering if Brando was mad at him or thought he was trying to steal the spotlight. Once the scene was over, Brando told him, “That was perfect! That’s exactly what Sonny would do. Brilliant!”
Sonny was supposed to be paying attention and learning, but he was just bored and all he could think about was fu*king Lucy.
Sonny just wasn’t cut out for being a Don.
RE: Fact #34 (Mr. Robot’s Realistic Hacking) – Hacking only counts if it’s like that scene in The Matrix where code is raining down.
If you’re not diving through digital archives to find the right spot to hack the Gibson, then it’s not really hacking.
RE: Fact #19 (Shared Score Between Star Wars and Harry Potter) – That scene where General Grievous totally takes down Dobby was awesome. Really cool stuff.
Just wanted to point out that Grievous wasn’t in Attack of the Clones, he only showed up in Revenge of the Sith.
Glad you stepped up, because I was about to!
I loved that bit where Yoda led the house elf uprising.
RE: Fact #15 (Interactive Ghost Viewing in 1960 Film) – I remember wearing those special glasses in the theater. It was pretty awesome!
So, I haven’t seen this movie or read any plot spoilers, and I’m curious: what did you decide to do? Did seeing the ghosts or not seeing them add to the suspense and really change how you experienced the film?
This movie is about a super rich guy who’s dying. He spent years collecting ghosts and invented special goggles that let you see them. There’s also hidden money and inheritance stuff.
In the film, you only see the ghosts when someone’s wearing the goggles. One ghost was a headless lion tamer. The goggles were basically how the audience got to “participate” in the movie. You could see what the ghost was doing, or if they were right behind someone. You could also take the goggles off and just see what was happening without the ghosts.
It’s a pretty mild movie by today’s standards, not like that reboot with Tony Shalhoub. But it’ll always be special to me. It’s not cheesy, but when I was little, I remember it being kinda creepy. I would’ve loved to see it in theaters and mess around with the 3D glasses if I hadn’t been born a few decades later! The ghosts aren’t always on screen, so as far as I know, the glasses were only interactive when the ghosts showed up.
RE: Fact #46 (Drew Barrymore’s Real 911 Call) – When I was about seven, my younger step-sister had a Hello Kitty phone. I thought it was a toy and called 911. When the dispatcher answered, I freaked out and hung up. It was a landline, so they found our address and sent a police car. Thankfully, after I explained, everyone just had a good laugh.
RE: Fact #39 (Psycho’s Toilet Scene Controversy) – He really fought hard to keep it in the movie and made it a key part of the plot. He was super dedicated to keeping that toilet in.
I was just reading about how he totally brushed off the film board’s suggestions. Hitchcock basically said, “Let me keep the shower scene, and I’ll film the opening again with you there.” But the film board didn’t even show up, so Hitchcock was like, “Alright, guess I’ll just stick with my original opening.” What a character.
Seriously, why was that even a big deal to begin with? Hollywood is such a strange place.
Back then, it was considered pretty vulgar. The Brady Bunch’s bathroom set didn’t have a toilet for that exact same reason.
RE: Fact #11 (Psychologists Influence Dinosaur Consolation Scene) – Man, this brings back some sad childhood memories for me. It felt like between Simba and Littlefoot, I was always on edge, waiting for something bad to happen.
RE: Fact #33 (Saving Private Ryan’s Costly Scene) – This is totally one of my favorite movies too! The sound effects are seriously amazing, they make it feel so real. But there’s one scene that really stuck with me, even more than the beach landing. It was this knife fight where one soldier basically convinces the other to just give up and let the knife do the work. It was incredibly powerful and absolutely horrifying.
That scene seriously turned me off the movie, and I still get so mad thinking about it.
Yeah, that was super personal and brutal. War is just awful, and Spielberg really nailed showing so many sides of it.
RE: Fact #49 (JAWS 2’s Real Shark Encounter) – No matter what’s going on, if you’re feeling scared, panicked, or in pain, you always need a safe word.
RE: Fact #42 (Michael Caine’s Inception Confusion) – Michael Caine, who was in Jaws: The Revenge, said he’s never actually seen the movie. He mentioned that from what he’s heard, it’s pretty awful, but he did say the money it made was great.
