History Trivia / TheFly1986

* AwesomeDearBoy: Many of the actors who were offered the part of Seth Brundle turned it down because they didn't want the challenge and/or potential claustrophobia of acting through layers upon layers of hideous makeup. Creator/JeffGoldblum, however, ''wanted'' that challenge. He was also thrilled at the prospect of working with David Cronenberg, being a big fan of ''Film/TheDeadZone'', ''and'' he saw it as an opportunity to play a genuine romantic lead for a change (while 'Film/IntoTheNight'' had a TokenRomance and ''Transylvania 6-5000'' gave his character a romantic subplot, here the love story was vital).

* AwesomeDearBoy: Many of the actors who were offered the part of Seth Brundle turned it down because they didn't want the challenge and/or potential claustrophobia of acting through layers upon layers of hideous makeup. Creator/JeffGoldblum, however, ''wanted'' that challenge. He was also thrilled at the prospect of working with David Cronenberg, being a big fan of ''Film/TheDeadZone'', and he also saw it as an opportunity to play a genuine romantic lead for a change.

* AwesomeDearBoy: Many of the actors who were offered the part of Seth Brundle turned it down because they didn't want the challenge and/or potential claustrophobia of acting through layers upon layers of hideous makeup. Creator/JeffGoldblum, however, took the role because he ''wanted'' that challenge. Goldblum was also thrilled at the prospect of working with David Cronenberg, being a big fan of ''Film/TheDeadZone''.

* AwesomeDearBoy: Many of the actors who were offered the part of Seth Brundle turned it down because they didn't want the challenge of acting through layers upon layers of hideous makeup. Creator/JeffGoldblum, however, took the role because he ''wanted'' that challenge. Goldblum was also thrilled at the prospect of working with David Cronenberg, being a big fan of ''Film/TheDeadZone''.

** Initially David Cronenberg wasn't available to direct because he was attached to ''Film/TotalRecall''. After the first contracted director, Robert Bierman, suffered a family tragedy and had to drop out, at one point, Creator/TimBurton was going to direct with Creator/MichaelKeaton starring. Creator/JohnLithgow auditioned for Seth, while Creator/RichardDreyfuss, Creator/MelGibson[[note]]He turned it down in order to star in ''Film/LethalWeapon''[[/note]] and Creator/JohnMalkovich turned it down. Executive producer Mel Brooks' first choice was Creator/PierceBrosnan. The most common reason actors didn't want to do this film, or at least had reservations about it, was the prospect of working under heavy prosthetic makeup.

* DeletedScene: Several sequences were filmed but cut from the final release; most appear on the Collector's Edition DVD/Blu-Ray release as standalones and/or as part of the making-of documentary ''Fear of the Flesh'':
** Veronica interviewing Seth for the video camera the morning after his fateful teleportation. (Some of this footage ended up being used in ''Film/TheFlyII''.)
** The most (in)famous is an entire, virtually dialogue-free reel that came between the reveal of Veronica's pregnancy and her resultant NightmareSequence. Seth, whose condition continues to worsen (the form/makeup is unique to this sequence), sends a cat and the surviving baboon through the first two telepods -- resulting in a mutated creature emerging from the prototype pod. It attacks him and he ends up beating it to death with a pipe. After this, in despair he climbs the outside of his building only for an insect limb to emerge from his side (specifically from the growth he pointed out to Veronica in their previous meeting), which he ''bites off''. Although this sequence helped set up the climax by establishing Seth's plan to regain/hold onto some of his humanity, his choice to kill the baboon-cat caused audiences to lose all sympathy for him and thus undercut the rest of the film.

** There were also some short scenes cut for pacing reasons, and a few conversations that ran longer in the original workprint. Just about all of these turn up in the DVD extras in some way.

* MissingTrailerScene: Some promotional materials included photos/clips from the deleted "monkey-cat" reel, which are quickly recognizable for those familiar with the finished film because Seth's appearance in that sequence is unique to it -- he still has the hair he did in the WallCrawl scene, but the rest of him is closer to his final humanoid form.

* RomanceOnTheSet: Creator/JeffGoldblum and Creator/GeenaDavis had met on the set of ''Transylvania 6-5000'' and were in a relationship by the time he accepted the role of Seth. He turned to her for help in learning lines, and she was impressed by the script and especially the part of Veronica, so he recommended her to the filmmakers and despite initial doubts about casting an actual couple, her readthrough ended up winning her the part. All accounts have it that they were '''very''' committed to making their characters' evolving relationship work on film -- no easy task given that they were already in love, and Cronenberg even had to advise Davis in [[GotMeDoingIt not sounding too much like Goldblum]]! This also affected how the scenes between Veronica and Stathis played out, making them pricklier than they would have otherwise been. (''Fear of the Flesh'' discusses how Goldblum tended to hang about the set when they were being shot, fussing over how ''that'' relationship might come across on screen as too competitive with Seth and Veronica's, and at one point had to be asked to leave. After all, there had to be ''some'' conflict in the LoveTriangle!) Goldblum and Davis made one more film as a couple, ''Film/EarthGirlsAreEasy'', were wed in the middle of that shoot in 1987, and divorced in 1990.

