FILM 1830: STARSHIP TROOPERS

FILM 1830: STARSHIP TROOPERS

TRIVIA: The year in the movie is 2197.

Director Paul Verhoeven's favorite movie of his own.

The scenes involving explosions and fire after the destruction of Buenos Aires were actually videos taken from the Oakland Hills fire in October of 1991.

In a 2016 interview, Casper Van Dien revealed in an interview about an funny incident when he was picking up his two daughters from school, "I went by the line at school to pick up my kids. You know, you drive up to the school and when I get there and there are these six 10 and 8 year old boys hanging out with my daughters. I pull up in the line and the boys go "JOHNNY RICO! WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL US YOUR DAD WAS JOHNNY RICO!" and I said " what are you boys doing watching STARSHIP TROOPERS!" and they said "our dads made us watch it with them!" then my daughters get in the car and my 10 year old says "dad were you really naked in STARSHIP TROOPERS?" and I said "yeah" and she said " HOW COULD YOU DO THAT TO ME!" then my 8 year old says "wait, like naked naked?" and I said "yup" and she said "OH MY GOD MY LIFE IS RUINED!". That was the longest three minute ride home I have had in my life"

More ammunition was used in this film than in any previous movie.

During filming Jake Busey (Ace) suffered heat stroke after working all day in 120 degrees desert sun, this stopped production for a week, when he recovered several large holes were cut into his uniform so he could cool off, many other cast members suits had this modification as well in order to prevent further cases on average there were 25 people per day being treated for heatstroke during filming.

The opening recruitment scene of the Mobile Infantry is modeled after the propaganda movie Triumph of the Will (1935).

Mark Wahlberg turned down the role of Johnny Rico.

The base that houses the Fleet Academy is named "Tereshkova" after Russian cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space. There are many more examples in the movie of the future being gender-neutral (meaning there is no bigotry based on gender), such as the mixed-shower scene and the female captain.

The combat helmets were repainted again and used by the SWAT team at the end of the 2001 remake of Planet of the Apes.

Dialogue changes in German version: when Mr. Rasczak is talking about failure of democracy and how the veterans took control. Only citizens are allowed to vote, in the German version all this is changed about some talking about the war against the bugs,democracy is not mentioned. "Service guarantees citizenship" is changed to "Fight for the Future" * also during the classroom scene when Mr. Rasczak is talking about violence he says "I wonder what the city fathers of Hiroshima would say about that" and Carmen replies "They probably wouldn't say anything Hiroshima was destroyed" this scene was removed from the Japanese version. In the German version Mr. Rasczak says "I wonder what the citizens of Washington would say about that". And Carmen replies "They probably wouldn't say anything Washington was destroyed during the first Bug War".

In an early Federation broadcast, there is a psychic who says, "If you think you're psychic, maybe you are." The psychic is played by Timothy Omundson, who stars in the TV series 'Psych'. In the series, he plays a police detective who is constantly at odds with 'psychic' Shawn Spencer and determined to prove him a fraud.

Dale Dye was the movies Military Adviser, reportedly putting the main actors through a one week long intense boot camp, just like all of his other films.

Cameo: Edward Neumeier: The screenwriter appears as the criminal sentenced to death during one media break.

FILM 1461: THE REVENANT

TRIVIA: Leonardo DiCaprio had to devour a raw slab of bison's liver, even though he is vegetarian. He also had to learn to shoot a musket, build a fire, speak two Native American languages (Pawnee and Arikara), and study with a doctor who specializes in ancient healing techniques. DiCaprio calls it the hardest performance of his career.

Due to production being behind schedule, the snow melted during the location shoot in Canada before filming was complete. With summer rapidly approaching, there was no choice but to relocate the entire production to southern Argentina, where there were similar wintry conditions.

Shot chronologically on an 80-day schedule that took place over a total principal photography time period of nine months. This unusually long production time was due to the cold weather conditions, the remoteness of the locations and director Alejandro González Iñárritu's and cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki's aesthetic plan to shoot only with natural light for maximum realism. Only a few shooting hours were available every day and had to be carefully planned in advance.

