69 Fun Facts About Brokeback Mountain

Who directed Brokeback Mountain?

Ang Lee directed Brokeback Mountain. Worn out by two draining productions, he was thinking of retiring when the script drew him back to work.

Brokeback Mountain is adapted from a 1997 short story by which author?

Annie Proulx wrote the story. When a composer later asked her blessing to turn it into an opera, she offered to write the libretto herself.

Which magazine first published the short story Brokeback Mountain, in October 1997?

The New Yorker ran the story in October 1997 and it won the 1998 National Magazine Award for Fiction. A screenwriter who read it there within days wrote to its author asking to option it.

Brokeback Mountain was republished in which 1999 book, a Pulitzer Prize finalist?

Close Range, subtitled Wyoming Stories, collected it in 1999 and restored the short prologue that the magazine printing had left out. Two more volumes of Wyoming stories followed.

Which two words finish Jack's famous line to Ennis in Brokeback Mountain, "I wish I knew how to…"?

Quit you. Jack says it at the end of the pair's last trip, worn down by years of meeting only a few times a year, and Ennis sinks to his knees.

Who plays Jack's wife Lureen, the rodeo rider turned businesswoman, in Brokeback Mountain?

Anne Hathaway plays Lureen, who ends up running her father's farm-equipment business. She auditioned on a lunch break from another film, still wearing that shoot's over-the-top hairpiece.

Who plays Ennis's wife Alma in Brokeback Mountain?

Michelle Williams plays Alma and earned her first Oscar nomination for it. A screenwriter who had watched her in Dawson's Creek put her on the casting list, and she and Heath Ledger became a couple on the shoot.

Which instrument does Jack play, badly, around the campfire on Brokeback Mountain?

Harmonica. It was flattened when his mare threw him, and Ennis jokes that a luckier fall would have snapped it in two.

What animals are Ennis and Jack hired to herd on Brokeback Mountain?

Sheep. To cut losses to coyotes, their boss has one of them sleep out with the flock each night in a hidden pup tent, against Forest Service rules.

Which Brokeback Mountain character hires Ennis and Jack, then watches them through binoculars?

Joe Aguirre hires them for the summer and watches the pair through binoculars; he refuses to rehire Jack the following year, remarking that they had found a way to make the time pass.

In the film Brokeback Mountain, what are the names of Ennis's two daughters?

Alma Jr. and Jenny are Ennis's daughters in the film, though the original short story calls the younger girl Francine. The grown Alma Jr. visits his trailer at the end to announce her engagement.

Where does an upset Jack go to seek solace with male prostitutes after Ennis refuses to move?

Mexico. Jack crosses the border and picks up a man in an alley, straight after driving north in the belief that Ennis's divorce meant they could finally share a life.

What does Monroe, whom Alma marries after divorcing Ennis, manage?

A grocery store is what Monroe manages. Alma takes a clerk's job there to keep ahead of the bills on Ennis's wages, and after the divorce she marries her boss.

In which Wyoming town do Ennis and Alma settle in Brokeback Mountain?

Riverton. Alma talks Ennis into leaving lonely ranch houses for a cheap flat above a laundry there, worried about their younger daughter's asthma.

According to Lureen, how did Jack die?

A tire exploded in his face, Lureen says, while Jack was pumping up a flat on a back road, and the rim knocked him out. As she talks, Ennis pictures men beating Jack to death.

What does Jack's father insist on doing with his ashes?

To bury them in the family plot is what John Twist insists on, refusing Jack's wish for the mountain; Jack's mother then quietly lets Ennis take the two shirts from Jack's old room.

What are Ennis's last words in Brokeback Mountain, spoken to the shirts and postcard in his closet?

"Jack, I swear..." is all Ennis says, facing the two shirts on his closet door. He has hung them with his own shirt now wrapped around Jack's, the reverse of how Jack kept them.

In Brokeback Mountain, which Roger Miller hit does Jack sing along to on the radio after Ennis's divorce?

King of the Road is the song Jack belts along to in his truck; the soundtrack album swaps Miller's original for a cover by Teddy Thompson and Rufus Wainwright.