RE: Fact #27 (Rudolph Fans Save Misfit Toys) – So, the original Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer special ended with Rudolph reuniting with his family and Santa promising to help the Misfit Toys. Then, after a blizzard that puts Christmas in jeopardy, Rudolph’s nose saves the day. That’s how it wrapped up, with Rudolph saving Santa’s delivery.
But here’s the thing: the Misfit Toys never actually got saved in that original ending. I guess the filmmakers figured Santa’s promise was enough, since he doesn’t usually make false promises. Still, people watching weren’t convinced and, back in the day before the internet, they complained by sending messages to NBC.
Because of that, when the special was re-aired in 1965, they added a whole new scene. In it, Santa’s very first stop on Christmas Eve is the Island of Misfit Toys. He picks them all up and delivers them to kids. That’s the version that’s been the official one ever since.
Yeah, I get why they wouldn’t trust Santa. He was a total jerk to Rudolph. Basically, Santa was like, “Ho Ho Ho! Your glowing nose is a genetic thing? No way are you pulling my sleigh, you little freak!” Then, a bit later, he’s like, “Hey Rudolph, sorry I was such a jerk since you were born and didn’t know it hurt your feelings. But since you’re here, think you can light up the way for my sleigh team? It’s super foggy and I can’t see sh*t.”
Watching this with my son the other day, Santa’s a total jerk in this movie. He straight up told Donner he should be ashamed of his deformed son. Who does that? Then he couldn’t care less about the elves’ musical performance. It’s only when he needs Rudolph for something that he finally accepts him for being different. You’re right, he’s just a complete dick.
All the reindeer loved him and shouted out with glee, “Rudolph the red nosed reindeer, thank you for letting us take advantage of your disability.”
RE: Fact #17 (Eurotrip Uses Prague for Global Scenes) – I really love this movie. If I remember correctly, you could buy a hotel for a dollar.
RE: Fact #28 (Improvised Dance in “Napoleon Dynamite”) – Back in high school, we had this project where we had to remake a movie. My group picked Napoleon Dynamite, and we had this guy who was kinda chubby and not doing too well in the class, but he ended up playing Napoleon. When we got to the dance scene, we figured he wouldn’t nail it, but surprise! As soon as they started filming, he absolutely crushed the dance, doing one of the most spot-on versions we’d ever seen. Turns out, he’d been practicing an hour every night for the last month to get it perfect.
I totally did something similar back in high school. I’d wait until my family was asleep, then sneak into the garage for an hour or two every night to practice the dance. Took me a few weeks, but I absolutely killed it at the talent show.
RE: Fact #23 (Real Snake Killed in “Friday the 13th”) – I remember hearing the director talk about the rat handler for *I Drink Your Blood*. She was really careful about bringing her rats out for that barbecue scene, and thankfully, none of her special rats ended up getting barbecued. They used dead rat bodies from somewhere else for the scene.
RE: Fact #17 (Eurotrip Uses Prague for Global Scenes) – Shhh, Scotty doesn’t know…
Yeah, I remember reading that Matt Damon was in Prague for another film, and his buddies who wrote Eurotrip asked him to pop in for a cameo. He apparently said yes, but he really committed to it!
The director’s commentary was awesome. It was his first movie, and they talked about how they managed to pull it off and how they were figuring things out as they went.
Seriously, Matt Damon totally nailed that cameo.
Back in high school, I really couldn’t stand that song.
RE: Fact #43 (Charlotte Rampling’s Dune Experience) – The documentary Jodorowsky’s Dune intentionally left that scene out.
I’ve read most of his comics, so this isn’t surprising at all. I actually kind of expected it.
So, it turns out Jodorowsky really had a thing about people sh*tting. Apparently, George Harrison was originally going to play the main part in “The Holy Mountain,” but he left the project because Jodorowsky wouldn’t budge on including a sh*tting scene.
RE: Fact #40 (Skarsgård Scares It Cast) – That movie really made me nervous about clowns when I was a kid. I rewatched it not too long ago, and while the whole thing wasn’t super scary, Pennywise was creepy in every single scene.
RE: Fact #36 (Laughter on Young Frankenstein Set) – Filming the scene with Gene Hackman as the hermit took a whole week because everyone kept cracking up and couldn’t stop laughing long enough to get through it. On the bright side, Mel Brooks only agreed to include “Puttin’ on the Ritz” if it could make the crew laugh, and it totally did.
