45 Fun Facts About Fast Times at Ridgemont High

Who directed Fast Times at Ridgemont High, in her feature-film debut?

Amy Heckerling made her feature debut with Fast Times and went on to direct Look Who's Talking (1989) and Clueless (1995).

Who wrote the Fast Times at Ridgemont High screenplay, based on his own book about going undercover at a high school?

Cameron Crowe adapted his own 1981 book, Fast Times at Ridgemont High: A True Story, and later wrote and directed Say Anything..., Jerry Maguire and Almost Famous.

In which year was the film released?

Fast Times opened on August 13, 1982 in just 498 theaters and expanded only after word of mouth took off.

Who plays the perpetually stoned surfer Jeff Spicoli?

Sean Penn plays Spicoli, his second film role after his 1981 debut in the military-school drama Taps.

What subject does Mr. Hand, Spicoli's nemesis, teach?

History is Mr. Hand's subject, and he gets his revenge on the night of the last dance by turning up at Spicoli's house to deliver a lengthy private lecture.

Who plays Mr. Hand?

Ray Walston plays Mr. Hand; a Tony winner for Damn Yankees on Broadway, he was best known for TV's My Favorite Martian.

Who plays 15-year-old Stacy Hamilton?

Jennifer Jason Leigh, then 19, plays Stacy; she later earned an Oscar nomination for The Hateful Eight (2015).

Which actress plays Linda Barrett, Stacy's worldly best friend?

Phoebe Cates plays Linda Barrett in her second film, after the 1982 romance Paradise.

Who plays Brad Hamilton, Stacy's older brother?

Judge Reinhold plays Brad; Nicolas Cage auditioned for the role but, at 17, was judged too young and got a bit part instead.

Who plays the smooth-talking ticket scalper Mike Damone?

Robert Romanus plays Damone, the scalper whose 'attitude' lessons to Rat end with him ditching Stacy after their encounter in the pool house.

Who plays Mark 'Rat' Ratner, the shy usher who falls for Stacy?

Brian Backer plays Rat; the character was modelled on Andy Rathbone, a student Crowe befriended undercover who later wrote Windows For Dummies.

Where does Stacy work at the mall?

Stacy works at Perry's Pizza in the Ridgemont Mall, across from the cinema where Rat ushers, which is how he keeps running into her.

Where is Brad working at the start of the film?

Brad starts the film as a senior fry cook at All-American Burger, until a shouting match with a customer demanding a refund gets him fired.

What is Brad dressed as at the job he quits over mockery of his uniform?

A pirate, for Captain Hook Fish & Chips; Cameron Crowe's future wife Nancy Wilson has a cameo as the girl in a car who laughs at it.

Which real band did Nancy Wilson, who cameos as the 'Beautiful Girl in Car', belong to?

Nancy Wilson was Heart's guitarist alongside her sister Ann; she married Cameron Crowe in 1986 and later scored his films Jerry Maguire and Almost Famous.

Under what name was the future Leaving Las Vegas star credited in his feature debut as Brad's co-worker?

Nicolas Cage was billed as Nicolas Coppola, his birth name, and changed it soon after to escape comparisons with his uncle Francis Ford Coppola.

Which future Oscar winner plays star football player Charles Jefferson?

Forest Whitaker plays Charles Jefferson; he won the Best Actor Oscar for The Last King of Scotland (2006).

What kind of car belonging to Charles Jefferson does Spicoli wreck?

Spicoli totals Jefferson's Camaro Z28 while joyriding with Jefferson's younger brother, then sprays it with rival-school graffiti to shift the blame.

Which rival school does Ridgemont rout after Spicoli pins the car wreck on its fans?

Lincoln High is the rival; Spicoli's graffiti on the wrecked Camaro blames Lincoln fans, and a furious Jefferson takes it out on them on the field.

What is the name of the science teacher, played by Vincent Schiavelli, who swears off coffee?

Mr. Vargas is the biology teacher; the closing captions say he switched back to coffee, and Schiavelli reprised the role in the 1986 TV series.

Who is the 26-year-old stereo salesman Stacy lies about her age to date?

Ron Johnson, a 26-year-old stereo salesman, takes 15-year-old Stacy to 'the Point' after she claims to be 19, then sends flowers and vanishes.

Where does Stacy lose her virginity to the stereo salesman?

Stacy loses her virginity to Ron in a baseball dugout at 'the Point', shot from her uneasy point of view; the pool house comes later, with Damone.

