Trivia: Patrick Swayze refused to do this movie if Whoopi Goldberg was not given the role of Oda Mae Brown.
Trivia: Richard Gere actually plays the piano - and he composed this piece himself.
Trivia: When Kevin is in Buzz's bedroom, he finds in the box a picture of Buzz's girlfriend. This is actually a picture of the art director's son dressed up to look like a girl, because the director, Chris Columbus, thought it would be too harsh to make fun of a girl like that.
Trivia: When Edward is driven into town, the car passes a house with children playing on a slip 'n' slide on the front lawn. The boy running and sliding is future Backstreet Boy Nick Carter.
Trivia: "Mad Dog" Tannen's actions after shooting Marty are a perfect homage by Thomas F Wilson to Lee Marvin in "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance." He even gets the facial expressions, the mumbled and sarcastic thanks and the jaunty angle with which he holds the gun right.
Trivia: When the movie played in theaters, there was a scene where Dr. Catheter begins to tell Billy about the gremlins before the movie is interrupted by gremlins until they are threatened by Hulk Hogan. When the movie was released on VHS, the scene was changed to static appearing and gremlins constantly changing the channels. This caused many people who bought or rented the movie to think there was something wrong with the tape and took it back to the stores they purchased it from.
Trivia: Reportedly, star Kevin Bacon was at a rough patch in his life during production and didn't understand the appeal of the film or the light-hearted comedic elements. (Even once breaking down in public and exclaiming in frustration "I'm in a movie about giant underground worms!") And thus, he chose to have no involvement in the sequels. It wasn't until some years later that he decided to re-visit the film and give it another chance after it became a massive cult-hit, and discovered that he actually really loved it. Bacon has since gone on record saying one of his dream projects would be to reprise his role of Val McKee in a future film.
Trivia: The entire story is on the desk lamp at the beginning of the story, and the lightning bolt is at every important change in the plot of the story.
Trivia: Since spiders really aren't a trainable type of animal, the filmmakers used hairdryers to blow on them, in order to get them to move correctly.
Trivia: In the movie John Ritter and Amy Yasbeck play Ben and Flo Healey who go to the doctor to find out if they can have a baby. In 1990, John Ritter and Amy Yasbeck played a couple named Ray Evans and Mrs Evans on the Cosby Show that were having a baby.
Trivia: 1980s teen idol Tiffany provided the voice of Judy Jetson. She also provided the songs found in the film. To her dismay, critics not only attacked the film, but the songs she sang.
Trivia: In the jail cell when Ernest is going on about death you see the shadow of what looks to be a grim reaper on the wall.
Trivia: Every time Harry plays a recording of "Everybody Knows" to start his show, he uses a different format. First it's a reel-to-reel tape, then a vinyl record, then a cassette tape.
Trivia: When Larry tries to prove that they were married before, Ellen asks him to name the song playing on the radio when she was ticketed as a teenager. The song was "Give Me Some Loving," a song done many times by the Blues Brothers, initially starring Jim Belushi, but a role James took on after Jim's death.
Trivia: Even though the characters themselves are constantly confused as to which of them is Rosencrantz and which is Guildenstern, there is a way for the audience to make sure: In the scenes where they take part in "Hamlet" and interact with others, Gary Oldman always delivers the lines of Rosencrantz, and Tim Roth always delivers Guildenstern's.
Trivia: Shirley MacLaine (born 1934) is only fifteen years older than Meryl Streep (born 1949), who plays her daughter.
