Fun and Random Trivia of the Day

The opening weekend gross of this film, along with the second weekend gross of Shrek 2 (2004), represents the most money ever earned in a single weekend in movie history.

Supposedly gives five dollars to anyone who recognizes him on the street and knows what his full name is.

Has five cats.

Has one chinchilla, "Chucky".

When Forrest gets up to talk at the Vietnam rally in Washington, the microphone plug is pulled and you cannot hear him. According to Tom Hanks, he says, "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."

When Glenn Close's agent first called to express her interest in playing Alex Forrest, he was told, "Please don't make her come in. She's completely wrong for the part." Director Adrian Lyne also thought that Glenn Close was "the last person on Earth" who should play Alex.

When Glenn Close finally secured the part of Alex Forrest, one of the first things she did was to take the script to two different psychiatrists to ask them: "Is this behavior possible and if it is, why?"

The two psychiatrists who reviewed the script at Glenn Close's request both came to the same conclusion: Alex Forrest's behavior was - in its own way - classic behavior. Their diagnosis was that Alex had been molested and sexually tortured for an extended period of time while she was a child. As such, she would naturally lash out at anyone who found her desirable.

The band playing at the start of the movie is the band Cruzados. After the band disbanded, the singer Tito Larriva formed the band Tito & Tarantula, which is the band that plays at the Titty Twister in the movie From Dusk Till Dawn (1996).

To get an R-rating, Paul Verhoeven had to re-cut the movie a total of fourteen times.

Paul Verhoeven briefly considered Peter Weller for the role of Nick Curran.

Joe Eszterhas wrote the script in ten days while listening to The Rolling Stones non-stop. He then sold it three days later at auction.

Michael Douglas and Sharon Stone had to wear genital pads during the sex scenes due to the AIDS epidemic in the early 1990s.

Michael Douglas declined to go full frontal in the film, or to let his character be bisexual.

Donte77 wrote:Nice find Roodey. That is a great one. And I can see either of them fuckers in the military. Both are scary dudes.

According to Kris Kristofferson, director Sam Peckinpah so detested the studio cut of this film he actually urinated on the screen.

Rumors began to reach the studio that director Sam Peckinpah was unable to work due to his heavy drinking. So as a joke, a photo was taken which showed Peckinpah on a stretcher being fed whiskey through an IV bottle while cast members carried him.

"Then struggling actor George Clooney auditioned five times for Ridley Scott for the part of J.D. that went to Brad Pitt."

Dougray Scott was cast to play Wolverine. He had to leave the project because of his work on Mission: Impossible II (2000).

Numerous actors were considered for the role of Wolverine. Bryan Singer talked to Mel Gibson, 'Russell Crowe (I)', Viggo Mortensen and Edward Norton, while Fox were interested in Keanu Reeves.

Musician Glenn Danzig, whose muscular physique and height (5'4") almost perfectly matched the Wolverine character portrayed in the comic books, was interviewed for the role of Wolverine. A common myth has it that he was offered a part in the movie, but this confusion occurs largely because Danzig was actually offered the role some ten years earlier - when Carolco held the rights to an X-Men film and was considering a low-budget production. However, due to the high-budget and status of the 2000 production, as well as Danzig's age and relative lack of acting experience, and the requirement that the Wolverine actor be signed to a multi-picture deal spanning several years, it is highly unlikely that Danzig could have won the role in Singer's film. Regardless, a scheduling conflict prevented him from any subsequent pursuit of the role.

Jean-Claude Van Damme was considered for the role of Wolverine at one point.

Gary Sinise was the studios preferred option for the role of Wolverine.

The Danger Room, the area where the X-Men train and hone their powers, was going to be included in this film. Bryan Singer had wanted it to appear in the first film, but due to budget cuts, the idea had to be scrapped. It was then worked into the story for this film, to take place when Wolverine is left to watch after the students in the mansion. He decides to do a workout in the Danger Room, which was going to segue into the scene of him lying down and having a vision of Stryker and his Weapon X procedure. The Danger Room was going to be a cylindrical-shaped room, with different sections of the floor raising and lowering at dangerous speeds, as well as holographic projectiles, etc. The earliest teaser trailer for the film gave a sneak peak at how the Danger Room was going to look, but shortly after this teaser was released, Fox cut Singer's budget down from $125 million to $110 million, forcing Singer to once again cut the Danger Room from the film. There is still a small reference to the Danger Room remaining in the film: when Stryker first enters the X-Mansion subbasement, directly opposite from the elevator is a door with a small label on it, which, according to Singer's DVD commentary track, identifies the door as the entrance to the Danger Room.

When Bryan Singer was still set to direct, he intended the Dark Phoenix storyline as the sole focus of the film. He also intended to feature the villain Emma Frost/White Queen as a major character, with the role intended for Sigourney Weaver. With Singer's departure, the character of Emma Frost was dropped, and the Dark Phoenix story was relegated to a subplot in favor of the "cure" storyline. He also planned on introducing long time fan favorite Gambit into the film, to serve as both the new recruit as well as a romantic rival of Iceman's for Rogue's affection. For the part, Singer had planned on casting Channing Tatum. However, once he left, the script was changed, and Gambit was reduced to a minor cameo, then ultimately dropped from the script.

At the end, Joe refers to the "crooked road" he traveled. He walked the crooked sidewalk to the factory, drove the crooked road from the airport, then walked the final crooked path to the top of the volcano, all of which were in the same lightning bolt shape.

The doctor role was Leslie Nielsen's first comedic part. He later said he was delighted to get the offer, fearing that he was getting too old for anything but "elderly grandfather" parts.

The scene in which all characters sit in a circle on the floor in the library and tell stories about why they were in detention was not scripted. John Hughes told them all to ad-lib.

At the beginning of the movie, there are some shots of the school building right before the kids show up for detention. Written on a wall is, "I don't like Mondays". This refers to a school shooting in 1979 committed by 16-year-old Brenda Ann Spencer. Brenda's father gave her a rifle for Christmas in 1978. On January 29th, 1979, she used her new rifle to shoot 10 children and staff at Clevelend Elementary School in San Diego, California. The school was across the street from her house, where she was during the incident. She killed the school's principal and one of the custodians, and injured 8 children. After 6 hours, she was apprehended by police. When asked why she did it, she said "I don't like Mondays. This livens up the day." As for selecting her targets, she said "I like red and blue jackets." As of April, 2009, she is serving a life sentence, and has been denied parole 4 times. At her last parole hearing (2005), she claimed that her father had sexually abused her as a child, and that she was drunk and on PCP at the time of the shooting. According to her, the authorities and her attorney conspired to hide the drug test results. As for remorse, she said at the time "I had no reason for it, and it was just a lot of fun", "It was just like shooting ducks in a pond", and "[The children] looked like a herd of cows standing around; it was really easy pickings." Her next parole hearing will take place sometime in 2009. The incident and Spencer's lack of remorse also inspired the Boomtown Rats' hit "I Don't Like Mondays".