50 Fun Facts About Full Metal Jacket

The recruit known as 'Cowboy' tells Hartman he comes from which state?

Texas: Hartman greets the news with a volley of insults, and Private Cowboy carries the nickname all the way to command of a squad in Vietnam.

Full Metal Jacket is based on which 1979 autobiographical novel?

The Short-Timers has three sections: the film stretches its brief boot-camp opening into half the running time and all but drops the last.

Which actor plays Animal Mother, the squad's combat-hungry machine gunner?

Adam Baldwin's Animal Mother takes command when Cowboy is shot and leads the squad's attack on the sniper who has been picking them off.

Michael Herr, Kubrick's co-writer, was the author of which Vietnam memoir?

Dispatches and then Apocalypse Now had left him wanting nothing more to do with Vietnam, he told Kubrick; it took some three years of phone calls to change his mind.

The title Full Metal Jacket refers to what?

A type of bullet, its soft core cased in harder metal; the phrase is heard in the film when Pyle names his live rounds: 'Seven-six-two millimetre. Full metal jacket.'

Hartman makes Joker squad leader after he refuses to change his answer about believing in what?

The Virgin Mary: Joker says no and, even under threat, will not reverse himself, so Hartman decides he has guts and hands him the squad.

Private Davis is renamed 'Joker' after doing an impression of which film star during Hartman's first speech?

John Wayne: his muttered 'Is that you, John Wayne? Is this me?' brings Hartman storming down the barracks to find him, punch him in the gut and rename him.

What does Hartman find in Pyle's footlocker during an inspection?

A jelly doughnut: Hartman makes Pyle eat it while the other recruits do push-ups, and from then on they pay for his every mistake.

In what skill does Pyle unexpectedly excel after the blanket party?

Marksmanship: the turnaround delights Hartman but alarms Joker, who catches Pyle holding conversations with his rifle.

Where does Joker find Pyle with a loaded rifle on the last night at Parris Island?

The barracks latrine, 'the head' to Marines: Joker, on fire watch, finds Pyle there reciting the Rifleman's Creed, and the noise brings Hartman storming in to his death.

Which rifle does Pyle load with live rounds on his last night of boot camp?

An M14, which Pyle loads with 7.62 mm rounds; in Vietnam Joker carries an M16 instead, and it jams just as he corners the sniper.

In Vietnam, Joker works as a sergeant for which publication?

Stars and Stripes has Joker reporting from Da Nang until his base comes under attack; he is then sent north to the fighting with a combat photographer in tow.

What is the nickname of the unit Joker joins in the second half of Full Metal Jacket?

The Lusthog Squad is where Joker finds Cowboy, his friend from boot camp, now a sergeant; before long Cowboy is leading it.

The second half of Full Metal Jacket unfolds during which offensive of early 1968?

The Tet Offensive brings an attack on Joker's base at Da Nang and then sends him north to the street fighting in Hue.

How is squad leader 'Crazy Earl' killed?

A booby-trapped rabbit toy: he picks it up in a ruined building, and his death leaves Cowboy leading a squad that promptly gets lost.

The sniper who pins down the squad in Hue turns out to be whom?

A teenage girl: mortally wounded, she begs the Marines to shoot her, and the squad argues over whether to grant it or leave her to die.

Which Marine shoots the sniper first, before Joker delivers the final shot?

Rafter Man, the combat photographer, opens fire when Joker's M16 jams in front of the sniper; Animal Mother then insists that Joker finish it himself.

What do the Marines sing as they head toward the Perfume River at the end?

The Mickey Mouse March: the squad sings the children's TV anthem as it marches into the night after the sniper's death, while Joker's narration says he is alive and not afraid.

Who plays Private Joker?

Matthew Modine kept a diary and took photographs on set, later published as a book; in it he recalls threatening to cut himself so Kubrick would let him attend his child's birth.

Vincent D'Onofrio gained about 70 pounds to play Pyle, then needed surgery after injuring what on the obstacle course?

His knee: at 280 pounds he wrecked it in a boot-camp scene and it had to be surgically rebuilt; a year later he was back to his normal weight.

R. Lee Ermey was originally hired on Full Metal Jacket in what capacity?

Technical adviser: he wanted Hartman for himself, and footage of him hurling improvised insults at would-be extras persuaded Kubrick to hand him the part.

In which 1978 film had Ermey already played a Marine drill instructor?

The Boys in Company C already had him playing a drill instructor; Kubrick had seen it and still judged him not vicious enough for Hartman.

To prove his concentration, R. Lee Ermey kept up his drill-instructor insults while being pelted with what?

Tennis balls and oranges came at him mid-tirade, by one account at his own request, and he carried on berating the extras without a stumble.

During the Full Metal Jacket boot-camp shoot, what was done to each actor playing a recruit once a week?

His head was shaved, for continuity: the film opens with the recruits' hair falling to the clippers, and the shoot then ran on for many months.

What put R. Lee Ermey out of action for months during filming?

A car crash that broke several ribs: by Kubrick's account he skidded off a road at night and was found only because he kept flashing his headlights.

Which actor was first cast as Hartman in Full Metal Jacket, then given the door gunner role as consolation?

Tim Colceri, a former Marine, lost Hartman to R. Lee Ermey before filming began; in his one scene he fires from a helicopter shouting 'Get some!' and suggests Joker write a story about him.

Kubrick's first choice for Joker was which young star, whose casting talks dragged on and collapsed?