RE: Fact #42 (Michael Caine’s Inception Confusion) – Yeah, with Tom Hardy, Marion Cotillard, and Cillian Murphy in Inception, it felt like half of Batman’s villains were already there! It’s funny how many Nolanverse actors popped up in that movie when you really think about it.
This is why people think Dark Knight Rises is a sequel to Inception. The idea is that the team is trying to break into Bruce Wayne’s mind to steal his secrets, which they believe are hidden in the Batcave. In this theory, Batman isn’t real, but is actually a security system created from Wayne’s subconscious. The team sets up the whole Bane situation as an external threat so that Batman focuses on fighting him, instead of Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s character, who is the one really trying to get the information.
This stuff makes me have trust issues.
RE: Fact #35 (Caan’s Improvisation in The Godfather) – What are you going to do, college boy? Get mixed up with the family business?
Sonny totally brushes off Michael’s WWII combat service, and I love that.
It’s pretty wild to think about, because Marines in the Pacific did some really crazy stuff that they still talk about today. Like, Gunny Basilone is a good example.
RE: Fact #33 (Saving Private Ryan’s Costly Scene) – I saw the movie at the theater with a couple of friends not too long after it came out. When we got to our seats, there was a group of teens in front of us who were being pretty loud before the movie began, and they talked a bit during the part before the invasion. But once that started, they went completely silent and stayed that way the whole time. They were also really quiet when they left. I don’t think they really knew what war was like before watching it, but I’m pretty sure they understood after.
RE: Fact #31 (Thornton’s Drunken Escalator Stunt) – So, when I was like 9, my uncle wanted to take me to the movies for Christmas since I was visiting him. The movie we actually wanted to see was sold out, but he managed to grab tickets for this other one. Honestly, 9-year-old me was totally not ready for that film.
RE: Fact #18 (Kazakhstan Scenes Filmed in Romanian Village) – I always thought that was a bit weird. With all the “Gypsy” stuff, it really made Kazakhstan seem like it was in Eastern Europe. But it’s like 5000 km away and the native people are Asian.
The Qazaqs are a Muslim nation with Mongol features who speak Russian. It’s a generalization, for sure, but it just shows how complex they are as people, like everyone else on the planet.
I always figured it was meant as a jab at how Westerners can be ignorant about faraway places, not an actual attempt to depict a specific location. It was just more satire, you know?
RE: Fact #37 (V for Vendetta’s Domino Spectacle) – Wow just learned that there are professional domino assemblers. Wish that recruiter had swung by my school.
RE: Fact #50 (Jack Nicholson’s Real Door Break) – I always thought he did a good job chopping through the door. He twists the axe to get the fibers to break, and he chops a hole through the thinner panels of the door instead of just randomly hacking.
And that just makes it even creepier, right?
I still think that the only thing scarier than a killer who gets the job done quickly is one who does it slowly and on purpose.
RE: Fact #41 (Daniel Radcliffe Embraces Odd Role) – Whoa, I guess I missed this movie. I just saw the trailer, and what the fu*k? Is the actual movie as weird as that trailer made it seem?
It’s super weird at first, but it ends up being really good. It’s kind of like that part in Castaway where Tom Hanks connects with a basketball, but even more unique and enjoyable.
It just keeps getting weirder and weirder, then suddenly hits you with a cold dose of reality before completely veering back into weirdness right at the end.
RE: Fact #25 (Practical Stunt in “The Dark Knight”) – And also, the trailer was actually welded onto the truck. The whole setup was reinforced so it could flip over, not just have the trailer go flying.
Once you notice it, the exhaust is really hard to miss.
Yeah, that’s always bothered me too. It’s obviously a cloud of compressed air. I don’t usually use the word “plume” myself, so seeing it felt a bit strange. It means to spread out in a shape like a feather, like when smoke comes out of chimneys.
RE: Fact #10 (De Niro’s Intense Deer Hunter Request) – Seriously, checking it before every take isn’t obsessive at all. I mean, who wouldn’t do that?
RE: Fact #3 (Laura Dern’s Ice Cream Endurance) – Guess that’s what it takes to act! Pass me the Haagen-Dazs, and I’ll channel my inner Meryl Streep.
