Trivia: When the movie was first shown in theaters, the marquee read, "From the director of Animal House...A Different Kind of Animal." This lead many movie patrons to believe that it was another comedy film. People ran out of theaters in terror when they realised it was a horror movie.
Trivia: Dudley Moore received his only Academy Award nomination for his role as Arthur Bach in this movie.
Trivia: When Dom gets back in the airplane after getting beer, Burt is discussing cars with him to use in the race. He says they could use a black Trans-Am. Then he says that it's been done before. It has. Remember that movie called Smokey and the Bandit?
Trivia: In Greek mythology, the winged stallion Pegasus was actually spawned in the moment when Medusa was killed by Perseus; he sprang out of her severed neck.
Trivia: The "kitchen utensil" scene between Bill Murray and PJ Soles was completely improvised.
Trivia: Maureen Stapleton won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Emma Goldman, even though she only has nine minutes of screen time.
Trivia: Henry Fonda won the Best Actor Academy Award for his role of Norman Thayer. At the age of 76, Fonda became the oldest winner in the Best Actor category in Academy history (his record was broken in 2021 by Anthony Hopkins, who won at 83).