* Look closely, and you'll see that Stathis has a copy of Creator/CarlSagan's ''Literature/{{Contact}}'' on his bookshelf. The novel was released only a year before ''The Fly'' arrived in theaters (the film being shot at the tail end of 1985).
* Effects artist Chris Walas achieved the shot of Stathis' hand and foot melting using the same face melt effect he developed for ''Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk''.
* The telepod design was inspired by the cylinder head on Cronenberg's vintage Ducati motorcycle. The props were six-and-a-half feet tall and weighed 700 pounds apiece.

* AwesomeDearBoy: What turned off some of the actors approached to play Seth Brundle -- the challenge of acting through, eventually, layers upon layers of hideous makeup -- was something that, along with the excellent script and the prospect of working with the director of ''Film/TheDeadZone'', '''attracted''' Creator/JeffGoldblum to the project.

* TroubledProduction: The film walked a difficult, though not outright ''painful'', path from the initial pitch of a more scientifically-plausible take on [[Film/TheFly1958 20th Century Fox's 1958 hit]] for TheEighties to its release in August 1986, as recounted in Creator/DavidCronenberg's DVDCommentary, the retrospective documentary ''Fear of the Flesh'', and Emma Westwood's book-length essay on the film for the ''Devil's Advocates'' series.
** Fox execs weren't sure a horror film in which the [[SlowTransformation protagonist slowly became the antagonist]] was audience-friendly, so producer Stuart Cornfeld had to win them over by securing initial financing himself, which he found by turning to Creator/MelBrooks and his production company Brooksfilm.
** The first director attached dropped out when his daughter was killed in an accident. Cornfeld learned that Cronenberg was available (having dropped out of ''Film/TotalRecall'') '''just''' in time to salvage the project. Cronenberg's complete rewrite of Charles Edward Pogue's original script draft, a condition of his participation, was so InNameOnly to it and any other version of [[Literature/TheFly the original short story]] that initially Cornfeld had his own doubts about it.
** The lead roles of DoomedProtagonist Seth Brundle and his lover Veronica ended up filled by [[RomanceOnTheSet actors who were already in a relationship]]. Creator/JeffGoldblum -- who, unlike many actors considered for the role of Seth, was ''attracted'' to the challenge of working through layers of prosthetic makeup -- was cast first despite Fox execs' misgivings about an actor who was only known for supporting/ensemble roles playing a lead. He turned to his lover Creator/GeenaDavis for help in learning lines. She too was impressed by the script, and Goldblum convinced Cronenberg and company to let her audition for the role despite ''their'' misgivings. Her readthrough (and height comparable to Goldblum's!) ultimately won their favor. While the two got along extremely well with Cronenberg, their real life relationship, devotion to making their onscreen counterparts' relationship convincing, and Goldblum's physical commitment to his role (beyond up to five hours of makeup applications per day, he was working out with weights and, as he playfully admits in ''Fear of the Flesh'', drinking a lot of coffee to enhance Seth's increasing instability) meant that they rarely interacted with the crew. (Film journalist Tim Lucas recalled to Westwood that his interview with Goldblum ended up limited to five minutes...''while'' Goldblum was in full makeup for Seth's final humanoid form.) Moreover, Goldblum hung about the set when scenes between Davis and John Getz, who was playing the third corner of the LoveTriangle, were being shot and fuss over how ''those'' were playing out to the point that he was once asked to leave. Cronenberg finally reminded Goldblum that there had to be ''some'' conflict in the LoveTriangle for the film to work.
** Makeup/special effects designer Chris Walas and his crew had limited pre-production time to create FX because the August '86 release date was locked in and filming didn't begin until December '85. The animatronic puppets representing "Brundlefly" in the film's climax were still being built in California as filming began in Toronto and Kleinburg, Ontario, since Walas and co. had to use pre-production to design the makeup-based stages of Seth's transformation that took up the bulk of the film. The puppets weren't properly finished until they arrived in Toronto, as only then could they be adjusted to best fit the lighting, etc. This was one reason the filming of the climax and denouement of the film (less than 10 minutes of screentime) took two weeks. Geena Davis recalls that her eyes ended up quite red and puffy in the wake of two weeks' worth of [[CryCute crying on cue]] as Veronica.
** Particularly grueling was a scene in which Seth crawls up and then slides down a brick wall as an insect leg emerges from his abdomen, which he ''bites off''. It required, among other things, a special set for Goldblum to slide down (and for him to be slathered in lubricant to do so!), a fake torso animatronic, and prosthetic makeup unique to the scene. Alas, cinematographer Mark Irwin wasn't available that day and the resultant substitute's work turned out to be too dark to see. ''Another'' cameraman was brought in and the whole scene reshot the next day. THEN [[AllForNothing it was dropped after the movie's first test screening in Toronto]] due to directly following on from a scene in which Seth uses the telepods to merge together a baboon and a cat and ends up beating the resultant, aggressive hybrid to death with a lead pipe -- which supposedly led to an audience member vomiting in the auditorium and ''definitely'' turned the audience against Seth, spoiling the rest of the film. The whole "monkey-cat" reel, as it became known, was cut.
** Miscellaneous issues: The baboon that represented two of Seth's test animals was not easy to keep under control -- important, given it was so strong it accidentally ripped off the door to a telepod one day -- in part because it was attracted to the female script supervisor! A blizzard snowed in the cast and crew at the Kleinburg soundstage for two nights. [[Music/RoxyMusic Bryan Ferry]] was commissioned by the producers to provide a song for the end credits, only for Cronenberg -- though he liked the song itself -- to convince them that [[MoodWhiplash it wasn't tonally appropriate]] to have a rock song follow on from Music/HowardShore's lush orchestral score; "Help Me" ended up as background music in the bar scene. FOUR different epilogues, all involving a "butterfly baby" counterpart to an earlier NightmareSequence, were shot to give closure to Veronica's side of the story only for ''none'' of them to test well with audiences or even the cast and crew, resulting in the film ending with [[spoiler: her mercy kill of Seth/Brundlefly]] instead.
** The troubles ended up paying off in spades. Despite some critics and audiences blanching (or worse) at the film's BodyHorror, others were thrilled and moved, resulting in a box-office hit that won the Best Makeup Oscar, provided Goldblum '''and''' Davis with {{Star Making Role}}s, firmly secured Cronenberg's AuteurLicense, and remains one of the most-acclaimed horror films of the 1980s, if not all time.