RE: Fact #36 (Laughter on Young Frankenstein Set) – So, the story goes that Rick Moranis is supposed to be a bit of a handful on set, needing to do takes multiple times. But it’s not because he’s a jerk or slacking off. Apparently, even though he gets his lines perfect, he’s so hilarious that his co-stars can’t stop laughing at his performance, which ends up needing retakes.
RE: Fact #10 (De Niro’s Intense Deer Hunter Request) – Sorry Bobby, that’s not acting anymore, it’s just Russian Roulette on film.
It’s still completely wild even if they’re both used to guns and are super careful to make sure a live round isn’t ever in a position to be fired in one take. Like, if they’re obsessively checking that the live round won’t get chambered, it’s still insane. There’s just no good reason to do it other than to brag about doing it.
When they push for it, I’d just make something up that doesn’t actually work, like a fake primer or something.
If I were Cazale, I would have walked off the set until those live rounds were cleared. There’s no excuse for that kind of sh*t.
RE: Fact #24 (Groundhog Day’s Unexplained Time Loop) – Harold said Phil was in the loop for 10 years, but the screenwriter said 10,000 years. That really ups the crazy factor when you read it.
Stephen Tobolowsky asked Harold Ramis how long Bill was trapped in the town. Harold Ramis, who was playing his guitar, said it was 10,000 years. When asked why, Harold explained that in Buddhism, it’s believed to take 10,000 years to perfect the human soul, which is the story of ‘Groundhog Day’.
RE: Fact #22 (Asbestos Snow in Wizard of Oz) – Yeah, they used a lot of asbestos in old movies to make it look like snow.
I think they used cornflakes in It’s a Wonderful Life.
They actually used a kind of foamy soap for that in the movie. Corn flakes were way too noisy, and Capra didn’t want that.
RE: Fact #33 (Saving Private Ryan’s Costly Scene) – A lot of World War II vets said this movie showed combat more realistically than anything they’d seen before. It was so real that guys who were actually in D-Day and Vietnam couldn’t even finish the first scene showing the Normandy invasion and had to walk out. After the movie came out, more veterans started seeing counselors for PTSD, and many of those counselors told veterans who were more sensitive mentally that they should skip watching it. Spielberg really didn’t pull any punches showing how brutal war is in this film.
RE: Fact #11 (Psychologists Influence Dinosaur Consolation Scene) – This movie brings back so many childhood memories, I absolutely love it!
I don’t recall it perfectly, but I definitely watched it quite a few times back in the day. I’ve never caught any of the follow-up movies, though. I seem to have two or three specific memories from it: one about tectonic plates shifting, and the other is that rhyme, “Don’t step on the crack, or you’ll break your mother’s back.” I think I probably saw it on VHS around ’89 or ’90 and haven’t revisited it since then.
It’s on Netflix. Definitely still worth checking out.
RE: Fact #34 (Mr. Robot’s Realistic Hacking) – Even if the tech stuff wasn’t perfectly right, I was happy they showed hacking as something that takes planning, time, and involves tricking people, rather than just happening out of nowhere.
They have this scene where they complain about the movie “Hackers,” which I thought was totally perfect.
A lot of hackers actually really dig that movie.
It’s so strange, I really dislike fake computer stuff in movies, and Hackers is loaded with it, but I absolutely love that movie. I have no idea why. Anyway, now I kinda want to watch Hackers again.
I agree. A lot of people don’t realize that many hackers aren’t backed by governments, so they’re usually outmatched and outspent in places they have little control over or can’t see the whole picture of.
When going after an easy target, it’s all about being smooth and quiet. Your attack steps have to be in sync with each tool you use, and you gotta be super quick. It can take someone a couple of weeks just to gather info before they feel ready to strike. The only real advantage a good hacker has is that the target has to defend everything constantly, so the hacker can find the weakest point and hit when it’ll cause the most disruption.
I haven’t met many system admins who’d jump out of bed for a possible security issue at 3 AM on Christmas or Thanksgiving.
Hacking on a Friday night? Yeah, you can pretty much bet most of the people you’re trying to get into will be pretty sloshed.
So, are scam artists basically “people hackers”?
RE: Fact #4 (Disney’s Spaghetti Scene Reversal) – This totally reminds me of times at work when I’d have an idea for a cool program, my boss would say it was dumb, and I’d end up staying late to whip up a demo. Then, surprise surprise, they’d end up loving it and even depending on it, and I got absolutely nothing for it.
