Trivia: When Tony Manero's father slaps him on the back of the head during an argument at the dinner table, Tony replies, "Would you just watch the hair? You know, I work on my hair a long time and you hit it! He hits my hair!" John Travolta ad-libbed this line. Director John Badham thought it was so perfect for the character of Tony Manero that he decided to leave it in the film.
Trivia: The character of umbrella wielding Major Harry Carlyle was inspired by real life Major Allison Digby Tatham-Warter, who said that he 'carried the umbrella because he could never remember the password, and it would be quite obvious to anyone that the bloody fool carrying the umbrella could only be an Englishman'. Unlike Carlyle in the film, Major Tatham-Warter survived the battle and was captured by the Germans. He escaped, and in the weeks that followed, aided by Dutch Resistance, helped hundreds of other soldiers in similar situations to be evacuated to safety.
Trivia: Ian McShane was originally down to play the part of Jesus, and ended up being cast as Judas.
Trivia: More than 8,000 rounds were used for the climactic shoot-out scene.
Trivia: The navy radioman who first receives the emergency signal sent by Captain Gallagher (Jack Lemmon) is played by Chris Lemmon, Jack Lemmon's son.
Trivia: David Lynch has never explained how the disturbing "baby" was created for the film, even coyly suggesting at one point that it was something he found that had been "born nearby." A popular theory is that the baby is actually an animal fetus that had been hollowed out and made into a puppet, but this has never been confirmed.
Trivia: The movie's plot is a fictionalized version of ballerina Lesley Browne (who played Amelia in the film) and her real-life family. Her mother, ballerina Mirrow Brown, was close friends with fellow dancer Nora Kaye (Lesley Browne's godmother). The characters of Emma and DeeDee were based on them. Nora Kaye was married to Hollywood director/producer Herbert Ross, who directed the film. Famed dancer Gelsey Kirkland was originally cast to play Amelia, but when she dropped out, Lesley Browne was cast to play a fictionalized version of herself.
Trivia: Edward Asner plays Adam, the father of Tom (Lawrence Pressman). In real life, Asner is only ten years older than Pressman.
Trivia: Jason Robards won the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for his role of Dashiell Hammett, even though he had only nine minutes of screen time.
Trivia: When Hal Holbrook talks to the press after the heat shield separation we see a model Saturn V in the background. An extra stage has been inserted above the S-II second stage and the mission payload appears to have been augmented too.
Trivia: Director John Frankenheimer has a cameo as the television director in the Coliseum control room.