97 Fun Facts About Famous Movie

Who directed the 1960 horror film Psycho, with its celebrated shower scene?

Alfred Hitchcock directed and produced Psycho (1960), shooting it cheaply in black and white with the crew from his television series Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

In Citizen Kane, Rosebud is revealed as a trade name printed on which object?

Rosebud is the trade name on Kane's childhood sled; as his possessions are burned in the final scene, the name shows through the flames.

In L. Frank Baum's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, what colour are Dorothy's magic shoes?

Silver in Baum's 1900 novel, the shoes became ruby slippers for the 1939 MGM film because red took better advantage of the new three-strip Technicolor process.

Which nickname did the crew of Jaws give its malfunctioning mechanical sharks?

Bruce was the name of Spielberg's lawyer, Bruce Ramer; because the pneumatic sharks kept breaking down at sea, Spielberg mostly suggested the monster with John Williams's music instead.

Who directed The Godfather (1972)?

Francis Ford Coppola first turned The Godfather down as 'pretty cheap stuff', then took the job largely because his own studio, American Zoetrope, was deep in debt to Warner Bros.

Which film was the first to match Ben-Hur's record of eleven Oscar wins?

Titanic won eleven of its fourteen nominations in March 1998, yet none for acting: Kate Winslet and Gloria Stuart were both nominated and both went home empty-handed.

Who wrote and directed the original 1977 Star Wars film?

George Lucas was so sure Close Encounters would outgross Star Wars that he swapped 2.5% of the profits with Steven Spielberg before release; Spielberg still collects his share.

Jurassic Park (1993) was adapted from a 1990 novel by whom?

Michael Crichton set a fixed price of $1.5 million for the film rights; four studios bid before the novel was even published, and Steven Spielberg won them with Universal's backing.

The Shawshank Redemption was adapted from a 1982 novella by which author?

Stephen King sold Frank Darabont the rights to his novella for $5,000, never cashed the cheque, and years later sent it back framed with a note: 'In case you ever need bail money.'

Which 1994 Quentin Tarantino film won the Palme d'Or at Cannes?

Pulp Fiction took the Palme d'Or in May 1994 after TriStar had turned the script down as 'too demented', leaving Miramax to finance the whole film itself.

The Matrix (1999) was written and directed by which pair of siblings?

The Wachowskis followed it with two sequels in 2003, Reloaded and Revolutions, and the film's 'bullet time' effect became the most imitated shot of its decade.

Casablanca (1942) is set in December 1941 in a port city then under French control in which North African country?

Morocco made headlines just in time: Warner Bros. rushed the film into release in November 1942, weeks after the Allied invasion of North Africa had put the real Casablanca in the news.

In E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Elliott lures the alien back to the house with a trail of which sweet?

Reese's Pieces got the placement after Mars, Incorporated refused to let M&M's appear in the 1982 film; the Hershey candy's sales rose sharply afterwards.

Hattie McDaniel became the first African American Oscar winner for which 1939 film?

Gone with the Wind won Hattie McDaniel the Best Supporting Actress award as Mammy, yet at the ceremony itself she was seated at a segregated table at the side of the room.

Which sentient computer runs the Discovery One in 2001: A Space Odyssey?

HAL 9000 sings 'Daisy Bell' as he is shut down because Arthur C. Clarke had watched a real IBM computer synthesise that song on a visit to Bell Labs in the early 1960s.

Which author sold Paramount an option on The Godfather when it was still an unfinished manuscript?

Mario Puzo ignored his agent and took Paramount's $12,500 option on a sixty-page draft because he badly needed money; the price rose to $80,000 only if a film was made.

Warner Bros. paid a then-record sum for which unproduced stage play, later filmed as Casablanca?

Everybody Comes to Rick's grew out of Murray Burnett's 1938 trip to Nazi-occupied Vienna and a nightclub in the south of France; Warner Bros. bought it unstaged for $20,000.

In Casablanca, which song does Ilsa ask the pianist Sam to play?

"As Time Goes By" survived by luck: composer Max Steiner wanted to replace it with a tune of his own, but Ingrid Bergman had already cut her hair for her next film, so the scenes could not be reshot.

Which British actress won the role of Scarlett O'Hara after a much-publicized search?

Vivien Leigh was still uncast when the burning of Atlanta was filmed late in 1938; legend has it that producer David O. Selznick first met her on the set that night.