RE: Fact #23 (Real Snake Killed in “Friday the 13th”) – I work in the indie film scene and I’ve seen so many jerks who ruin things for everyone else. Some productions totally disrespect locations, trash expensive costumes and props, permanently damage historic sites, and even hurt people or animals. It’s just a huge, unexpected pain. These kinds of productions are why people get so hesitant to work with good ones. Whenever I get even a hint of bad behavior on our sets that hurts others, I shut that sh*t down immediately. Productions that are willing to hurt others for their “art” end up harming the whole industry. It makes me so mad just thinking about some of the things that have happened around here.
So, I’m graduating film school soon and I’m honestly not sure how I’d handle being on a set where animals got hurt, especially if it was on purpose. I’d probably lose it, but what do you do when you’re new and your whole career could be on the line if you speak up? How does whistleblowing even work in that situation?
RE: Fact #24 (Groundhog Day’s Unexplained Time Loop) – Basically, Phil was just really unhappy and stuck in a loop until he learned to change. No need to overcomplicate it, glad they kept that part simple.
RE: Fact #18 (Kazakhstan Scenes Filmed in Romanian Village) – The first sign you’re not in a documentary is when everyone involved is getting paid.
Even if they were paid to be there, the language differences probably made it hard for everyone to know how they’d come across. I bet a lot of editing happened after filming that they couldn’t control either.
Showing this to a Western audience makes people in lower-income Asian and European areas look bad. There are already so many negative stereotypes, especially about lower-class Europeans. It’s just as rude to paint all poor Americans as ‘hicks’ or ‘trailer trash’.
While some might find this kind of media funny, it could really misrepresent Asian and European immigrants in the US. Their language struggles or difficulty fitting into American culture might get linked to a fake, negative portrayal of their culture in Western media.
I get the parody idea, and if it was all filmed legally and ethically, that’s great. I’m just frustrated that there aren’t many well-known portrayals of lower-income European life. I wish filmmakers would spend more time highlighting cultures from that part of the world, because there are tons of amazing, interesting stories and great people who deserve to be seen.
RE: Fact #44 (Misery Scene Altered for Impact) – Still having nightmares about that scene!
When I was a kid, I was at my relatives’ place and they had HBO. I was flipping through channels and saw this scene where a woman was talking to a man in bed, begging him not to leave or something. Then, she suddenly BUSTED HIS FRICKING ANKLES OPEN WITH A SLEDGEHAMMER! That totally freaked me out as a kid.
I can’t watch her in anything without thinking of that. Like when she was in Fried Green Tomatoes and there was that fender bender scene, I was thinking, “Oooooh, you got off LUCKY!”
Does that happen in the book too?
Yeah, that book was pretty intense. Definitely worth a read!
This, along with that scene with teeth and a curb from American History X, are things that really stick with me when I think about body horror.
RE: Fact #18 (Kazakhstan Scenes Filmed in Romanian Village) – So they only had an issue after the movie was released? They were fine with the parade where a giant Jewish woman laid a Jew egg and the kids had to stomp it before it hatched?
So, they knew it was a documentary and the whole idea was explained to them. But then some lawyer reached out and asked if they wanted to sue, and that’s when they started saying they were misled.
There’s a documentary out there that makes it pretty clear the lawyer coached them on what to say to get paid. At one point, the lawyer, who’s Jewish, said something like “You people were persecuted like my people.” It’s a really weird thing to say.
Someone pointed out that the lawyer was probably talking about how the gypsies in the village were persecuted during the war, just like Jewish people. When I first saw it, I thought he was comparing the villagers being “tricked” into being in the film with how the Jews were treated by the Nazis.
What do you mean by “you people were persecuted like my people”? It’s hard to argue that a community in such poverty as shown in the movie wasn’t being taken advantage of by a lot of different people.
RE: Fact #28 (Improvised Dance in “Napoleon Dynamite”) – Black Sabbath actually wrote one of their most famous songs in the studio on the same day they recorded it. They had time for one more track and a couple of hours of studio time left, so they decided to write “Paranoid” while they were at it. Pretty wild, that song ended up being the title track for the album and was their only one to hit the top 20.
This song, American Woman, was actually improvised live at a concert. The guitarist was replacing his strings and just riffing to tune up, which turned into a jam session. The lead singer then started making up lyrics on the spot!
