Once Upon a Time in Mexico

Trivia: When Sands buys gum from the kid on the bike, he tells him, "I never want to see you again." The next time the kid shows up in the movie, Sands has had his eyes taken out. (00:27:30 - 01:10:30)

Trivia: Danny Trejo, who played Cucuy in this film, is director's Robert Rodriguez's cousin. This might be why Trejo is in almost every film Rodriguez has made.

T Poston

Trivia: If you watch the credits right until the end, the camera starts zooming out to reveal that the credits have been coming out of Sands' eye sockets, he then replaces his glasses.

Trivia: When El Mariachi is at the presidential party, he moves close to the President and asks him if there is any song who he wants to heard. The President says "La Malagueña". (Girl from Malaga). Antonio Banderas was born in Malaga, Spain. (00:45:05)

Trivia: The tag that the white dog of Mickey Rourke has says "moco." Moco was the man that killed Domino in "El Mariachi" (1992) and he always dressed in white. (00:50:15)

Trivia: The film finished shooting in 2001, but was pushed back until 2003.

T Poston

Trivia: Johnny Depp wasn't the original choice for Agent Sands. The original choice was George Clooney and had much more scripted swearing. Depp simply ad-libbed most of the parts where he was supposed to swear.

Trivia: In the scene where El Mariachi is looking in his guitar case, you can see the throwing knives Cucuy was throwing at him in "Desperado" (1995). They are the ones with the big crosses secured to the lid of the guitar case.

EMTurbo

Trivia: Director Robert Rodriguez knows this site all too well. In some of the features on the DVD like the "10 Minute Film School" and "Inside Troublemaker Studios", he tells us that he's gone back into the film and edited out shadows, equipment, crew reflections in any sort of glass, and other things. This is one of the rare times I've heard of a Director actually taking the time and effort to do this.

Trivia: When El Mariachi is in the hotel room with the guitar and has the flashback to when his wife is shot, the boxes on the bed say "Rodriguez," which is the director's (Robert Rodriguez) surname.

Trivia: Originally, Robert Rodriguez didn't have any plans to film another sequel in the series, and intended to leave it at "El Mariachi" and "Desperado." Rodriguez's close friend Quentin Tarantino convinced Rodriguez to make the movie, comparing it to Sergio Leone's "Dollars" trilogy, and even suggested the name "Once Upon a Time in Mexico" in a nod to Leono's other famous western "Once Upon a Time in the West." The film contains many overt references to both "Once Upon a Time" and "The Good, The Bad and the Ugly." (Particularly the later, with El being the "Good", Sands being the "Bad" and Barillo obviously being the "Ugly" once his surgery has been performed).

Trivia: The role of "El Cucuy" was originally written for Quentin Tarantino. Director Robert Rodriguez wanted to deck Tarantino up in leather clothing, have him tan his skin and have him speak in a thick (and obviously fake) Mexican accent. This is why some of Cucuy's lines are over-the-top and ridiculous, as they were written for Tarantino. (Ex. "I'm a Mexi-CAN!") When Tarantino was unable to appear, the role went to another Rodriguez regular - Danny Trejo.

Trivia: Ruben Blades' late partner in this film has the surname Archuleta. Years earlier, Ruben Blades' character in Predator 2 was Danny Archuleta.

Trivia: When the bad guy on a motorcycle strikes a car and goes flying, he yells the Wilhelm scream.

Revealing mistake: Near the end of the movie, when Johnny Depp's eyes are removed, he talks with the boy when he's against the wall. In several shots you can see Johnny Depp's eyes through the sunglasses. (01:33:55)

More mistakes in Once Upon a Time in Mexico

Left Nut: I was tortured once... I didn't like it. You know what the really fucked up part was? They tore out my left nut. That really turned me off to the whole thing.

More quotes from Once Upon a Time in Mexico

Question: In the wedding scene, why is Carolina wearing two different types of shoes? One is white the other is badge and strapped another way.

sunfox35

Chosen answer: The wedding takes place almost immediately after they escaped from General Marquez. She did not grab a matching pair.

MasterOfAll

More questions & answers from Once Upon a Time in Mexico

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.