Trivia: Leon Kennedy, a popular character from the games, was originally intended to be in the film but was dropped. He later appeared in the fifth film.
Trivia: When Eli and Solara are in his room for the night there is a movie poster on the wall behind them for a similar post apocalyptic movie. "A Boy and His Dog". In Eli the survivors protect themselves from the sun's rays and in "A Boy and His Dog" they flee underground to hide from the sun.
Trivia: Some of the crew members and background extras were also a part of the film "Repo: The Genetic Opera", which has a similar premise. Story goes that Universal wanted to make "Repo", but backed out after the producers refused to meet their demands. (Universal execs reportedly wanted to remove all the musical numbers from "Repo", even though it was by very design a rock-opera.) After leaving the project, Universal then announced this film (then titled "Repossession Mambo") and reportedly approached cast and crew members from "Repo" to come over and work on this film. The creators of "Repo" have made it clear that they feel Universal was merely trying to spite their production by poaching cast and crew members who were unaware of the falling-out between "Repo" and Universal execs.
Trivia: At the beginning of the movie Markus Kane is watching TV with a woman, the show that he is first watching is Death Race 2000 before changing the channel. Death Race 2000 is what the Death Race movies are based off of.
Trivia: Originally intended to be a sequel to "Beverly Hills Ninja," and was written and co-directed by one of the writers of that film, but was eventually retooled into a stand-alone film. There are still some minor similarities and similar bits of dialogue, however.
Trivia: Of all people, famed director Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight Trilogy, Inception, etc.) is reportedly a huge fan of the character and this film, and would constantly quote jokes from it on the set of "The Dark Knight Rises." He almost attended the cast table-read for the 2021 sequel series on streaming service Peacock, but was unable to. He sent the director an e-mail to read before the table reading, jokingly saying that the world was "watching" and "waiting" for more MacGruber.
Trivia: The scene when Ramona delivers the package to Scott and he signs for it, he takes the package and throws it over his shoulder into the trash can, some several feet behind him. In the outtakes reel, they show that no special effects were used. Michael Cera made the shot over his shoulder on his 33rd attempt.
Trivia: Celia Weston plays Tom Cruise's mother in the movie, even though in real life she's only 10 years older than him.