So, the other band members gradually started coming back in, which is why it jumps from just quiet guitar and singing to suddenly exploding with sound.
It’s funny, the crowd at the concert thought it was great, but The Guess Who themselves had no clue what they’d just played. But as luck would have it, someone was recording the show on a cassette to share later. The band saw him, asked for the tape, listened to it, and pretty much rewrote their own song based on it.
RE: Fact #49 (JAWS 2’s Real Shark Encounter) – While there have been a few hammerhead attacks on people, as far as I know, none have been deadly. You can actually swim with them without any gear pretty safely. But still, being in the middle of the ocean and surrounded by something 15 feet long, no matter what kind of shark it is, would be pretty intense and definitely make you feel small.
RE: Fact #47 (Snow White’s Real Blush Innovation) – When Walt asked if the girls could really put rouge on consistently for each cel, she quipped, “What do you think we’ve been doing to our own faces all our lives?” She’s a legend.
RE: Fact #13 (Kubrick’s Clever Blood Trailer Trick) – It’s kind of like rusty water when you really think about it, isn’t it?
RE: Fact #44 (Misery Scene Altered for Impact) – The movies get watered down a lot. That’s probably why they’re so tough to adapt. More main characters usually end up dead, there’s underage gang stuff… Instead of “here’s Johnny!” the character screams something like “nowhere left to run, you c*nt” in the book. With Cujo, I think the mom and kid die of dehydration at the end. All sorts of dark things happen.
And at the end of Children of the Corn, the woman has corn cobs shoved in her mouth and other places, described in really graphic detail, before she’s impaled on a spike.
That “Here’s Johnny” line gives me the creeps, but I guess Jack was just really good at playing the uncomfortable part.
So, the kid passes away from dehydration, and the mom is saved. That’s the only Stephen King book I ever read, mainly ’cause I was curious if he got the rabies part right. Turns out, he pretty much did.
RE: Fact #6 (Ermey’s Efficient Full Metal Jacket Takes) – If there’s one thing military folks know a lot about, it’s doing the same thing again and again.
RE: Fact #7 (Bong Joon Ho’s Fish Scene Fable) – That guy really almost messed up Snowpiercer, and that’s not even mentioning everything else he did.
RE: Fact #50 (Jack Nicholson’s Real Door Break) – You can get a photo of yourself sticking your head through that door at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, CO. It’s not the actual filming location, but it’s where Stephen King stayed, had a nightmare about his son, and came up with the main story for The Shining. There was also a guy dressed as Jack Nicholson in a purple suit hanging out near the entrance.
They shot that Stephen King miniseries at the Stanley. It’s a really beautiful old hotel. I even stayed in one of the “haunted” rooms on the fourth floor. He and his wife stayed there for one night right before it closed for the winter, and they were the only guests. He had a nightmare that night about his son running through the empty halls. The story is that he smoked a cigarette after waking up from the nightmare, and by the time he was done, he had the main ideas for The Shining figured out.
RE: Fact #45 (Authentic Sounds in Harold and Kumar) – Yeah, I’d be pretty ticked off if they used my farts and I didn’t get any credit or royalties for it.
RE: Fact #14 (Costly 1800-CALL Scene) – A sadist and a masochist were locked up together. The masochist begged, “Hurt me!” but the sadist just refused.
RE: Fact #7 (Bong Joon Ho’s Fish Scene Fable) – Remember this bit of trivia: When Harvey Weinstein got the rights to distribute Princess Mononoke in North America, he wanted director Hayao Miyazaki to make the film shorter for American viewers. But Miyazaki was still pretty mad about how his movie Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind had been cut up, so he stormed out of the meeting. A few days later, Studio Ghibli’s producer, Toshio Suzuki, sent a katana sword to Weinstein’s office with “NO CUTS” engraved on the blade. The movie ended up coming out in the US without any changes. When Miyazaki was asked about it later, he just smiled and said, “I defeated him.”
Picture settling copyright and distribution disputes with a good old-fashioned trial by combat. Instead of lawyers poring over docs and going back and forth, they’d be out there with swords, figuring out who’s in the right. Just no eye-gouging allowed!
There’s a manga called Kengan Ashura that covers this exact scenario. Basically, imagine super wealthy corporations settling disagreements by hiring the toughest martial artists they can get their hands on! It’s actually a pretty interesting and enjoyable read.
