Trivia: Shortly before the film's release, actor Phil Hartman was shot and killed by his wife, who then killed herself. The film was re-edited to remove any scenes where the soldiers had their weapons pointed directly at Hartman. Also removed was one of his lines: "I think I'm having an aneurysm."
Trivia: When Brick Bazooka loses his legs to Alan's bike gear, he emits a high-pitched, half-choked scream just before he hits the ground. This is the infamous "Wilhelm scream" and can be heard in several other movies as well: in Star Wars, when Luke shoots a stormtrooper in the shaft-swinging scene; in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, when an Elf warrior is thrown off the Helm's Deep wall; and in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, when a Gondor soldier fleeing from Osgiliath is snatched up and dumped by a Nazgul steed. The earliest movie I have heard the scream in so far is the 1954 horror movie 'Them' (when Ben Peterson is killed by a giant ant near the end).
Trivia: When the soldiers are turning the Gwendy dolls into more sentient toys, it is a very Frankenstein-inspired sequence. In fact, the score playing in the background is the music from the 1935 Bride of Frankenstein movie. Then right after, the movie transitions to one of the other toys, Troglokhan, watching Frankenstein on TV. Troglokhan is part toy, part radio, and parts in a Frankenstein style as well. His other name is also "Freakenstein"; however, this is not said in the movie but rather just the novelization of Small Soldiers.
Trivia: The main house for the Abernathy family in this movie is the same house that would later be used for the big party in the 2012 movie Project X and is the house used in the 2007 show Pushing Daisies.
Trivia: Towards the start of the film, we see a building labeled Heartland Toy Company being renamed to Heartland Play Systems "A division of Globotech," reflecting the toy company being bought out by the military tech company. Funny enough, the building being used here used to be the location of a real-life military operations building and was used in preparations for Operation Desert Storm. And now it's being used to make a movie about toys.
Trivia: The company in the film, Globotech, has the slogan "Turning shares into plowshares." This is a play on the Biblical verse, Isaiah 2:4: "And they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks." This roughly means turning weapons of war into instruments of peace or agricultural tools in the end times, much like how Globotech went from making military weapons to kids' toys in this film.
Trivia: In 2025, one of the writers, Adam Rifkin, was asked on Twitter/X if the Gorgonites ever found Gorgon, to which he enthusiastically replied, "Absolutely!"
Trivia: "Small Soldiers" was initially made as a dark, edgy satirical movie for teenagers and young adults. However, due to sponsors, tie-ins and studio demands, at the last minute director Joe Dante was forced to edit the movie to try and make it appeal to kids. This is part of the reason why the film's tone is all over the place, and it sometimes feels very silly and child-friendly... while at other times it feels a creepy and inappropriate. It's a bit of a Frankenstein monster.
Trivia: The voices of the Commando Elite, except for Chip Hazard and Link Static, are provided by the actors of The Dirty Dozen and the voices of the Gorgonites, except for Archer and Ocula, are played by the actors of This Is Spinal Tap.
Trivia: Chip Hazard makes a speech to the other soldiers, his men, in front of a large puzzle of an American flag. This is supposed to be a reference to the movie Patton from 1970 where Patton gave a similar speech in front of a large American flag. Chip starts by saying, "Gentlemen, no poor sap ever won a war by dying for his country." This is very similar to what Patton said in the 1970 film. Jerry Goldsmith also composed the music for the scene in Patton and is the composer for Small Soldiers, with this being a nod to Goldsmith's work on Patton.
Trivia: The name "Chip Hazard" comes from one of Phil Hartman's stand-up comedy bits. He's a detective who solves the strangest cases. The most well-known was when he tried to solve the death of Hamlet's father.