Which Willie Nelson recording plays over Brokeback Mountain's end credits?

He Was a Friend of Mine, a traditional folk lament in Willie Nelson's recording, plays over the end credits. The Byrds released a reworded version in 1965 mourning President Kennedy.

Which pair wrote Brokeback Mountain's Oscar-winning screenplay?

Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana wrote it. Ossana read the story days after it was published and pressed it on McMurtry, and they had a script within three months, years before anyone would film it.

Which novel won one of Brokeback Mountain's screenwriters the 1986 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction?

Lonesome Dove began as a film script meant for John Wayne, James Stewart and Henry Fonda. When that film fell through, its author reworked the idea into the novel that won the 1986 Pulitzer.

Which Argentine musician composed Brokeback Mountain's score?

Gustavo Santaolalla composed the score before filming began, working from the story and a single conversation with the director, so the music could be played to the actors during the shoot.

Brokeback Mountain's composer won the Best Original Score Oscar again the very next year for which film?

Babel, Alejandro González Iñárritu's 2006 film, brought him a second straight Best Original Score Oscar, though he cannot read or write music and plays nearly every instrument on his scores himself.

Which Emmylou Harris song won Brokeback Mountain its Best Original Song Golden Globe?

A Love That Will Never Grow Old, with lyrics by Bernie Taupin and music by the film's composer, plays as Jack drives away alone after Ennis sends him home.

Brokeback Mountain premiered at which festival, where it won the top prize?

Venice gave Brokeback Mountain its world premiere in September 2005 and its top prize, the Golden Lion. Further awards made it the Best Picture favourite by Oscar night, when it lost.

Brokeback Mountain famously lost the Best Picture Oscar to which film?

Crash took Best Picture. The story's author hit back in a newspaper essay that called the winner "Trash", and when Academy members were polled again in 2015, Brokeback won.

Heath Ledger's Brokeback Mountain performance lost the Best Actor Oscar to which rival?

Philip Seymour Hoffman won for Capote. Brokeback led the field with eight nominations and won three Oscars, but none of its three nominated actors took one home.

Which actress plays Cassie, the waitress Ennis dates after his divorce, in Brokeback Mountain?

Linda Cardellini plays Cassie Cartwright. Ennis drifts away without a word, and when she finally corners him he can only mumble that he was probably no fun anyway.

Brokeback Mountain's Best Director Oscar was a milestone for the Academy in what way?

First non-white winner is the milestone. The director said nothing was more remote to him than gay cowboys in Wyoming, yet the script moved him to tears; he later won the award a second time.

Which comedian hosted the 2006 Oscars, the night Brokeback Mountain lost Best Picture?

Jon Stewart hosted for the first time, at a ceremony pushed back a week to keep clear of the Winter Olympics; he returned to host again in 2008.

Which award did Jake Gyllenhaal win for playing Jack Twist?

BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor went to Gyllenhaal in February 2006. He was also nominated for the Oscar and the SAG Award in the same category but won neither, and the Golden Globes passed him over altogether.

In which Australian city was Brokeback Mountain star Heath Ledger born?

Perth, Western Australia, is Ledger's home town. At 16 he left school and drove across the country to Sydney with his best friend to chase acting work; a theatre in Perth's state theatre centre now bears his name.

Brokeback Mountain is set in Wyoming, but the film was shot almost entirely in which Canadian province?

Alberta doubled for Wyoming: the director toured the story's real locations but chose the Canadian Rockies for financial reasons, and the province later sent cowboys to Manhattan to court tourists on the film's success.

Which actor, later a TV star, plays Randall Malone, the ranch foreman who befriends Jack, in Brokeback Mountain?

David Harbour, later Stranger Things' Chief Hopper, plays Randall Malone, who quietly suggests that he and Jack slip away to his boss's lakeside cabin for a weekend.

In Brokeback Mountain, what is stamped on the postcard that comes back to Ennis unanswered?

Deceased. Ennis's card proposing a November trip comes back stamped with the word, and only a phone call to Jack's wife tells him what happened.

