Trivia: Colin Farrell recorded a version of The Clash's "I Fought the Law..." for the film.
Trivia: I don't speak Spanish, however, after asking my fiance (from Mexico) to carefully watch the scene when Memo talks to his right hand man, it explained the movie better. If you know Spanish and listen to the dialogue carefully, you hear Memo asking his right hand man to kill his son. That explains A LOT.
Trivia: While this is common knowledge to most, this movie was inspired by the events of Columbine in 1999. Some scenes mimick the real-life massacre almost exactly. For instance, they planned to kill many more than they actually were able to because of the failure of their improvised explosive devices. The real killers had planned to murder at least 600 people, though it is not mentioned in this film the scope of the plan. Another, more obvious, link is the use of the Tec-9 assault pistol. One can also link the use of settings like the Library and the Cafeteria to the media coverage of the real event. Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbine_High_School_massacreFirearms.
Trivia: Nicole Kidman was originally cast as Frannie, but Meg Ryan insisted on playing the role and also auditioned, something unusual for famous actresses like her.
Trivia: The last conversation between Tom Arnold and that big guy is an obvious tribute to the conversation between the same two actors at the end of Exit Wounds. They even mention the latter in the former.
Trivia: The experiment that showed that humans lose 21 grams at the moment of death were later shown to be highly flawed. The entire experiment was based on only four people. Only the first subject actually lost 21 grams. Another person lost a different weight, and the other two died before they could be properly weighed.
Trivia: "Selby Wall", played by Christina Ricci, is a totally fictional character. She does not exist. Wuornos' lover was Tyria Moore, who is tall and stocky and looks nothing like Ricci. There is evidence that Wuornos told Moore about at least one of the murders she committed (Richard Mallory in November 1989) and she didn't report it. She agreed to make the phone call to Wuornos, taped by the police, in exchange for immunity from prosecution. This is correctly depicted in the film.
Trivia: It just so happened that on a day when they needed a wide angle lens to get a shot, for the over head view of Hank shooting through the wall at Nash, that the Spider-Man movie was being filmed only a few blocks away. The director of Spider-Man let the director of National Security borrow their lens long enough to get that shot, which was on screen for only about a second. (01:04:55)