Mark Bernhard

Trivia: There are several instances where Bill Kelso is firing the guns of the P-40 (such as when Col. Maddox yells out, "Lemme hear yer guns!"). The special effects crew had many several challenges regarding this (including financial, since using the real thing would have been very expensive), so they wound up inventing a kind of mini-flame thrower to replace the plane's machine guns. When they were activated, gas was released in short bursts through the barrels of the guns, and a tiny electric spark (like the ones in gas stoves) ignited it. When activated, the guns appeared to be firing, but made very little noise and smoke. All the sound effects were added in post-production.

Mark Bernhard

Trivia: In the USO when the soldiers and sailors are squaring off on the dance floor, look carefully at the sailors. One of them is James Caan, who was filming another movie nearby and had some time to kill. When the fight starts, he throws the first punch.

Mark Bernhard

Trivia: There's a scene where Wild Bill (John Belushi) lands his plane on a highway in the desert and pulls up to a gas station to refuel. The gas station and the old woman that works there were also seen in Steven Spielberg's first movie, "Duel."

Mark Bernhard

Trivia: A number of racial slurs are used, just as they would have been in 1941. Amazingly, the film was released in Japan with Japanese subtitles. However, whenever someone used a derogatory slur, the subtitle simply translated it as "Nihon-jin" (Japanese Person).

Mark Bernhard

Trivia: The U-boat in 1941 was a mock-up made just for the film. It was the front half only and all scenes of the sub were shot on a sound stage water tank. The sub just rose up and down out of the water. They did have a model sub that floated in the same studio tank for the scenes with the amusement park and ferris wheel.

Mark Bernhard

Revealing mistake: During the riot scene, "Stretch" drags Betty under a truck so he can rape her. Wally drives the tank across the street and bumps the truck, knocking it over (so he can save Betty). If you watch, the tank bumps the truck, there's a pause, and then the truck flips over. It is obviously pulled over by something off-screen and not by the tank.

Mark Bernhard

Trivia: The writers and producer originally wanted John Wayne to play the part of General Stillwell (a real general in WWII, played by Robert Stack). Wayne was excited about the part and asked for a copy of the script, unaware that it was a comedy. After he read it, he wrote a long letter to the producer of 1941, begging him not to make the film.

Mark Bernhard

Trivia: Though there are plenty of major (in 1979) stars in this movie, most of the advertising focused on John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd. Both actually had fairly small parts, and were never on screen together throughout the film. When Spielberg realized this during filming, he improvised a scene where Belushi and Aykroyd see each other and salute, just before Belushi's character "commandeers" the Japanese submarine. They appear to recognize each other, even though they never meet in the film.

Mark Bernhard

Factual error: When John Belushi, Wendy-Jo Sperber and Treat Williams are on the stolen motorcycle, Belushi gets mad, pulls a pin, and disconnects the sidecar from the motorcycle. This is not how sidecars are actually attached or they wouldn't go the same direction as the bike.

Mark Bernhard

Plot hole: When Ward's son hits the switch marked "Do Not Touch This Switch", every light in the amusement park comes on, music starts playing, and the rides all start moving. It's a funny gag, but it seems unlikely that one switch would power every single thing in the amusement park, and that everything in the park has been left on "full speed." If that's the case, when Angelo first sent the two lookouts to the top of the ferris wheel, everything else in the park should have come on then too.

Mark Bernhard

Revealing mistake: The Douglas' house which falls off the cliff at the end of the film was built to do just that. It was only used for exterior shots, and the interiors were filmed on a sound stage. If you watch carefully as the house crashes, you can see that it has no interior.

Mark Bernhard

Trivia: 1941 was directed by Steven Spielberg. The movie opens with a spoof of "Jaws", which Spielberg also directed. The woman who swims out and winds up on the submarine is the same actress who was eaten at the beginning of Jaws.

Mark Bernhard

Trivia: After the boy turns on the lights at the amusement park, the Japanese sub fires a torpedo at it, thinking they're firing at Hollywood. Originally, they filmed a scene where the torpedo goes up onto land, goes between the boy's legs, and he rides around on top of it until it it hits a building and explodes. So the audience wouldn't think the boy has been killed, he's seen later running up to his sister and telling her that he's okay. Spielberg eventually cut the torpedo bit but left the part where the boy meets his sister. If you look, his clothes are disheveled and scorched from the torpedo explosion.

Mark Bernhard

Revealing mistake: The actor who played "Wally" did all of his own dancing during the big dance scene, except the part where he tap-dances down the long table of food. We see Wally jump up onto one end of the table, then the shot cuts to a close-up of his feet as he tap dances among the plates and glasses. When he reaches the end, he jumps up into the air and drops into frame, showing that it's really him. Since the actor couldn't tap dance, the film's choreographer did the tap dancing part. At the end of the table they hung a trapeze bar and the actor hung from it with his feet pulled up. When the choreographer reached the end of the table, he jumped up into the air and grabbed the bar just as the actor let go, so it looks like the same person. But if you look very carefully, you can see the actor's shoes dangling above the edge of the table just before the choreographer jumps.

Mark Bernhard

Revealing mistake: When the tank runs over a car during the riot scene, you can see that the car has no engine.

Mark Bernhard

Trivia: For the scene where the P-40 Tomahawk crashes in the street, the effects guys used a real airplane and put it on a long ramp so that it would actually fly into the scene. No one knew how far it would travel before it came to a stop, so the cast and crew started a pool and placed bets on how far it would go. The day after they shot the scene, some of the crew walked into director Steven Spielberg's office and dumped a huge jar of money onto the desk in front of him. He'd won the pool.

Mark Bernhard

Visible crew/equipment: When Wild Bill crash lands his P-40 Tomahawk in the street, then dazedly tries to "bail out", watch his parachute. A nearby explosion is supposed to catch the parachute and pull him backwards, but the 'chute doesn't react to the explosion. Instead, a line attached to the end of it pulls Wild Bill backwards.

Mark Bernhard