David O. Selznick paid $50,000 in 1936 for the screen rights to which author's Civil War novel?

Margaret Mitchell's novel had been on sale for only a month when Selznick bought it in July 1936, pushed into the deal by his story editor Kay Brown.

Besides the award for its score, The Wizard of Oz won which other competitive Oscar?

Best Original Song went to 'Over the Rainbow', a number the studio almost cut because it felt a slow ballad so early stalled the story.

In The Wizard of Oz, who reveals the Wizard to be an ordinary man by pulling back a curtain?

Toto tugs the curtain aside to expose the humbug Wizard; Terry, the Cairn terrier who played him, was injured when a guard actor stepped on her paw, and a stand-in dog filled in while she healed.

Jaws was shot mostly on location on which Massachusetts island?

Martha's Vineyard stood in for the fictional Amity Island; shooting on the open ocean there sent the film wildly over budget and schedule.

Who demands $10,000 in Jaws to hunt down and kill the shark?

Quint names his price after a $3,000 bounty on the shark sets off a chaotic amateur hunt; the grizzled fisherman was played by Robert Shaw.

Which actor was originally cast as Marty McFly in Back to the Future before Michael J. Fox replaced him?

Eric Stoltz shot for several weeks before being replaced; Michael J. Fox had been the first choice but was tied up with Family Ties.

In Back to the Future, the DeLorean must reach what speed to travel through time?

88 miles per hour is the magic number, along with 1.21 gigawatts, which in 1955 only a lightning bolt can supply.

In The Shining, Hallorann warns Danny to stay out of which room number at the Overlook Hotel?

Room 237 replaced the novel's 217 at the request of Oregon's Timberline Lodge, which supplied the exteriors and did not want a real room stigmatised.

The Shining ends on a 1921 photograph of a July 4th ball showing which character front and centre?

Jack Torrance grins from the middle of the crowd; Kubrick had Jack Nicholson's face superimposed onto a genuine 1921 photograph of a dance.

Sylvester Stallone refused to sell his Rocky script unless he could do what?

Star in it: Stallone wrote the script in about three days and turned down a six-figure offer for it alone, holding out until the studio let him play Rocky.

What was the approximate production budget of Rocky (1976)?

About $1 million was the whole budget, yet Rocky became the highest-grossing film of 1976, taking roughly $225 million worldwide, and won Best Picture.

Forrest Gump was adapted from a 1986 novel by which author?

Winston Groom's 1986 novel Forrest Gump was adapted by Eric Roth, who kept mostly its early chapters and dropped the book's spaceflight and cannibal episodes.

Forrest Gump opens with a feather drifting down to a bus-stop bench in which city?

Savannah, Georgia's Chippewa Square hosted the scene, but the bench was a fibreglass prop, not park furniture; one of the props is now on display at the Savannah History Museum.

The Silence of the Lambs swept the Oscars' 'Big Five' of Picture, Director, Actor, Actress and which other award?

Best Adapted Screenplay completed only the third Big Five sweep in Oscar history, for a thriller that had opened back in February 1991 and was already out on home video.

In The Silence of the Lambs, what is the name of Buffalo Bill's dog, which Catherine seizes as leverage?

Precious, played by a Bichon Frisé named Darla, is grabbed by Catherine in the dry well where Buffalo Bill holds her, turning the captive into a hostage-taker.

Which Oscar-winning 1988 Pixar short persuaded Disney to commission the studio's first feature film?

Tin Toy won Pixar its first Oscar, and Disney then asked the studio for a computer-animated feature told from a toy's point of view, which became Toy Story.

In Toy Story, Buzz Lightyear first arrives as a present at whose birthday party?

Andy's toys, Mr. Potato Head, Slinky Dog, Rex, Hamm and Bo Peep among them, fear the new arrival will replace one of them.

In Fight Club, what does Tyler Durden sell for a living?

Tyler Durden sells luxury soap, rendered from fat stolen from liposuction clinics, back to department stores; the film adapts Chuck Palahniuk's 1996 novel.

Goodfellas was adapted from which 1985 nonfiction book by Nicholas Pileggi?

Wiseguy: Life in a Mafia Family (1985) told Henry Hill's story; the film's title was changed partly to avoid confusion with the 1987 TV series Wiseguy.

In Goodfellas, Jimmy's crew pulls off its record 1978 heist at which airline's JFK cargo terminal?

