Trivia: This is the first movie in human history to ever to feature a fully CG (computer generated) character when the knight emerges from the stained glass window. Computer graphics had existed prior (Wrath of Kahn), but never once to simulate an on-screen character.
Trivia: In the movie, Reggie comments on Mark's Led Zepplin t-shirt, saying they were a great band. Mark accuses her of being one of those adults who pretends to like cool bands to get close to little punks like him. This parallels an incident where Brad Renfro was reading for the role of Mark, and a suit in the production office saw his Megadeath t-shirt and claimed to like that band, too. Renfro said the same thing to the producer that Mark eventually says to Reggie in the film.
Trivia: When Mary and Norman go into Mother's room, before Mary turns on the light look at the shadow on the wall on the right. It is a silhouette of Alfred Hitchcock, the director of the original "Psycho" (1960). (00:24:10)
Trivia: Even though he shares top billing with Angelina Jolie and Ethan Hawke, Kiefer Sutherland is on screen for less than three minutes.
Trivia: An interesting scene to watch is when Heywood Floyd is talking to his associate on the bench in front of the White House, there is a long shot when you can see a person feeding pigeons. It is none other than Arthur C. Clarke in a cameo appearance. (00:10:59)
Trivia: Director Alfred Hitchcock has a cameo role in this film - he is seen tossing some litter as Richard and Annabella run from the music hall.
Trivia: The scene in which the blue car does several flips on the grass would later be used in the first season of the TV show "The Fall Guy" starring Lee Majors.
Trivia: John Ostrander, who created the Suicide Squad team in the comics, has a cameo as the doctor who implants the brain bomb into Michael Rooker Savant.
Trivia: This film is notorious for having undertones and themes that many perceive as homoerotic, and the events of the film are often perceived by critics as a personification of the lead character Jesse being tormented by being "in the closet" and unable to be true to himself. While the makers of the film initially denied that this subtext was intentional, screenwriter David Chaskin recently admitted that the subtext was intentionally written into the script in order to give the characters and story depth.
Trivia: The film's cover of "Another Brick in the Wall" (Parts 1 and 2) were performed by a band called "Class of '99." The band was a super-group made up of members from prominent 80's and 90's rock bands. (Including members of Alice in Chains, Rage Against the Machine, and Jane's Addiction.) The band was formed exclusively to record the covers for the soundtrack, and disbanded immediately after the film's release.
Trivia: When Casey enters the shop, the female store clerk is watching the TV. On top of the TV is a piece of memorabilia from The Iron Giant. The director of Tomorrowland, Brad Bird, also directed The Iron Giant.
Trivia: The directorial debut of series co-star Patrick Wilson.
Trivia: While driving through the jungle to get to the consulate, Jim Carrey starts singing the song "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang." Jim Carrey ad-libbed singing the song because he had forgotten his original line.
Trivia: Sidney Lumet's first choice for Hercule Poirot was Alec Guiness, with Paul Scofield as his second choice. Because they both were busy with other projects, Albert Finney was chosen, even though Lumet felt he was too young for the role.
Trivia: Filmmakers George Miller and Francis Ford Coppola both sued Warner Bros. over Contact. George Miller sued for breach of contract (as he was the original director before being fired and replaced by Robert Zemeckis), while Coppola sued because he claimed that he and Carl Sagan (the writer of Contact) had already developed the premise for a TV show in the 1970's which was never produced, before Sagan later used the idea for Contact in 1985. Both suits failed - Miller's firing was within contract and perfectly reasonable, and Coppola was dismissed (twice) because he had taken far too long to sue the company (if he sued when Sagan began working in the 80's, he may have won, but he waited until after the film's release in 1997 to sue).
Trivia: The jacket that Robert Redford wears for most of the film is the exact same jacket he wears in "The Natural" - he got to keep it after filming had finished, and wore it for this film as well.