RE: Fact #20 (Authentic Nazi Uniforms in Indiana Jones) – It’s awesome how much they focused on historical details. No wonder the outfits looked so legit!
It was probably just cheaper than making new ones for the movie.
RE: Fact #16 (Scorsese Keeps Twin Towers Scene) – Seriously, fu*k off with that narcissistic, self-righteous BS. I can’t stand people who try to censor and mess with history.
Loads of TV shows and movies got edited after 9/11. Some had the towers removed, some had them added, for all sorts of reasons. You can find lots of articles about it, and there’s a list on wiki that covers it.
RE: Fact #27 (Rudolph Fans Save Misfit Toys) – Shows how kids have a good sense of fairness, and even babies and some animals have it, based on studies. Wish that sense stuck around into adulthood, especially for politicians.
Even monkeys get seriously angry when things aren’t fair. And leave it to humans to create a system where unfairness isn’t just an accident, but the whole point.
RE: Fact #14 (Costly 1800-CALL Scene) – So, at first I thought, “Nah, I remember that line.” But then I read the article, and it turns out my old VHS copy still has it! Makes me feel ancient. I still use that line myself sometimes when I read stuff.
Yeah, totally! My brothers and I quote it a ton too!
I still say that to my wife all the time, and she always gives me this funny look.
RE: Fact #16 (Scorsese Keeps Twin Towers Scene) – They ended up making a really powerful scene with the choice they made.
RE: Fact #39 (Psycho’s Toilet Scene Controversy) – It’s a bit like how it took a while for people to stop finding it weird to see a double bed in the parents’ room or a couple sharing a bed.
CBS wouldn’t allow the word “pregnant” on I Love Lucy, they had to say “expecting” instead. What were they worried about? I’m curious to hear what people find upsetting about, well, continuing the human race.
RE: Fact #45 (Authentic Sounds in Harold and Kumar) – When a big-time sound engineer does it, they’re seen as a creative genius dedicated to their work, but if I do the same thing, suddenly I’m a sick pervert.
He did put the sound in his movie for a good reason, unlike playing it over the elementary school’s intercom while the secretary hit the silent alarm.
RE: Fact #44 (Misery Scene Altered for Impact) – I’m not sure “downgraded” is the right word for it.
Yeah, an axe and blowtorch are definitely way more bloody and gory.
But that whole scene, the way it builds tension, is what makes it a classic. Like when she puts that piece of wood between his legs and you slowly realize what she’s about to do. James Caan’s reaction and acting really sell that gut-wrenching moment when she snaps his ankle.
I get what you mean. The scene feels more impactful because we can understand the pain, since most people haven’t experienced having a limb cut off and a wound burned. It’s kind of like the old filmmaking saying: audiences are fine with a building blowing up, but a papercut will make everyone in the theater flinch.
Eli Roth actually called it the Evil Dead theory. He thinks the most painful part of the movie isn’t the gore, but that pencil-in-the-ankle feeling. For me, that’s like a fingernail breaking. Most people don’t know what it’s like to get their head chopped off, but pretty much everyone’s had a papercut.
If you haven’t checked out the original movie of Pet Sematary, there’s a part that totally shows this idea. There’s this possessed kid hiding under a bed, and they use a scalpel to cut an old guy’s Achilles tendon. That scene made a lot of people cringe, even though the movie itself isn’t all that amazing.
RE: Fact #25 (Practical Stunt in “The Dark Knight”) – Hey, so in the third Dark Knight movie, that opening scene with the plane was a real stunt. There’s a part where the stunt guys are hitting the plane, and one of them kinda messes up and bumps into it. That happened because they were actually rappelling from one plane into another. They even dropped the plane’s body from the air for that shot.
Nolan’s really known for liking practical effects, and you can totally see how it makes for some amazing action sequences.
RE: Fact #48 (Grapefruit Scene in The Public Enemy) – This is where that scene from The Simpsons comes from too, you know, the one where Bart, dressed in pajamas like the character in the movie, shoves a grapefruit in Homer’s face. It’s from the episode where Bart gets a “big brother” and Homer gets a “little brother” just to annoy each other.
RE: Fact #3 (Laura Dern’s Ice Cream Endurance) – She’s also the daughter of Bruce Dern and Diane Ladd, who are pretty big actors themselves. That probably gave a better hint about what she’d end up doing than how much ice cream she could eat.
