Trivia: The front and back of the von Trapp house are actually two different houses. Also, the gazebo (which belongs to the house used for the back shots) is across a river from the house. You can take the Sound of Music tour in Salzburg.
Trivia: When the Japanese are heading towards Pearl Harbor, there is a shot of a pilot waving to kids playing baseball. This is a true story - the pilot was trying to wave them away before the attack started. (01:26:35)
Trivia: The shot of the loud, squawking bird was purposely placed by Orson Welles to make sure the audience was still awake.
Trivia: Smith tries to explain to the woman who Bob Marley is by singing a part of the song "I Shot the Sheriff." He also sang this part of the song (with a similar voice imitation) in his role as Will in one of the episodes from the series "Fresh Prince of Bel Air".
Trivia: In the scene after Hiccup finally gets Toothless' new tail fin to work, and the two are relaxing after they fly through the fire ball, the two are greeted by a group of tiny dragons. This little dragon was actually what Toothless was originally going to be, as he was in the book, until they changed him to a dragon big enough for Hiccup to ride to suit the movie. (00:46:15)
Trivia: During the scene where a drunken Uncle Billy walks home, a loud crashing sound is heard. The crashing sound was due to a crew member dropping a large tray of props. Thomas Mitchell quickly ad-libbed the line that he was all right. The crew member who dropped the tray was afraid he would be fired but instead director Frank Capra gave the crewman a ten dollar bonus for "improving the sound."
Trivia: Fun to spot - In the scene where Eddie Murphy is fighting the big guy, after a while he says, "I know a bitch named Della who hit harder than you." Here, he is referring to Della Reese, whom he fought with in Harlem Nights.
Trivia: Nicolas Cage actually owned the Ferrari 550 Maranello that he drives in this movie.
Trivia: Judith Barsi was killed by her father a year and half before the film's release. The song "Love Survives" was put in the soundtrack as a dedication to her memory.
Trivia: Most of the secondary cast and extras were people who actually fled Europe to America during Nazi rule. When Laszlo orders the band to play "La Marseillaise," it was very emotional for the cast who sang along and their reactions were very much their true feelings at the time.
Trivia: Victoria Tennant hated the scene where her character was to be killed off so much that she refused to film it and walked off the set. The scene then had to be done by a stunt double.
Trivia: The IMAX prints of the film are 11 miles long, weighing 600lb.
Trivia: Executive Producer Peter Billingsly has a cameo as the ticket agent at the airport. Peter also played Ralphie Parker in the 1983 movie favorite A Christmas Story.
Trivia: In this film it is stated that Herb Stemple lost all of the money he won on 21 when he invested in Florida land development that turned out to be a con. The truth is far more sinister; he was never paid in the first place. The fanfare about the huge prizes to be won on 21 was as phoney as the show itself, and Dan Enright and Albert Freeman made it clear to him that the whole thing was a sham and he was going to be paid a fraction of what they promised him. They forced him to sign a contract to that effect, something he bitterly regretted doing. The resentment over the shabby way he had been treated contributed to his decision to blow the whistle on the whole scam.
Trivia: Adrian Brody insisted on learning to play the piano himself because he detested the idea of him being in a long shot pretending to play the instrument and then the camera showing someone else's hands on a close up shot actually playing. He said he hated that, not just for him, but on any other film that had such a scene. So he went and took lessons, practicing for hours on end.
Trivia: Not really a mistake, given the need to maintain the story arc in the first half of the film, but in real life, Pyle would have been discharged from the Marine Corps within days of his starting basic training - for his own good. It happens all the time - dropout rate of boot camp recruits varies but is generally around 10%.
Trivia: Near the end of the film in the locker room prior to the championship game, Coach Dale makes reference to the players on the other team whose names are written on a chalkboard. If you look closely at the list of names, you'll see that they are the last names of the actors that portray the Hickory players (Poole, Schenk, Boyle, etc).
Trivia: Despite receiving fifth billing, Andy Garcia is only on screen for 10 seconds and has no lines at all.