Anthony Michael Hall, fresh from The Breakfast Club, was offered the lead by Kubrick himself, but months of negotiation ended without a deal on money.

The ruined city of Hue was recreated at which derelict London site?

Beckton Gas Works belonged to British Gas and was due for demolition, so Kubrick's crew could dynamite buildings and spend two months knocking holes in the rest with a wrecking ball.

Which former RAF station, by then a British Army base, stood in for the Marine boot camp?

Bassingbourn Barracks in Cambridgeshire stood in for South Carolina because Kubrick shot the entire film, Vietnam included, within reach of his home in England.

Who was the production designer of Full Metal Jacket, hired on the strength of The Company of Wolves?

Anton Furst rebuilt a Vietnamese city from still photographs of the 1968 fighting; his Gotham City for Tim Burton's 1989 Batman went on to win him an Oscar.

The score of Full Metal Jacket is credited to 'Abigail Mead', a pseudonym for whom?

Vivian Kubrick, the director's daughter, also slips into the film itself: she is the news camera operator filming at the mass grave, uncredited.

The single 'I Wanna Be Your Drill Instructor', built on Hartman's cadences, reached number two in which country?

The United Kingdom: released to promote the film, the 1987 single sampled R. Lee Ermey's drill cadences and was credited to Abigail Mead and Nigel Goulding.

Which Rolling Stones song plays over the closing credits of Full Metal Jacket?

Paint It Black was among the period hits Kubrick chose after combing Billboard's top 100 for each year from 1962 to 1968; other songs were dropped because they drowned out the dialogue.

Which uncredited voice role did Stanley Kubrick himself perform in Full Metal Jacket?

Sergeant Murphy on the radio is the voice at the other end when Cowboy calls in from the ruined city; Kubrick took the part himself, without a credit.

Full Metal Jacket received its only Academy Award nomination in which category?

Best Adapted Screenplay: the credit behind it had been fought over, with the novelist refusing an 'additional dialogue' billing until he was named as a full co-writer.

Which Vietnam War film beat Full Metal Jacket to cinemas by six months and won Best Picture?

Platoon got there first because Full Metal Jacket took so long to finish: its shoot was suspended for months, and it did not open until June 1987.

What does a colonel scold Joker about in Full Metal Jacket?

His peace badge and helmet slogan, 'Born to Kill', clash: Joker says he meant something about 'the duality of man, the Jungian thing', which leaves the colonel baffled.

Weeks before the 1988 Oscars, police found hundreds of missing library books in a storage locker rented by which nominee?

Gustav Hasford called the locker his research library; it held books from dozens of libraries, some as far away as England and Australia, and he was later jailed over them.

R. Lee Ermey was later given an honorary promotion to which Marine rank, the one his most famous character holds?

Gunnery Sergeant: he had left the Corps in 1972 one rank lower, as a staff sergeant, so the honorary promotion made the rank of his best-known role his own.

Vincent D'Onofrio later played which Marvel villain in Daredevil?

Wilson Fisk / Kingpin is the opposite of Pyle, a crime lord who does the bullying; D'Onofrio first played him in 2015 and returned to the part in later Marvel series.

The actor who played Joker later portrayed Dr. Martin Brenner on which Netflix series?

Stranger Things cast him against type: the wisecracking Marine became Dr. Brenner, the scientist whom the children he experiments on call 'Papa'.

In 1980 Kubrick told Michael Herr that what he most wanted to direct was a movie on which subject?

The Holocaust: Herr recalled Kubrick adding that it could never fit into a two-hour film, and the long run of phone calls that followed led them to Vietnam instead.

Kubrick cast much of Full Metal Jacket from England by asking American hopefuls to send him what?

Audition videotapes: Vincent D'Onofrio won the part of Pyle from thousands of miles away with several taped auditions and a taped interview mailed to the director.

Which actor turned down the role of Hartman, later calling the decision 'foolish'?

Ed Harris told Kubrick he wanted to take a year off; the director had already ruled out Robert De Niro, reasoning that audiences would feel cheated when a star died in the first hour.

By John Boorman's account, Kubrick dropped which Deliverance actor from the running for Hartman out of fear of him?

Bill McKinney had played the mountain man in what Kubrick called 'the most terrifying scene ever put on film'; in Boorman's telling a message cancelling his trip reached him at Los Angeles airport, though he was paid in full.

Which future action star had to turn down a role in Full Metal Jacket because of his TV series commitments?

Bruce Willis was tied to Moonlighting, the detective series he was then making, and could not get free for a shoot that ended up lasting about a year.

To turn England into Vietnam, Kubrick had 200 live palm trees shipped in from which country?

Spain supplied the palms and Hong Kong the plastic tropical plants, because the whole war was being staged in England, much of it on a derelict industrial site near London.

A building visible as Cowboy dies in Full Metal Jacket resembles an object from which earlier Kubrick film?

2001: A Space Odyssey: the building looks very much like its monolith, yet Kubrick said it simply happened to be standing there and called the echo an 'extraordinary accident'.

The recruit nicknamed 'Gomer Pyle' is Leonard Pratt in the source novel, but Leonard who in Full Metal Jacket?

Lawrence: Hartman asks 'Lawrence what, of Arabia?', decides the name sounds like royalty and soon replaces it with a nickname of his own choosing.

Which critic gave Full Metal Jacket two and a half stars and called it 'strangely shapeless'?

Roger Ebert rated the drill instructor and Pyle the two best performances and wrote that the film 'never recovers' after they leave the scene.