Trivia: Patrick Swayze refused to do this movie if Whoopi Goldberg was not given the role of Oda Mae Brown.
Trivia: Have a close look at the Predator's trophy collection on his spaceship. Taking pride of place is a skull from the creature in the Alien movies. (01:33:05)
Trivia: The entire "How am I funny?" scene was improvised by Joe Pesci and Ray Liotta.
Suggested correction: False. Joe Pesci told the anecdote to Scorsese in the earliest stages of the movie. Scorsese asked him to add it during previous script readings and further rehearsals while notes were being taken by crew members. Then it was finally shot following those rehearsals and notes. In this video all the actors involved tell how Scorsese works and even he himself says he rewrote that scene 4 times. Minute 13:04: https://youtu.be/_bbzUZuxEB8.
I have actually seen interviews where they admitted it was improvised. The reactions from the other actors was genuine.
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: The scene where Tim approaches Harry at a tractor was filmed at the farm of NASCAR legend Junior Johnson.
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: The wolf in the film was played by two different wolves. Neither knew how to howl, so a third wolf had to be brought in for the howling scene.
Trivia: Paramount Studios essentially rented a US submarine to be in the movie. The USS Houston (SSN 713) played the USS Dallas and the surface scenes were filmed off of Long Beach, CA and Port Angelas, WA. Two crewmembers off the Houston were actually given very small speaking parts in the movie.
Trivia: John Chisum convinces Pat Garrett to accept a job as the new Lincoln County sheriff. James Coburn (Chisum) himself played Garrett in the Sam Peckinpah movie "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid."
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 third story, " A Lovers Vow" was based on the Japanese folklore of the yuki-onna. However, writer Malcom McDowell decided that the creature should be a gargoyle instead of a spirit.
Trivia: A lot of the witches who attend the Grand High Witches meeting are actually men dressed in women's clothing.
Trivia: Robert Duvall was asked to reprise his role as Tom Hagen, but an agreement couldn't be made on the price.
Trivia: Director Rob Reiner makes a cameo as the helicopter pilot helping Buster search for Paul's car.