Trivia: Linda Harrison, who portrayed Nova in the original Planet of the Apes and its sequel Beneath the Planet of the Apes, has a cameo appearance in this movie as one of the people inside the rolling cage as it's being taken into the city. She is seen standing next to Mark Wahlberg, shaking her head when he asks her a question.
Trivia: When Donnie is about to enter the car with Gretchen near the end of the film, he clutches at his stomach as if in pain, and we see Frank touch his eye after Donnie dies. Both these moments foreshadow pain: a deleted scene of Donnie's death shows a pole impaling his stomach right where he clutched it. And Donnie shoots Frank in the eye.
Trivia: Penelope Cruz played the same character in 'Vanilla Sky' as she did in the Spanish version of the same film, 'Abre Los Ojos'.
Trivia: Jimmy's dog is named Goddard. American physicist and inventor Robert Hutchings Goddard (1882-1945) developed the first liquid propelled rocket engine in 1926.
Trivia: In Philip K. Dick's short story "Type II" which became the movie Screamers, the Type III robot was a small boy named David, carrying a Teddy.
Trivia: Kevin Spacey had to record the scene where Prot eats a whole banana (skin and all) 27 times.
Trivia: The scenes with the flying dinosaurs were supposed to be in the original movie, as it was part of the book Jurassic Park, but Spielberg decided not to include this in the first movie due to budget restraints.
Trivia: During the sequence with the explorers' huge submarine submerging, one of the computerized "extras" can be seen waving at the camera. (He is seen through the lower window for only a second or two; use frame advance to view it or listen to the Visual Commentary on the DVD for specifics). (00:16:39)
Trivia: In every Final Fantasy video game, and the movie, there is a person named Sid (even though sometimes it's spelled with a 'c').
Trivia: In the gunfire scene at the prison, at the beginning of the movie, when the sergeant yells to two of his men "Woo, Scott, follow me," it is a clear joke from director James Wong to fellow moviemakers John Woo and Ridley Scott.
Trivia: "Evolution" was originally written as a serious sci-fi thriller by writer Don Jakoby. When Ivan Reitman signed on to direct, he felt the concept would make for a good ensemble comedy, similar to his film "Ghostbusters." Jakoby actually liked the idea of reworking the film into a comedy so much, he stayed with the project and assisted in re-writes.
Trivia: Near the end of the movie, a teacher yells, "Hey teacher, leave those kids alone." A clear reference to Pink Floyd's song "Brick in the Wall".
Trivia: The uniforms worn by the ESA soldiers are the same uniforms worn by the soldiers in Starship Troopers, they've also been used in the TV show Firefly.
Trivia: The woman who accidentally calls Burt Gummer (Michael Gross) "Mr. Goober" is actually played by Michael Gross' sister Mary. Like her brother, she's an actress who was a co-star on Saturday Night Live for several years in the 80's, and has done a smattering of film, television and voice-acting roles since.
Trivia: Reportedly, the film was originally going to be titled "Escape from Mars," and was going to be a sequel to "Escape from New York" and "Escape from LA," with Kurt Russell reprising his role as Snake Pliskin. However, after "Escape from LA" bombed at the box office, the script was reworked, and Snake was rewritten into the character "Desolation" Williams.