Which director tried to make Brokeback Mountain years earlier, hoping to cast Matt Damon and Joaquin Phoenix?

Gus Van Sant turned up at the writers' door within days of the script going out, but he could not find a star willing to play Ennis and moved on.

Which director turned Brokeback Mountain down, doubting Hollywood would give him full creative freedom?

Pedro Almodóvar was approached before the eventual director but never believed a mainstream film would give him complete freedom, above all to show the more animal side of the story's sex.

When first shown the Brokeback Mountain script, its eventual director chose to make which comic-book film instead?

Hulk, released in 2003, was the film the director made first; that shoot left him so drained that he considered retiring before this script tempted him back.

Which actor was attached to Brokeback Mountain but dropped out over a scheduling clash with The Black Dahlia?

Josh Hartnett had been attached but left when The Black Dahlia's schedule clashed; Mark Wahlberg also passed after meeting the director, saying the script creeped him out.

The actress who plays Lureen in Brokeback Mountain auditioned on a lunch break from filming which sequel?

The Princess Diaries 2 was shooting nearby, so she slipped over at lunch still wearing its over-the-top hairpiece, and won round a director who had not seen her as an obvious Lureen.

To land the part of Lureen in Brokeback Mountain, the actress lied to the director about her experience of what?

Horse riding was the skill she claimed: asked on her way out of the audition whether she could ride, she said she was really good, though she had never sat on a horse, then took lessons.

What does Ennis's daughter leave behind in his trailer at the end of Brokeback Mountain?

Her sweater is what she forgets after announcing her engagement. Ennis folds it and puts it in the closet beside the two shirts before the film's final line.

While filming a kiss for Brokeback Mountain, Heath Ledger almost broke which part of Jake Gyllenhaal's body?

His nose. The director had asked for the most heroic Western kiss they could manage, harder than you could ever kiss a woman, and the two went at it until they nearly broke each other's noses.

Which cinematographer shot Brokeback Mountain?

Rodrigo Prieto shot Brokeback Mountain and also stepped in front of the camera, in a brief uncredited cameo as a stranger Jack picks up.

Brokeback Mountain's theatrical poster was modelled on the poster for which earlier film about doomed lovers?

Titanic's poster was the model: the campaign sold the film as a sweeping love story, so the poster posed its two leads close together in the same way.

Which Brokeback Mountain cast member sued Focus Features, claiming he was told it was a no-money art-house film?

Randy Quaid, who plays the boss with the binoculars, sued in 2006, saying he took a low fee after being told the film would never make money. He dropped the case weeks later, claiming a settlement the studio denied.

The owner of which NBA team pulled Brokeback Mountain from his own multiplex in January 2006?

Utah Jazz owner Larry H. Miller dropped the film from his cinema complex in Sandy, near Salt Lake City; the move made headlines abroad and brought calls to boycott his other businesses.

Brokeback Mountain was the first major film released the same day on DVD and in what other form?

Digital download: the Movielink service began selling films to keep on 3 April 2006 and Brokeback's DVD came out the next day, so it became the first major film to arrive both ways at once.

The collector who bought Brokeback Mountain's two shirts at a 2006 charity auction compared them to what?

Dorothy's ruby slippers: buyer Tom Gregory called the shirts "the ruby slippers of our time" after paying $101,100.51 on eBay, a sum that went to a children's charity.

After Brokeback Mountain, what did the word 'brokeback' come to mean in Chinese slang?

Homosexuality is what 'brokeback' (duanbei) came to mean in Chinese slang, used for gay men and love between men; the film itself was never released in mainland Chinese cinemas, though bootleg copies circulated.

Which was the only Arab country to screen the film, albeit in censored form?

Lebanon screened it with cuts, the only Arab country to show it in cinemas; elsewhere in the region, including the United Arab Emirates, it was banned from theatres.

In which city did the Brokeback Mountain opera, with a libretto by the story's author, premiere in 2014?

Madrid's Teatro Real staged the premiere in January 2014; composer Charles Wuorinen approached the author after seeing the film, and the commission followed impresario Gerard Mortier there from New York City Opera.