Lufthansa's cargo building lost $5 million in cash and $875,000 in jewellery, then America's largest cash robbery; in the film Jimmy has most of the crew killed afterwards.

In Raiders of the Lost Ark, Gestapo agent Toht ends up with the image of what burned into his hand?

A medallion, the headpiece of the Staff of Ra, scorches Toht's palm when he grabs it from the fire; the Nazis can copy only that one side, so they dig in the wrong place.

What is the name of the commercial space tug in Alien (1979)?

The Nostromo's seven-member crew wakes from stasis to answer what turns out to be a warning beacon; Sulaco is the ship in Aliens.

The Sound of Music was shot in Los Angeles and which Austrian city, the von Trapps' real-life home?

Salzburg was the real von Trapps' home, but they never fled over the mountains: they walked to the local station and boarded a train to Italy.

Which eldest von Trapp child sings 'Sixteen Going on Seventeen' in The Sound of Music?

Liesl was played by Charmian Carr, who recalled that her shoes had no non-slip pads for the gazebo dance, so she slid through a window and finished the scene in pain.

Which Gladiator actor died before production was finished, complicating the shoot?

Oliver Reed, playing the gladiator trainer Proximo, died in Malta in May 1999; his remaining scenes were completed with a body double and digital effects.

Before Heath Ledger, which star of Network was the only actor to win an Oscar posthumously?

Peter Finch suffered a fatal heart attack in a Beverly Hills hotel lobby in January 1977, mid-way through his publicity tour for Network, two months before he won Best Actor.

In which Polish city was Schindler's List shot over 72 days in 1993?

Kraków, where Schindler's real enamelware factory stood, hosted the 72-day shoot; Spielberg filmed in black and white and Itzhak Perlman played the main theme.

Apocalypse Now transplants which 1899 novella from the Congo to the Vietnam War?

Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness supplies Kurtz and the river journey; Brando's Kurtz even recites T. S. Eliot's 'The Hollow Men', whose epigraph quotes the novella.

In Blade Runner, what are the bioengineered humanoids hunted by Rick Deckard called?

Replicants never go by that name in Philip K. Dick's novel, which calls them androids; the word was coined for the film during David Peoples's rewrite of the script.

Dan Aykroyd first conceived Ghostbusters as a vehicle for himself and which Saturday Night Live castmate?

John Belushi died in March 1982 with the script still being written for him; Bill Murray stepped in, and Aykroyd has said the gluttonous ghost Slimer was inspired by his late friend.

Which film was the first sequel ever to win the Academy Award for Best Picture?

The Godfather Part II won Best Picture in 1975; Robert De Niro's Oscar as the young Vito Corleone came two years after Marlon Brando declined his own for playing the same man.

Which James Stewart thriller displaced Citizen Kane atop Sight & Sound's greatest-films poll in 2012?

Vertigo (1958) ended Citizen Kane's 50-year reign atop the critics' poll in 2012, then slipped to second behind Jeanne Dielman in the 2022 edition.

Singin' in the Rain depicts Hollywood stars caught up in which industry transition?

Set in the late 1920s as silent films gave way to talkies, the 1952 musical recycles songs from MGM pictures of that era, including the 1929 title number.

Which 1959 comedy closes with the line "Well, nobody's perfect!"?

Some Like It Hot ends with Osgood shrugging it off after Jerry (Jack Lemmon) pulls off his wig; Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond reportedly wrote the line as a placeholder.

In Rear Window, James Stewart's L.B. Jefferies, laid up with a broken leg from an assignment, has which profession?

Photojournalist Jeff, in a cast from hip to foot, is stuck in a wheelchair in his Greenwich Village flat and turns his camera's telephoto lens on the neighbours.

Chinatown's plot about 1930s Los Angeles is loosely inspired by conflicts over which resource?

The real California water wars let Los Angeles drain the Owens Valley. Jake Gittes discovers a reservoir being emptied at night during a drought.

Robert De Niro asks a mirror 'You talkin' to me' in which film?

Taxi Driver, written by Paul Schrader, has the unravelling Travis Bickle face the mirror to rehearse an imagined showdown that would give him the chance to draw his gun.

Which 1973 film was the first horror movie nominated for the Best Picture Oscar?

The Exorcist won two of its ten nominations, including William Peter Blatty's script from his own novel, which drew on reports of a real exorcism performed on a boy in 1949.

In Die Hard, John McClane battles Hans Gruber's gang inside which fictional skyscraper?