Diane Ladd is also in the movie. The headline makes it sound like some random find, but she was actually on set with her mom, Laura Dern! I really love Laura Dern and don’t agree with any nepotism talk, the post title is just a bit funny.
It seems like nepotism is pretty much always the case in the movie industry.
Honestly, in the whole entertainment industry, whenever I read about an actor or a big singer, I’m not surprised by their family background.
RE: Fact #30 (Danny DeVito’s Dance Support for Mara) – I felt a bit sad watching this. It’s tough that the little girl had to film the whole movie while her mom was really sick.
DeVito and Rhea Pearlman helped out with her a lot, too, looking after her when her parents couldn’t. He even brought the movie’s unfinished cut to her mom while she was in the hospital so she could see it before she died. That guy is a real class act.
RE: Fact #19 (Shared Score Between Star Wars and Harry Potter) – Hey, funny thing about those Gladiator and Pirates of the Caribbean soundtracks by Hans Zimmer – sometimes they sound super alike!
The main theme for The Pirates sounds really similar to a song you hear early in Gladiator, almost exactly the same.
Yeah, it’s a pretty common thing for composers, not just Zimmer, to repeat themselves or reuse old ideas. I’ve noticed it too! For example, Giacchino took a musical piece from Secret Weapons Over Normandy and used it exactly the same way in Super 8. Horner’s soundtrack for Aliens has some parts that sound a lot like The Wrath of Khan, and David Arnold even reused a theme from Godzilla for one of the Narnia films. It really happens a lot.
So, just Zimmer then?
James Horner is the worst offender by far; he’s been remixing Titanic for 25 years.
I totally get what you mean about Alan Silvestri’s horns. I’m a big fan of his work too, he’s definitely one of my favorites. But yeah, you can usually tell it’s a Silvestri track within a couple of seconds because he always uses those cascading horns alongside bells or a xylophone. He really made that motif his own after BTTF.
So, the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie’s music was actually by Klaus Badelt. Hans Zimmer did help out and oversee the score, but he’s not credited for it. And get this, Badelt apparently did some uncredited work on The Gladiator too!
People usually think Zimmer did the music for Pirates, but because of a contract for The Last Samurai, they couldn’t credit him. He actually turned down doing most of the composing for Pirates because he was tied up with The Last Samurai and promised not to take on other work. So, he recommended Klaus Badelt, who was pretty new but had been with Remote Control Productions for three years.
Zimmer did end up working with Badelt on the main themes, though. He apparently wrote most of them in a single night and even made a demo using synthesizers that was credited to him. This demo had three of the score’s themes and motifs, including an early version of “He’s A Pirate” that’s a bit different from the final version. It also featured a melody Zimmer had written for the movie Drop Zone. Since they only had three weeks to get the music done, seven other composers were brought in to help arrange the music and write extra parts. The final score was recorded with a group called the Hollywood Studio Symphony over four days, and they had to use a different studio for each session because time was so tight. A male choir from London, The Metro Voices, also added to the finished recordings.
RE: Fact #8 (Maguire’s Tray Catching Feat) – So it looks like that awe on his face is the real deal then.
Her expression is like a real “You did it!”
RE: Fact #5 (Kevin Smith’s ‘Dogma’ Protest Prank) – The sign at the protest said “Dogma is dogsh*t.”
Personally, I think “An Evening with Kevin Smith” and its follow-up “Evening Harder” are Kevin’s most hilarious and classic stuff. I enjoyed all the Jersey Chronicles, and even Tusk was pretty good. But those Q&A sessions? They’re some of my all-time favorite things. He tells this one story in them. If you haven’t seen them, you should totally check them out, they’re definitely worth it. You can probably find the DVDs super cheap, and those individual story bits are likely on YouTube too.
The other protesters got really annoyed and made him fold it up since they didn’t want to display that kind of language.
And then it just said “Dogma is Dog.”
Yeah, it was a bunch of bible thumpers. Of course they were offended by the word ‘sh*t’.
RE: Fact #39 (Psycho’s Toilet Scene Controversy) – Marion Crane didn’t flush money. She flushed the paper she used to calculate how much money she had to make up after stealing from her boss.
RE: Fact #17 (Eurotrip Uses Prague for Global Scenes) – Great fact