It seems our readers were big fans of our previous Movie Secrets videos, exploring amazing facts about your favorite films! We decided to make this a series to help quench your thirst for movie knowledge! So sit back, relax and enjoy Screen Rant’s Know Your Movies: 20 Amazing Movie Secrets That Will Blow Your Mind #3.
Mad Max: Fury Road
Actor Hugh Keays-Byrne had his face hidden behind a mask as the villain of the Mad Max reboot, but audiences were originally going to see him play a superhero of a million faces, as the Martian Manhunter in director George Miller’s cancelled DC Comics team-up, Justice League Mortal.
For editing Fury Road, George Miller turned to his wife, editor Margaret Sixel - who had never edited an action movie like it - claiming that if a man did it, it would look like every other action movie. What she didn’t know was that he had filmed over 480 hours of film in the desert, which took a full three months just to watch it all.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Zack Snyder took plenty of shots at director J.J. Abrams’ Star Wars reboot, while both movies filmed at the same time. But Abrams got the last laugh, including a scale model of Batman’s ‘Tumbler’ Batmobile on the outer hull of the Millenium Falcon.
To keep his mind off of Star Wars, J.J. Abrams took in the musical Hamilton on Broadway. But when they met backstage, the show’s creator Lin-Manuel Miranda said to call him if he needed new cantina music. When it came time to record, Abrams made good on the offer, sharing vocals with Miranda in the finished song.
Jurassic World
There’s no Jurassic Park without John Hammond, so director Colin Trevorrow made sure to add a bronze statue of the park creator in his big-budget sequel. It was assumed Hammond would have died prior to the movie, but when actor Richard Attenborough passed away before release, the statue became a memorial to the man, not the character.
The other stars of the original movie are mostly left out of Jurassic World, but the cartoon tour guide ‘Mr. DNA’s return was total fan service. The director, a huge fan of the original, even recorded his impression of the late voice actor Greg Burson for a temporary track. The impression was so good, the audio team just left it in as is.
Frozen
Jennifer Lee was the first woman to direct a Disney movie, and given Frozen’s success, she picked the right one. But fans probably don’t know that she also lent her voice to the movie, playing the girls’ mother, the Queen of Arendelle.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
No fan will forget the scene in which Cap takes down an elevator filled with SHIELD personnel. What makes it even more impressive is that it was the first scene shot for the sequel, setting the stage for the gritty, hard-hitting follow-up story fans couldn’t get enough of.
The Avengers: Age of Ultron
Fans of Marvel’s heroes were probably too distracted to notice the subtle war being fought between the team’s two leaders. The official posters were split between putting Iron Man front and center, or Captain America - a major hint at the conflict and Civil War coming years later.
The LEGO Movie
The directors of this toy adventure relied on CG to bring the LEGO to life, but also used a ton of the real thing. Benny the Space Guy is only in the movie since director Chris Miller played with him when he was little - in fact, his actual space set is used in the final film.
X-Men: Days of Future Past
Surprisingly, Wolverine wasn’t planned to show his bare backside when he arrives in the past of 1973. But on the day of the shoot, Jackman told the director that if he were waking up to a beautiful woman, he wouldn’t be wearing underwear. Everyone was convinced, blurring the line on whether he’s playing himself, or Wolverine in that particular moment.
It’s never explicitly stated, but it’s implied that Quicksilver is the son of Magneto, just as he was in the Xmen comics. Most fans accepted the idea immediately… probably not realizing that the on-screen father and son, Michael Fassbender and Evan Peters, are less than ten years apart in age. Who knew?
Guardians of the Galaxy
Marvel’s shared universe means plenty of cameos from the same actors, but there’s at least one problem. How is it that the young girl looking for Captain America’s autograph is played by the same woman as Star-Lord’s dying mother more than forty years later? Actress Laura Haddock plays both, but is almost unrecognizable on her deathbed.
It’s hard to keep the tears back when Peter Quill reads the final note from his mother, and was even harder for actor Chris Pratt. The actress had to quickly record the voiceover in the back of a car, just so Pratt could listen to it during the actual scene, and truly sell the connection and flood of memories.
Fans had some nitpicking to do when Star-Lord and Gamora float through space without any injuries. But the filmmakers actually worked with NASA on the science of the scene, learning that humans could survive just as long as the characters, without serious health problems. It turns out the movie is science fact, nor fiction.
Gravity
Nearly every part of this space survival story was created in a computer, but that only gave the crew a chance at an incredible joke. At some points in the movie, reflections of a camera man or boom mic appear in the astronauts helmets, as if they were mistakes that slipped through editing. Instead, they were put there by the animators as an inside joke most viewers will never notice.
Man of Steel
Knowing that moviegoers always assume a superhero’s costume exaggerates the actor’s muscles, Zack Snyder and Henry Cavill wanted to prove their Superman was something different. Cavill refused steroids to help him build muscle before his shirtless scenes, dropping his body fat to the levels of professional bodybuilders - just 7%. The results… speak for themselves.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
The rebooted Turtles may be mutant CG creations, but the designers turned to real life actors who summed up their personalities. Leonardo’s face was based on Russell Crowe, Raphael on Clint Eastwood, Donatello on Leonard Nimoy, and Michaelangelo on Bill Murray. Fans can decide how close they came.
Captain America: Civil War
The movie’s not even here, but one of its most iconic shots has already been revealed in the first Civil War trailer, as Steve Rogers strains to keep a helicopter from taking off. And it’s not fiction, either: The directors had star Chris Evans actually suspended between a crane and helicopter, using his very real muscles to hold them together. CG isn’t always the answer, apparently.
Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice
The workout demands for the Justice League lead-in swung for the fences, with Henry Civil packing on TWICE the muscle of Man of Steel. Not to be outdone, the physically larger Affleck made sure to gain thirty pounds of muscle - and drop to just 8% body fat to make sure Batman was every bit as intimidating, even without heat vision.
Conclusion
Those are some of our favorite mind blowing movie facts, but let us know which ones we missed and stay tuned for more! And remember to subscribe to our channel for more videos like this one.