Which actors played Jack and Ennis in the 2023 West End staging of Brokeback Mountain?

Mike Faist and Lucas Hedges played Jack and Ennis, both in their West End debuts, while singer Eddi Reader performed the play's songs with an onstage country band.

Early in their summer on Brokeback Mountain, what do Ennis and Jack agree to swap?

Their jobs. Jack was sick of riding hours each day between camp and the flock, so Ennis went out to sleep with the herd while Jack, who warned he couldn't cook, took over the camp.

Why did Brokeback Mountain's author later say she wished she had never written the story?

Rewrites sent by fans: she said in 2008 that men kept mailing her new endings and sequels, sure that they understood men better than she did.

Tired of living on beans, what do Ennis and Jack shoot for meat on Brokeback Mountain?

An elk. With most of their supplies lost, Jack is ready to shoot one of the flock they are paid to guard, so the pair bring down an elk instead.

In the story Brokeback Mountain, Jack Twist grew up in which tiny Wyoming town on the Montana border?

Lightning Flat, a speck of a town near the Montana border, is where the story places Jack's boyhood ranch; Ennis visits his parents there after Jack's death and finds the shirts.

In Brokeback Mountain, how did Ennis lose both his parents as a boy?

A car accident. They missed the only curve on the road, leaving Ennis to be raised by his brother and sister and to quit school when the family pickup broke down.

At which holiday dinner does Alma finally confront Ennis about his trips with Jack in Brokeback Mountain?

Thanksgiving. In the kitchen after the meal, Alma reveals she once tied a note to his fishing line and found it untouched, so she knew the trips were never about fish.

Made for about $14 million, Brokeback Mountain grossed roughly how much worldwide?

$178 million in its original run, more than twelve times its budget, about $83 million of it in North America, where a limited release widened week by week to over 2,000 cinemas.

Why did provincial officials at first refuse to let Brokeback Mountain's flock into the Rockies?

Risk of disease to local wildlife was the worry: domestic flocks can carry an infection that leaves them unharmed but kills wild mountain herds, so officials relented only under strict controls.

Which hymn does Jack sing by the campfire, saying his mother believed in the Pentecost?

Water Walking Jesus is the hymn Jack sings by the fire, saying his mother believes in the Pentecost; when he guesses it means the day sinners like them march off to hell, Ennis tells him to speak for himself.

Which rodeo event does Jack compete in, mostly getting thrown?

Bull riding is Jack's rodeo event; he is thrown repeatedly and admits he never wins much, and he first meets Lureen at a Texas rodeo where she barrel-races.

In which Texas town do Jack and Lureen make their home?

Childress is Lureen's home town, and the couple stay because her father's farm-equipment business gives Jack his job; a newcomer at a dance there calls it a pokey little place.

Roger Ebert wrote that Brokeback Mountain was as observant as the work of which director?

Ingmar Bergman was Ebert's comparison. His four-star review argued that the more specific a film is, the more universal it becomes, because knowing two characters this well speaks to everyone.

Which veteran film critic apologised after calling Brokeback Mountain's Jack Twist a 'sexual predator'?

Gene Shalit called Jack a 'sexual predator' in his Today review; after GLAAD protested he said he regretted the wording, and his gay son Peter publicly defended him.

Which actor opened the Best Picture envelope on the night Brokeback Mountain lost at the 2006 Oscars?

Jack Nicholson announced the winner. Tom Hanks had just handed Brokeback's director his Oscar, so the film went into the final award with the directing, writing and music prizes already won.

Which editor finished cutting Brokeback Mountain after Geraldine Peroni died partway through the edit?

Dylan Tichenor finished the cut after Geraldine Peroni died in August 2004. He had learned the craft as her apprentice on Robert Altman's The Player, and the two share the editing credit.

In Brokeback Mountain, what did Ennis's father take him to see as a boy, leaving him afraid for life?

A murdered rancher's body: Earl, who had lived with another man, was beaten and left in an irrigation ditch, and Ennis's father made sure his two sons saw it when Ennis was nine.