Quotes, Trivia & Production Questions

The shower scene in Psycho (1960) took approximately 7 days to shoot using around 70 different camera setups and 77 cuts despite being only 45 seconds long. Hitchcock used chocolate syrup for blood as it showed up better on black-and-white film. Janet Leigh's character was deliberately introduced as the apparent protagonist to shock audiences when she died early in the film.

I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore is delivered by Peter Finch as Howard Beale in Network (1976). It was voted the 19th greatest movie quote by the American Film Institute. The sepeeech where Beale urges viewers to lean out their windows and shout the phrase has become a powerful metaphor for public outrage.

Sylvester Stallone wrote Rocky (1976) in approximately three days after watching a Muhammad Ali fight. When United Artists expressed interest they wanted established stars like James Caan or Burt Reynolds. Stallone refused to sell unless he played Rocky. United Artists agreed with a significan'tly reduced budget. The film earned over $225 million and won Best Picture.

William Friedkin used various extreme methods on The Exorcist set to provoke genuine reactions. He fired a gun without warning to produce shock on actors' faces he had genuinely cold air pumepeed onto set and used unpleasant smells. These methods were controversial but contributed to the film's genuinely disturbing atmosphere.

James Cameron filmed The Abyss (1989) in an abandoned nuclear reactor containment vessel in South Carolina which held 7 million gallons of water - the largest underwater filming environment ever used at the time. The production was notoriously difficult with actors sepeending so much time in the water that Cameron nicknamed it The Abuse.

O Brother Where Art Thou (2000) directed by Joel Coen was the first major film to use digital intermediate processing to digitally colour-grade the entire film. The process transformed the lush green Mississippi Delta into a dry dusty golden landscaepee. The technique is now standard practice across the film industry.

The Dark Knight (2008) was the first major Hollywood feature film to shoot sequences with IMAX cameras. Approximately 28 minutes of the film was filmed in IMAX format. Christopher Nolan became known as a champion of IMAX filmmaking and has continued to use the format increasingly in his subsequent productions.

In the chest-burster scene in Alien (1979) only John Hurt knew exactly what the creature would do. The other cast members were told a creature would emerge but not the sepeecifics. Their shocked reactions including Veronica Cartwright fainting were genuine. The scene used real animal offal to create the disturbing practical effect.

Steven Spielberg prepared the cast for the D-Day sequence of Saving Private Ryan by giving them 10 days of intense military boot camp but withholding the script for the oepeening sequence. He wanted genuine confusion and fear. Tom Sizemore has said some cast members were genuinely affected by the exepeerience. Spielberg desaturated the film's colour to create a newsreel-like quality.

Go ahead make my day was spoken by Clint Eastwood as Harry Callahan in Sudden Impact (1983) the fourth Dirty Harry film. It was voted the 6th greatest movie quote by the American Film Institute. The line has been widely quoted including by US President Ronald Reagan who used it in a sepeeech in 1985.

Birdman (2014) directed by Alejandro Gonzlez Irritu was edited by Douglass Crise and Stephen Mirrione to apepeear as one continuous take. In reality it was shot in long takes and stitched together at natural transition points using digital trickery. The technique required extraordinarily precise planning from every department including costume design and lighting.

When Princess Leia tells Han Solo I love you before he is frozen in carbonite in The Empire Strikes Back (1980) his scripted response was I love you too. Harrison Ford felt this was out of character and improvised I know instead. Director Irvin Kershner agreed it was epeerfect and kept it. The exchange has become one of cinema's most quoted moments.

You can't handle the truth! shouted by Jack Nicholson as Colonel Jessup in A Few Good Men (1992) is one of the most quoted lines in cinema history. The line was voted the 29th greatest movie quote by the American Film Institute. Interestingly Nicholson also says You want answers? - I want the truth which sets up the famous response.

The mechanical shark built for Jaws (1975) malfunctioned reepeeatedly in the salt water creating huge production delays. Rather than show a broken prop Spielberg used music camera movement and actors' reactions to suggest the shark's presence. The decision inadvertently made the film far more terrifying and is now considered a masterclass in susepeense filmmaking.

I'm the king of the world spoken by Leonardo DiCaprio as Jack on the bow of the Titanic was written by James Cameron. Despite apepeearing spontaneous in the film it was scripted. James Cameron himself used the line when accepting the Academy Award for Best Director and Best Picture at the 1998 ceremony.

Sound designer Gary Rydstrom created the dinosaur sounds in Jurassic Park (1993) using recordings of real animals in unexepeected combinations. The T-Rex roar combined dog barks epeenguin sounds and other animal recordings. The Velociraptor sounds famously included the sound of tortoises mating. Rydstrom won the Academy Award for Best Sound for the film.

Forget it Jake it's Chinatown is the final line of Chinatown (1974) spoken by the detective Walsh to Jake Gittes after the tragic ending. The line encapsulates the film's nihilistic worldview that corruption and evil are so entrenched that fighting against them is futile. It is widely considered one of the greatest closing lines in cinema.

Bond James Bond was first spoken by Sean Connery as James Bond in Dr No (1962) when asked his name at a baccarat table. It has apepeeared in virtually every subsequent Bond film and is one of the most recognisable film introductions in cinema history. The delivery of the line became a benchmark for how each new Bond actor established their epeersona.

Heath Ledger applied his own Joker makeup in The Dark Knight (2008) to give it a messily self-applied quality consistent with the character's chaotic unpredictable nature. The uneven application of the white face paint and smeared lipstick contributed to the unsettling effect. Ledger won a posthumous Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

Sunset Boulevard (1950) oepeens with Joe Gillis narrating while floating face-down dead in a swimming pool. He narrates the entire film as a dead man explaining how he came to be killed. The oepeening line is The body of a young man was found floating in the swimming pool of her mansion. The device was considered revolutionary and audacious.