** Cronenberg wanted Creator/LindaHamilton for for Veronica Quaife after seeing ''Film/TheTerminator'', but she was too disturbed by the script. Creator/LauraDern and Creator/JenniferJasonLeigh were considered, but the producers wanted an unknown.[[note]]Geena Davis had only appeared in three films prior to this, having mostly worked in television up to that point.[[/note]] And, as Cronenberg noted at a 2018 retrospective screening, Geena Davis being comparable in height to Jeff Goldblum was also a key factor in her being cast! In fact, after her first reading Cronenberg was ready to cast her, but producer Stuart Cornfeld wanted to consider a few more actresses first. Cronenberg mentioned in an interview with Serge Grunberg that "I was having to audition a TV actress that Stuart insisted I audition, Shelley...I forget her name, who was sort of big at the time. And it was a disaster." This was most likely Shelley Long, who had just left ''Series/{{Cheers}}'' at the height of its popularity for movies.

* ActorInspiredElement / TheCastShowoff: Seth welcomes Veronica into his lab/home by playing the piano, showing off Jeff Goldblum's musical talent. Goldblum wanted a piano on set, and Cronenberg thought it would be a wonderful character detail for Seth to have an interest in music by way of hinting that he wasn't just a cold intellectual, so he worked it into the shooting script.

* CoupleBomb: An extreme inversion. Despite fears by the filmmakers of this trope coming to pass, they decided Creator/GeenaDavis' reading for the part of Veronica was so good that they cast her alongside her then-lover Creator/JeffGoldblum. The film was not only a critically-acclaimed box office hit, it gave BOTH performers {{Star Making Role}}s in part because their onscreen relationship was so moving.

* ExecutiveMeddling: ''Averted'' in one instance. Once the 20th Century Fox execs were told that Jeff Goldblum was planned to play Seth, the film makers were told that it was a horrible mistake....but it was ''their'' mistake to make and so let it pass. It's now considered one of the all-time greatest acting performances.

** In the cafe scene, Davis's silent, surprised reactions to Seth's rambling, increasingly frantic monologue from "pardon me for waxing messianic" onward are real because that half of the speech was not in the shooting script -- David Cronenberg and Jeff Goldblum came up with it the night before shooting. This also means the reactions of the waiter in the background when Seth calls for him are genuine.
* ExecutiveMeddling: ''Averted'' in one instance. Once the execs were told that Jeff Goldblum was planned to play Seth, the film makers were told that it was a horrible mistake....but it was ''their'' mistake to make and so let it pass. It's now considered one of the all-time greatest acting performances.