Nakatomi Plaza was played by Fox Plaza in Century City, a real tower still under construction at the time; almost the whole film was shot in and around it.

In Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Robert Patrick's T-1000 is made of what?

Liquid metal lets the T-1000 take other shapes; to seem like a machine, Robert Patrick learned to sprint without showing heavy breathing or exhaustion.

In Inception, Cobb tests whether he is dreaming with which object as his totem?

Cobb's totem is a spinning top that once belonged to his wife Mal; the film cuts to black before showing whether it topples.

The Lion King's story of a murdered king and a usurping uncle draws on which Shakespeare play?

Hamlet lent the film its murdered king, usurping uncle and father's ghost, though the project began as a 'Bambi in Africa' pitch under the title King of the Jungle.

Disney's Frozen (2013) is loosely inspired by which Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale?

Andersen published The Snow Queen in 1844; Disney had considered adapting it since the late 1930s and only cracked it by making Elsa a sympathetic sister rather than a villain.

In Avatar (2009), humans mine unobtanium on which lush habitable moon?

Pandora had a long wait: James Cameron wrote his 80-page treatment in 1994, hoping for a 1999 release, but held off because the technology he needed did not yet exist.

Who directed The Empire Strikes Back (1980)?

Irvin Kershner, a former film-school teacher of the saga's creator, refused the job when first asked; it took a push from his agent to change his mind.

Star Wars Episode VI was briefly marketed under which title before its 1983 release?

Revenge of the Jedi appeared on the teaser trailer and thousands of posters until December 1982, when the title was dropped on the grounds that a Jedi should never seek revenge.

Who co-stars as Indiana Jones's father in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade?

Sean Connery, only 12 years older than Harrison Ford, was cast partly because the Indiana Jones series had been Spielberg's answer to the James Bond films.

The five teenagers in The Breakfast Club serve their detention on which day of the week?

Saturday detention at the fictional Shermer High School ends with Brian writing a single essay to Vice Principal Vernon on behalf of all five.

In Ferris Bueller's Day Off, which make of car does Ferris borrow from Cameron's father?

Cameron's father's Ferrari, a 1961 250 GT California Spyder, was so valuable that replicas were used for filming, including the one that crashes through the garage window.

In Gremlins, a mogwai must never be fed after which time?

Midnight is the line Stripe and his gang get around by sabotaging Billy's bedside clock, and the hatched gremlins take over Kingston Falls.

Dirty Dancing is set in 1963 at Kellerman's, a resort in which New York mountain region?

Kellerman's is a fictional Catskills 'Borscht Belt' resort, though the film was actually shot at lakes in Virginia and North Carolina.

In Top Gun, what is the callsign of Maverick's radar intercept officer, played by Anthony Edwards?

Goose, Nick Bradshaw, dies in a flat spin, the film's turning point; his son Rooster became a central character in the 2022 sequel.

Which actor's name was kept out of Se7en's opening credits to keep the killer's identity a surprise?

Kevin Spacey asked for his name to be left off the marketing and opening credits; he had joined at a few days' notice and shot all his scenes in twelve days.

The Usual Suspects revolves around a mysterious crime lord known by what name?

Keyser Söze is the unseen crime lord whose legend Verbal Kint spins; writer Christopher McQuarrie found 'Söze' in a Turkish dictionary, in an idiom about talking far too much.

Which two actors shared the Best Original Screenplay Oscar for Good Will Hunting?

Ben Affleck and Matt Damon won for a script Damon began as the final assignment for a Harvard playwriting class, handing in some 40 pages instead of the one-act play requested.

Which film beat Saving Private Ryan to Best Picture in one of the Oscars' biggest upsets?

Shakespeare in Love took Best Picture while Spielberg won Best Director; years earlier the project had stalled when Julia Roberts, cast as Viola, pulled out of the production.

American Beauty (1999) was the first film of which theatre director, who later made Skyfall?

Sam Mendes, then running London's Donmar Warehouse, won Best Director for his first film; Steven Spielberg, impressed by his stage musicals in London and New York, had urged him to take it on.

Which Studio Ghibli film won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature at the 75th Academy Awards?

Spirited Away was written for a real girl: Hayao Miyazaki based it on the ten-year-old daughter of a friend, the film's associate producer, who visited his house each summer.

Which 2019 film became the first non-English-language Best Picture winner?

Parasite began as an idea for a stage play: Bong Joon-ho, urged by an actor friend to write one, drew on his own days tutoring the son of a rich Seoul family.

