10 Interesting Movie Facts (Spoilers)

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Medium shot of production crew cueing the team to start camera roll

Benjamin Jensen, Columnist

When we watch our favorite movies, we typically don’t notice small details shown to either foreshadow, or just add a level of originality and realism to the film. Here are 10 interesting facts about your favorite movies. 

 

  1. Shawshank Redemption.

 

At the end of Shawshank Redemption when prison guard Hadley gets arrested, one of the officers reads the Miranda Rights off of a notepad to Hadley. The scene was supposed to take place in 1966, the same year when the supreme court case, Miranda Vs. Arizona, concluded. The officer reads off of the note pad because he has not memorized the Miranda rights yet. 

 

     2. Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000) 

In Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Jim Carrey gets extremely lucky during the table scene where the Grinch rips off the cloth from the table and none of the items fall. That wasn’t scripted! Jim Carrey then proceeds to run back to the table and shove all the items off. The producers thought the scene was more entertaining and left the scene in.

     3. Saving Private Ryan

At the beginning of Saving Private Ryan, one of the soldiers named Jackson has a bruise of his right thumb. Many other soldiers have the same bruise. This injury was commonly caused by the loading mechanism of the M1 Garand which was a standard issued rifle during World War II.

    4. Finding Nemo

In Finding Nemo, one of the fish named “Gill” is a Moorish Idol. A Moorish Idol is a fish that is known to not handle well in captivity. Gill in the movie, is constantly coming up with escape plans to flee the dentist’s office which makes sense.

 

    5. Forrest Gump 

In Forrest Gump, during Forrest’s inaudible Vietnam protest speech, Tom Hanks stated that the speech Forrest was supposed to say before having his microphone cut off was, “Sometimes when people go to Vietnam, they go home to their mommas without any legs. Sometimes they don’t go home at all. That’s a bad thing. That’s all I have to say about that.”

   6. Wolf of Wall Street 

In Wolf of Wall Street, Leonardo DiCaprio does a scene where he shows off his breakdancing moves. As it turns out, DiCaprio was a break-dancer before he started acting. His pop locking skills were so good that he was given the nickname “The Noodle”. He even wanted to quit acting to pursue his breakdancing career.

   7. Scream (1996)

In the first Scream movie, in the opening scene, Drew Barrymore actually called 911 by accident, numerous times. This was because the prop master forgot to unplug the phone. 911 operators say that they would receive a call, hear Drew Barrymore scream, then hang up. The film crew found out about the calls after the police called the phone and asked why they kept calling.

  8. Lion King (1994)

In the Lion King, the popular characters Pumbaa and Timone were not supposed to be in the original script. Actors Nathan Lane and Ernie Sabella auditioned for the roles of the hyenas, but the producers thought Nathan and Ernie were so hilarious, that they wrote Pumbaa and Timone into the story so that they both can have a role in the movie.

 

  9. Wallace and Gromit: A Grand Day Out 

In Wallace and Gromit: A Grand Day Out, the cheese loving character, Wallace, was animated to say “Wensleydale” to make his clay made face look nice and toothy. As it turns out, the actual Wensleydale cheese company was about to declare bankruptcy and shut down. After the movie’s release, cheese sales skyrocketed and saved the cheese company.

  

  10. The Dark Knight

In The Dark Knight, one of the people that stands up to The Joker is the real Senator Patrick Leahy. This senator has made cameos in five Batman movies. He donated all his money he made from the cameos to multiple charities and to his local library where he read comic books as a kid.