What word does Linda spray-paint on Damone's car and locker after learning how he treated Stacy?

Linda sprays 'Prick' across Damone's car and locker after he fails to pay his share for Stacy's clinic visit; Rat then confronts him in the locker room.

Brad's final job, where he foils an armed robbery, is at which store?

Brad's third job is at the Mi-T-Mart, where he scalds a robber with hot coffee after Spicoli wanders in as a distraction; the postscript makes him manager.

According to the closing captions, whose concert tickets got Damone busted for scalping?

The closing caption says Damone was arrested for scalping Ozzy Osbourne tickets and ended up working at a 7-Eleven.

The postscript says Spicoli blows a reward on hiring which band to play his birthday party?

The postscript says Spicoli spent his reward money hiring Van Halen to play his birthday party.

Which celebrity does the postscript say Spicoli rescued from drowning?

The closing captions say Spicoli saved Brooke Shields from drowning and earned a reward, which he promptly blew on a party band.

Which Cars song plays over the famous pool fantasy scene despite being left off the soundtrack album?

'Moving in Stereo', from The Cars' 1978 debut album, scores Brad's fantasy of Linda leaving the pool but was left off the soundtrack LP.

Which Go-Go's song is the film's opening theme?

The Go-Go's 'We Got the Beat' plays over the opening mall montage; the band's biggest US hit, it was left off the soundtrack album.

Which Jackson Browne single from the soundtrack reached No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100?

Jackson Browne's 'Somebody's Baby', written with Danny Kortchmar, peaked at No. 7 in 1982 and was the soundtrack's biggest hit.

Which rock singer recorded the film's title track?

Sammy Hagar, then a solo act before joining Van Halen in 1985, recorded the title song 'Fast Times at Ridgemont High' for the soundtrack.

Producer Irving Azoff pushed 1970s acts onto the soundtrack; which band was he the personal manager of?

Irving Azoff managed the Eagles, and four of them, Henley, Walsh, Felder and Schmit, contributed solo tracks to the soundtrack.

What rating did the MPAA initially give the film?

The MPAA initially rated the film X for its sex scenes; Heckerling trimmed the pool-house scene and a frontal nude shot to secure an R.

At which real San Diego school did the screenwriter go undercover as a student?

Crowe spent the 1979 school year posing as a senior at Clairemont High School in San Diego, with the principal's cooperation.

Under what alias did Crowe enroll for his undercover senior year?

Crowe enrolled as 'Dave Cameron', a flip of his own name, and kept the ruse up for a full school year with only the principal in on it.

How old was Crowe when he came up with the idea of posing as a high-school student?

Crowe was 22, a Rolling Stone veteran since his mid-teens, when he pitched going undercover at a high school for a book.

Which director did Universal executives first recommend for the film, before he passed?

David Lynch, fresh off The Elephant Man, met Crowe, liked the script but said it wasn't for him; producer Art Linson then hired Amy Heckerling.

At which real shopping centre were the mall scenes filmed after hours?

The mall scenes were shot after hours at the Sherman Oaks Galleria, which also appears in Valley Girl and Commando and was later converted to offices.

Which real Los Angeles campus stood in for Ridgemont in the classroom scenes?

Van Nuys High School in the San Fernando Valley served as Ridgemont's classrooms and campus; shooting ran about eight weeks from November 1981.

What was the film's approximate budget?

Fast Times was made for about $4.5 million, a modest sum that Universal hedged with a limited 498-theater opening.

In which year was the film added to the US National Film Registry?

Fast Times at Ridgemont High joined the National Film Registry in 2005, the Library of Congress's list of culturally significant American films.

Which future star played Mike Damone in the short-lived 1986 TV series Fast Times?

Patrick Dempsey played Damone in the 1986 CBS series, a year before his breakout in Can't Buy Me Love.

Which critic called the film a 'scuz-pit of a movie' on release?

Roger Ebert panned it in 1982 as a 'scuz-pit of a movie', though he later championed Crowe's own films such as Almost Famous.

Roughly how much did Fast Times at Ridgemont High gross in its 1982 US release?

Fast Times grossed about $27 million in North America in 1982, roughly six times its budget, and became a classic through TV and home video.

Which album's side one does Damone advise Rat to play when making out?

Damone's advice to Rat is to 'put on side one of Led Zeppelin IV'; Rat instead plays 'Kashmir', which is on Physical Graffiti.