Tom Hardy was concerned about the safety of some of the stunts he had to do, which caused friction between him and director Alejandro González Iñárritu before Gonzalez allowed Hardy to choke him in return. Later, the image of Hardy strangling Gonzalez was immortalized in a T-shirt gifted by Hardy to all members of the crew, at the end of the shoot.

The origin of the title is rooted in the French verb "revenir," which means "to return." Revenant in French also means (reverting to) "spirit" or "ghost."

This film adds another name to the list of Oscar-winning directors (Alejandro González Iñárritu) that Leonardo DiCaprio has worked with. The others are: Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Danny Boyle, James Cameron, Clint Eastwood, Sam Mendes and Woody Allen. He has also worked with Quentin Tarantino, who has won two Academy Awards for screenwriting.

Alejandro González Iñárritu was insistent that computer-generated imagery not be used to enhance the film, stating: "If we ended up in greenscreen with coffee and everybody having a good time, everybody will be happy, but most likely the film would be a piece of shit."

FILM 1444: HOME ALONE

TRIVIA: Joe Pesci deliberately avoided Macaulay Culkin on set because he wanted Culkin to think he was mean.

The picture Kevin finds of Buzz's girlfriend was a picture of a boy made up to look like a girl because Chris Columbus thought it would be too cruel to make fun of a girl like that. The boy that was used in the photo was the art director's son.

Entered into The Guinness Book of World Records as the "Highest Box Office Gross - Comedy", accumulating $533,000,000 internationally.

The movie that Kevin watches on video tape is not a real film, but footage specially created. It was called "Angels With Filthy Souls." Along with other similar era references in the movie, this is a play upon the movie Angels with Dirty Faces (1938) starring James Cagney.

The ornaments that Marv steps on are actually candy.

Joe Pesci kept forgetting that he was filming a "family" movie during his character's on-screen outbursts, so director Chris Columbus advised him to say "fridge" instead of the "F-word".

The line "You guys give up, or are you thirsty for more?" was improvised.

Kevin's bed-wetting cousin, Fuller, is played by Macaulay Culkin's younger brother, Kieran Culkin.

Macaulay Culkin drew the map that he uses to set up the traps.

John Candy filmed his part in only one day, albeit a 23 hour day. The story about having once forgotten his son at a funeral home was entirely improvised. His part is obviously inspired by the character he played in Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987) also written by John Hughes.

The movie is considered a traditional Christmas movie in Poland. It has aired on national TV during prime-time Christmas season every year since 1990. In 2011 the movie aired on December 23 with an audience of over five million, making it the most popular show aired during the Christmas season in Poland.

Daniel Stern wore rubber feet for his barefoot scenes.

According to Chris Columbus during an interview with Alec Baldwin on Baldwin's podcast Here's the Thing, John Heard was unhappy about working on the film, feeling that the film was going to be terrible. However, upon seeing the finished film and its subsequent success, Heard apologized to Columbus when they were shooting his scenes on the film's sequel, having broken character before his first take to tell Columbus. The director says he still had footage of Heard's apology on video-tape.

Many of the frames that focus on Kevin in the beginning of the film are shot from above his head, making him seem small and helpless. At the end of the film, Kevin is mostly shot from below, making him seem taller and more confident.

Although the part was written especially for Macaulay Culkin by John Hughes, several hundred other boys were auditioned by director Chris Columbus. According to the DVD Commentary, Columbus was hesitant to cast Culkin because John Hughes had so recently cast him in Uncle Buck (1989) and didn't want to appear as a pushover in the film community. It was only after auditioning all the other young actors that he realized Culkin was in fact the best choice for the part.

Director Chris Columbus would ask Joe Pesci to do his "How am I funny?" speech from Goodfellas (1990) on set.

Catherine O'Hara revealed in 2014 that Macaulay Culkin still calls her "Mom".

Chris Columbus was previously hired by John Hughes to direct one of the National Lampoon's Vacation films. After meeting with Chevy Chase, however, it became clear to Columbus that the two of them would not get along, so he asked Hughes if there were any other projects he could work on instead. Home Alone was one of the options presented to him.

Originally, Danny DeVito was considered for the role of Harry.

Jon Lovitz turned down the role of Harry Lime.