Some movies are more incredible than we thought. Behind their superb cinematography, well-written scripts, and story arc, Directors and Producers sometimes leave candle trails and “hidden mickey’s” just to add some fun to our viewing experience. For this week’s #TIL, your weekly dose of trivia and fun facts, we are giving you trivia bits even cinephiles might have also missed.
Without further ado, let’s check out this week’s #TIL list!
#TIL1: TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY
The 1991 Terminator installment, paid actor Arnold Schwarzenegger $21,429 for every word he uttered in the movie. The actor’s script only has 700 words for a two-hour-and-a-half film taking home a whopping $15,000,000. That’s four to five words per minute, including the famous line, “Come with me if you want to live.”
TIL#2: MATRIX CODES OUT OF JAPANESE SUSHI
Sometimes things are not as complicated as they seem. Sometimes they are just literal cut-outs from a Sushi recipe book. Case in point, one of the 21st century’s iconic images with a bunch of codes called “digital rain’ in the movie The Matrix is from an actual Sushi cookbook.
Production designer Simon Whiteley scoured through his wife’s stacks of Japanese cookbooks to get some inspiration until he stumbled upon one particular recipe – a Sushi recipe. Now, don’t go decoding the falling codes to get that Sushi recipe. They are usually written in Kanji and Hiragana while the codes were stylized Katakana.
#TIL3: DRAW ME LIKE ONE OF YOUR FRENCH GIRLS
Director James Cameron lend his hand during the most iconic scene in the blockbuster hit Titanic.That’s right! The hand we see in the film belongs to the lefty Director. Leonardo DiCaprio is right-handed, so they had to mirror-image the scene.
Additionally, the movie costs way more than the actual ship, which only cost $7.5 million at that time. The total budget for the film? $200 million!
#TIL4: LIGHTNING STRIKE TWICE
The actor of the controversial The Passion of the Christ, Jim Caviezel, was struck by lightning while reciting the “love your enemies” part during the Sermon on the Mount. Incidentally, the Assistant Director was also hit, twice!
If there is anything coincidental in this scene, it’s how the very actor playing Jesus Christ also carries the same initials “JC”. Jim had to undergo two heart surgeries after the movie. The Passion of the Christ became one of the highest-grossing films of all time at $622 million worldwide.
#TIL5: THE GOLDEN LAIR OF ACRYLIC
In the 2013 movie The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, we were shown the dragon’s lair filled with gold. The production team had to purchase all the gold paints in New Zealand, where the movie was shot, to create a golden lair befitted for a dragon that stole most of the gold from Middle Earth.
Fun fact, Legolas only blinks when he gets an injury. Across all six movies in LOTR franchise, including The Hobbit movies, it was only in The Desolation of Smaug where Legolas blinks normally.
There you have it for this week’s #TIL. Share with us your thoughts or if you know any fun facts! There is a lot more trivia for you, always check out the IKOT.PH page for your weekly dose of trivia bits!
