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Trivia: May have briefly held the record for all-time highest grossing film at the US box office. It all depends on whether it or Jaws (1975) was first to surpass previous champ The Godfather (1972) (The Exorcist's original run in theaters lasted nearly two years). Accounts differ because at the time box office totals were tracked in terms of "rentals" (the studio's share of the revenue), while grosses were usually only used for opening weekends and specific major markets like New York and Los Angeles.

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Trivia: During its release, it was a popular joke among teenagers to refer to the film as "The En-Titties," inspired by the movie's striking effects shots of invisible hands grabbing bare breasts.

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Trivia: Craig T. Nelson was originally cast as Carla's boyfriend, Jerry, but his casting was vetoed by producer Harold Schneider, despite director Sidney J. Furie's insistence. Nelson instead famously starred in contemporaneous supernatural hit Poltergeist (1982).

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Trivia: Elizabeth Shepherd's stunt double was aiming to land on top of the truck but ended up slamming into the front of the trailer, by accident. Though she successfully completed the stunt on her second attempt, the filmmakers decided to use the first take featuring the botched stunt instead.

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Revealing mistake: In the shot where the man in the elevator gets bisected by the falling cable, his waist splits apart just before the cable makes contact.

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Dracula: [to a five year old] Give me the amulet, you bitch!

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Kirsty: You have got to destroy that mattress!

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Julia: Take your best shot, Snow White!

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Revealing mistake: Linda Harrison's metallic dental implant is rather noticeably visible during her closeup on her signature line, "Taylor!"

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Trivia: The climax to this film is largely an adaptation of the ending to the notorious unused leaked script draft for Scream 2, with appropriate modifications to suit this film's plot.

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Trivia: Paramount Pictures took out ads in industry publications lobbying for Star Trek: First Contact to be nominated at the Academy Awards in various categories: including, prominently, Patrick Stewart for Best Actor. This was considered a gutsy move as acting nominations in "genre films" such as sci-fi, fantasy, and horror were extremely rare, especially at the time. Ultimately, the film was nominated for Best Makeup.

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Trivia: Courteney Cox receives "top billing" while having less than 17 minutes of screentime. This is somewhat obscured because the poster and title credits (moved to the end rather than the beginning like most movies) merely list the cast in alphabetical order - except it saves her for last with an "and Courteney Cox" credit. The closing credits make it more apparent, prominently putting Cox first in a cast list more ordered in terms of "significance."

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Character mistake: It doesn't occur to our heroes (admittedly kids) that you don't need to understand German at all in order to read it out loud. It's arguably easier to read than English! The only inscrutable letter would be "ẞ" but Scary German Guy's right there for help. (True, this is essentially what they end up doing in the end, but they still come about it through a "you don't need to be of age to be a virgin" realization rather than the even simpler "you don't need to know German.").

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Factual error: The pagan religious festival Samhain is mispronounced: the correct pronunciation is more like "so-win." This is a character mistake on the part of Dr. Loomis, but as the movie makes him appear quite knowledgeable on the subject and gives it significant dramatic weight, it's arguably appropriate to attribute the error to production as well.

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Trivia: In 2022 the Golden Raspberry awards ("the Razzies") officially rescinded Shelly Duvall's 1980 Worst Actress nomination for this film citing "mitigating circumstances," likely referring to director Stanley Kubrick's treatment of her on set and her long struggles with mental illness.

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Trivia: Although the franchise went by the name "Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles" in the UK, this film retained the international "Ninja Turtles" title, as it helped differentiate it as a little less focused on young child audiences than the cartoon and toy line. Oddly, the film's theme song was still re-recorded to reference "Hero Turtles," perhaps to explicitly tie the film together with the larger franchise and clarify that the "hero" and "ninja" turtles were one and the same.

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Trivia: In the UK, censorship against nunchucks and "chain stick" weapons was so extensive even the scene in which Michelangelo uses sausages for weapons was cut. According to the BBFC, "since there is real confusion between chainsticks and sausages this sequence needs to be carefully checked."

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Trivia: Though the dialogue is mostly the same, the script describes Luke as being much more upset and confrontational in his scene with Obi-Wan than how Mark Hamill plays it in the film. Luke is especially appalled at Obi-Wan's "from a certain point of view" explanation and quite literally turns his back on his mentor. Luke does eventually calm down, and is so fascinated by Obi-Wan recounting the story of his father's fate (the script goes into a bit more detail) he mostly forgets his earlier disgust.

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Trivia: During story brainstorming sessions, writer Lawrence Kasdan suggested a radical new ending for the film: Luke fools the Emperor into believing he's joined the dark side, puts on Darth Vader's helmet, mans the Death Star controls at the Emperor's behest so that Luke himself can destroy the rebel fleet... but instead Luke proceeds to blow up the Emperor's home planet! It's unclear just how serious Kasdan's suggestion was, but George Lucas vetoed it rather quickly.

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Trivia: For those wondering how Han Solo's proposed death (referenced in other trivia entries) would have gone: instead of Leia getting shot in the arm by a stormtrooper in the climactic battle on Endor, it would have been Han getting shot in the chest. The rest of the movie would run almost identically - same dialogue, everything - only Han quietly succumbs to his injuries after the Death Star blows, and he and Leia share a final kiss.

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