Random Movie Trivia Part 16

Bloodsport

Though Frank Dux's brick-breaking demonstration is purely fictional, the Dim Mak ("Death Touch") is a legendary move fabled in Chinese martial arts folklore. The Dim Mak is an accu-pressure attack where the attacker quickly strikes his opponent several times (in sequence) at various spots on his body. Striking an opponent in this method can result in broken bones, paralysis/painful muscle spasms or even instant death. Pei-Pei Cheng's character Jade Fox uses a paralyzing Dim Mak-type attack in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000).

Star Wars ep IV - A New Hope

Kenny Baker has said that often when the cast and crew broke for lunch, they would forget he was in the R2-D2 outfit and leave him behind.

Sad note.....RIP Kenny Baker

Red Sonja

Arnold Schwarzenegger's character was originally intended to be a reprisal of Conan, star of the comic book in which Red Sonja first appeared, but the film did not have the rights to this name. An unofficial explanation endorsed by fans is that Kalidor is one of Conan's "traveling names," a common feature of multi-national mythical/legendary heroes such as Zeus aka Jupiter and J.R.R. Tolkien's Gandalf aka Mithrandir.

The Departed

As research for his character's occupation, Matt Damon worked with a Massachusetts State Police unit out of Boston. He accompanied them on routine patrols, participated in a drug raid and was taught proper police procedures like how to pat down a suspect.

The Wizard of Oz

In the famous "Poppy Field" scene (in which Dorothy fell asleep) the "snow" used in those camera shots was made from 100% industrial-grade chrysotile asbestos--despite the fact that the health hazards of asbestos had been known for several years.

Weird Science

The large Chet puppet was designed to be solely operated by Bill Paxton, but he became too claustrophobic in the suit, so dwarfs Kevin Thompson and Joe Gieb were crammed inside and puppeteered the creature in unison.

Saturday Night Fever

When Tony's dad hit him in the back of the head the third time during dinner, his retort of "Just watch the hair!" and then his complaint about being hit on the hair after he had worked on it for so long was John Travolta's own reaction and not scripted, but since it was so in character for Tony Manero to say, it was left in.

Meet the Parents

The idea to use a lie detector test came from Robert De Niro while he was researching a role. He read up on polygraphs and presented his findings to director Jay Roach at a pre-shoot dinner. "At that point, there was no lie detector scene in the script," Roach told Entertainment Weekly. "But after hearing all this, I thought, 'Oh, this has to be in our movie.' Now it's become the central image of all the ads, the trailers, everything." Jack Byrnes being ex-CIA was always part of his characters since the beginning, however.

Escape From Alcatraz

The incident in which Doc chops off several fingers with a hatchet was based on an actual incident that took place in 1937. Inmate Rufe Persfal, maddened by what was then a policy of strict silence at all times, cut off four fingers with a hatchet to try and get transferred off of Alcatraz.

(i cut the gif short so i don't get in trouble for showing the fingers actually getting chopped off)

The Terminator

Arnold Schwarzenegger worked with guns everyday for a month to prepare for the role; the first two weeks of filming he practiced weapons stripping and reassembly blindfolded until the motions were automatic, like a machine. He spent hours at the shooting range, practicing with different weapons without blinking or looking at them when reloading or cocking; he also had to be ambidextrous. He practiced different moves up to 50 times. He wound up garnering a compliment in "Soldier of Fortune" magazine for his realistic handling of the guns on camera (whereas the magazine usually lampoons movies for their inaccurate depictions of weapons use).

The Rock

At the beginning of the movie, General Hummel kisses his wife's grave stone and leaves behind his Medal of Honor, the highest award in the armed forces of the USA. It is bestowed on a member of the US armed forces who distinguishes himself "conspicuously by gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while engaged in an action against an enemy of the United States"

Predators

Noland claims to have been on the planet between seven to ten seasons. In Earth time, he's been there at most a little over two years.

Real Genius

When Laslo Hollyfeld (Jon Gries) sends in a large number of entries to the Frito-Lay contest, he is mirroring the actions of Caltech students Steve Klein, Dave Novikoff and Barry Megdal, who, in 1974, used a similar strategy to win a McDonald's sweepstakes. Their entries came to roughly 1/5th of the total entries and won them a station wagon, $3,000 cash and $1,500 in food gift certificates.

Willow

Word from Ron Howard is that part of the two-headed dragon "Eborsisk" was modeled after Clint Howard, his brother. He stated that since Clint has had many cameo appearances in his films, and Ron couldn't find a part for him in this one, he modeled the dragon after him.

Caveman

The following Cavespeak from the movie translates as follows: "alunda" - love ; "bobo" - friend ; "haraka" - fire ; "macha" - monster ; "nya" - no/not ; "ool" - food ; "pooka" - broken ; "ugh" - like ; "kooda" - come/follow "zug zug" - have sex ; "fecchh" - "shit"/general profanity.