Vikas Swarup's novel Q & A, about a young Mumbai waiter, was filmed under which title?

Slumdog Millionaire won eight Oscars after adapting the book only loosely: the novel's hero, Ram Mohammad Thomas, became a new character called Jamal.

Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman to win the Best Director Oscar with which war drama?

The Hurt Locker, about an Iraq War bomb-disposal team, beat Avatar, directed by Bigelow's ex-husband James Cameron, to Best Picture and took six Oscars on a $15 million budget.

In No Country for Old Men, Anton Chigurh kills a driver with what unusual weapon?

The captive bolt pistol, a slaughterhouse tool powered by a compressed-air tank, also lets Chigurh blow out door locks; Javier Bardem won Best Supporting Actor for the role.

In There Will Be Blood, oilman Daniel Plainview gloats that he will drink his rival's what?

Milkshake: Paul Thomas Anderson said he took the image from testimony in the 1920s Teapot Dome oil scandal, though a later search of the record failed to find it.

Mad Max: Fury Road moved to Namibia after rains turned which country's desert location green?

Australia's Broken Hill bloomed with wildflowers after the rains, and the move brought trouble of its own: a leaked 2013 report accused the shoot of damaging the Namib Desert.

Which film was wrongly announced as Best Picture at the 2017 Oscars before Moonlight?

La La Land's producers were mid-speech when Jordan Horowitz corrected the error; Faye Dunaway had read from a duplicate envelope for Emma Stone's acting award, handed to Warren Beatty by mistake.

The 2017 horror hit Get Out was the directorial debut of which comedian?

Jordan Peele became the first African American winner of Best Original Screenplay; his original ending had the police arrest Chris, until test screenings pushed him to a more hopeful one.

Which was the first superhero film to receive an Oscar nomination for Best Picture?

Black Panther broke through ten years after The Dark Knight missed out, a snub widely credited with prompting the Academy to widen the Best Picture field from five nominees to ten.

In Close Encounters of the Third Kind, coordinates point to which Wyoming landmark?

Devils Tower, a butte in northeastern Wyoming, is what Roy Neary sculpts in mashed potatoes before he understands it; the film's popularity sent visitor numbers at the real monument climbing.

Raging Bull (1980) adapts the memoir of which middleweight boxer?

Jake LaMotta's heavier later years were played by the same star: Robert De Niro broke off to eat his way around Italy and France, then won Best Actor in Scorsese's black-and-white film.

Which actor plays three roles in Dr. Strangelove?

Peter Sellers plays Mandrake, President Muffley and Strangelove; a fourth part, Major Kong, went to Slim Pickens after Sellers sprained his ankle and could not work in the cramped cockpit set.

Which 1937 Disney film was the first cel-animated feature ever produced?

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was mocked around Hollywood as 'Disney's Folly' while it was being made, then became a box-office sensation as soon as it opened.

What names do the POWs give the three escape tunnels in The Great Escape?

Tom, Dick and Harry were the real code names at Stalag Luft III; Tom was discovered by the guards, and the March 1944 breakout went out through Harry.

Julie Andrews won the Best Actress Oscar for which 1964 film, her screen debut?

Mary Poppins came after Jack Warner judged her too little known for the film of My Fair Lady, her own stage hit, and gave that part to Audrey Hepburn.

Who played the chocolatier in 1971's Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory?

Gene Wilder wanted the limp-and-somersault entrance so audiences would never know whether Wonka was lying; Johnny Depp took the role in 2005.

In Home Alone, where does Kevin's family fly for Christmas when they leave him behind?

Paris is where the family lands after Kevin's mother realises mid-flight that he was left behind; she finally gets back to Chicago in a van with a travelling polka band.

Which actress plays Annie, the passenger who ends up driving the bus in Speed (1994)?

Sandra Bullock's Annie takes the wheel after a stray bullet hits the driver, and must keep the bomb-rigged bus above 50 miles per hour; the part was her breakthrough.

Bill Murray's weatherman is trapped reliving February 2 in which Pennsylvania town in Groundhog Day?

Punxsutawney was played by Woodstock, Illinois, whose town square hosts the film's festivities; Murray was bitten twice by the groundhog during filming.

What is the name of Truman Burbank's hometown in The Truman Show?

Seahaven is an island town built inside a giant domed soundstage; filming took place in the real planned community of Seaside, Florida.