Trivia: In his address to his crew, Nicholas Cage says "Without me, you are worthless. You are my crew. And without you, I am worthless." This line is borrowed from Full Metal Jacket (1987): "Without me, my rifle is useless. Without my rifle, I am useless."
Trivia: Michael Hordern plays Charlton Heston's father in the movie. In real-life, Hordern was only 12 years older than Heston.
Trivia: Thomas Heggen wrote the novel "Mister Roberts" based on his wartime experiences on two Navy cargo ships, U.S.S. Virgo (AKA-20) and U.S.S. Rotanin (AK-108). The Virgo was an attack cargo ship, designed for use in amphibious assaults, and saw quite a bit of action. In the movie, U.S.S. Hewell (AKL-14) was used as the fictional Reluctant. The Hewell was a light cargo ship, designed for coastal operations. A basic comparison of the three ships follows: Hewell/Reluctant: 176 feet long, 500 tons, 26 crew (not 62, as stated in the movie.) Rotanin: 441 feet long, 4000 tons, 206 crew Virgo: 460 feet long, 6500 tons, 404 crew.
Trivia: The officer speaking French is true to historical facts: it was mainly the French Foreign Legion fighting in Indochina at the time. However, the troops were predominantly of German origin (ex Wehrmacht and SS soldiers) and there is no detectable German accent in their French. True, this could be a fully French unit, thus no mistake. In live movies and interviews from the time, German accents in French are common.
Trivia: Even though George Murphy plays Ronald Reagan's father in the movie, he was only 9 years older than Reagan.
Trivia: Director Alfred Hitchcock has a cameo role in this film - he is seen standing in front of Cut Rate Drugs where Barry Kane is taken upon arrival in New York City.
Trivia: The movie is based on a true story. Dieter Dengler was born in Germany just before WWII, and eventually left for the US. He told this story in the book "Little Dieter Needs to Fly" and a 1997 film (Werner Herzog) with the same same.
Trivia: The scenes on the Haynes were filmed on an actual Buckley Class destroyer escort, the USS Whitehurst (DE 634). A great number of the Whitehurst crew act in the movie as the crew of the Haynes, with the commanding officer Lieutenant Commander Walter R. Smith playing the chief engineer (though on IMDB this role is credited to Robert Boon).
Trivia: "Mark" in the film is in reality Mike Coburn, who wrote his own account of Bravo Two Zero. Another writer and ex-SAS, Michael Asher (in "The real Bravo Two Zero") travelled to the area of events and found a different truth than in "McNab's" book. For example that Andy McNab is not his real name, that the cab was not a New York cab but a Toyota Crown and that there is actually no evidence that the patrol ever got into any big fire fights at all. Names and cars are minor discrepancies but the fights are way off what could be called "real events". The film is rather true to the book by "McNab" but not all true to the real events as told by other members and fact finders.
Trivia: The first film in the "Carry On" series. It had not originally been planned as the start of a movie series, but after its success at the box-office, producer Peter Rogers and director Gerald Thomas set about a further project with "Carry On Nurse" (1959), which was enormously successful. The "Carry On" series of films evolved after that.
Trivia: Even though Angelina Jolie plays Colin Farrell's mother in the movie, she is only a year older than Farrell.
Trivia: Towards the end of the film, in various scenes involving trains & railways, if you look carefully, you can quite see that no attempt has been made to disguise the loco's etc. into German locos. You can quite see in various shots 'British Railways' and the British Railways roundel etc. If you know your train stuff, you can quite see all the locos, coaches, wagons etc. are British Railways stock. Also, in the scene in the big station before Dirk Bogarde is captured, and put into a room out the back with his fellow escapees, if you look closely in the background, the station is London Victoria by the way, you can quite see a SR suburban EMU waiting in one of the bay platforms.
Trivia: When Sergeant Snow thrusts his sword into a horse rustler, he yells a Wilhelm scream.
Trivia: When the destroyer is bombed next to the mole, the shots of it sinking are of the corvette Compass Rose from The Cruel Sea.
Trivia: Lina Wertmuller became the first woman to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director with this film.
Trivia: When Lance is thrown on the bar during the bar brawl, he yells the Wilhelm scream.