** There were also some short scenes cut for pacing reasons, and a few conversations that ran longer in the original workprint.

* CoupleBomb: An extreme inversion. Despite fears by the filmmakers of this trope coming to pass, they decided Creator/Geena Davis' reading for the part of Veronica was so good that they cast her alongside her then-lover Creator/JeffGoldblum. The film was not only a critically-acclaimed box office hit, it gave BOTH performers {{Star Making Role}}s.

** The most (in)famous is an entire, virtually dialogue-free reel that came between the reveal of Veronica's pregnancy and her resultant NightmareSequence. Seth, whose condition continues to worsen (the form/makeup is unique to this sequence), sends a cat and the surviving baboon through the first two telepods, resulting in a mutated creature emerging from the prototype pod. It attacks him and he ends up beating it to death with a pipe. After this, in despair he climbs the outside of his building only for an insect limb to emerge from his side (specifically from the growth he pointed out to Veronica in their previous meeting), which he ''bites off''. Although this sequence helped set up the climax by establishing Seth's plan to regain/hold onto some of his humanity, his choice to kill the baboon-cat caused audiences to lose all sympathy for him and thus undercut the rest of the film.

** In the cafe scene, Davis's silent, surprised reactions to Seth's rambling, increasingly frantic monologue from "pardon me for waxing messianic" onward are real because that half of the speech was not in the shooting script -- David Cronenberg and Jeff Goldblum came up with it the night before shooting. This also means the reaction of the waiter in the background when Seth first calls for him is genuine.

** Musician [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bryan_Ferry Bryan Ferry]] originally composed a song called "[[https://soundcloud.com/bryanferry/help-me-full-version Help Me]]" at Creator/MelBrooks and Stuart Cornfield's commission, which was originally going to be played over the movie's closing credits. However, Creator/DavidCronenberg, despite liking the song, felt that it was inappropriate to the film itself, particularly when put up against Howard Shore's operatic score. After screening it to Brooks and Cornfield, they all agreed that the song didn't mesh with the film, resulting with the song being played only in the film's bar scene and not being included in the movie's soundtrack album, making the song extremely rare. Even so, a VideoFullOfFilmClips exists for it and was given airplay on MTV; it downplays that trope by mostly focusing on Ferry, with a short montage of clips coming near the end.

** Initially David Cronenberg wasn't available to direct because he was attached to ''Film/TotalRecall''. After the first contracted director, Robert Bierman, suffered a family tragedy and had to drop out, at one point, Creator/TimBurton was going to direct with Creator/MichaelKeaton starring. Creator/JohnLithgow auditioned for Seth, while Creator/RichardDreyfuss, Creator/MelGibson[[note]]He turned it down in order to star in ''Film/LethalWeapon''[[/note]] and Creator/JohnMalkovich turned it down (a common reason for actors being reluctant to do the film was the makeup work involved, which they saw as too restricting). Producer Mel Brooks' first choice was Creator/PierceBrosnan.
** Cronenberg wanted Creator/LindaHamilton for for Veronica Quaife after seeing ''Film/TheTerminator'', but she was too disturbed by the script. Creator/LauraDern and Creator/JenniferJasonLeigh were considered, but the producers wanted an unknown.[[note]]Geena Davis had only appeared in three films prior to this, having mostly worked in television up to that point.[[/note]] And, as Cronenberg noted at a 2018 retrospective screening, Geena Davis being comparable in height to Jeff Goldblum was also a key factor in her being cast!

** Finally, this is the ''first'' film that Cronenberg's sister Denise designed costumes for; she would fill the same duty for all of his films through ''Film/AHistoryOfViolence''.

* TroubledProduction: The film walked a difficult path from the initial pitch of a more scientifically-plausible take on [[Film/TheFly1958 20th Century Fox's 1958 hit]] for TheEighties to its release in August 1986, as recounted in Creator/DavidCronenberg's DVDCommentary, the retrospective documentary ''Fear of the Flesh'', and Emma Westwood's book-length essay on the film for the ''Devil's Advocates'' series.

** Creator/HowardShore provided the musical score.

** Between those two scenes, there was also an interlude in which Seth went {{Roofhopping}] through the city as a temporary, happy escape from his troubles, but this never made it to the filming stage, likely because the filmmakers didn't have the money/effects resources for it with so much of the rest of the movie so effects-reliant. (In the finished film, it's implied that Seth does this to follow and abduct Veronica.)

** Possibly the first bar and the last bar of music on the soundtrack being taken from the last bar of music from Puccini's tragic opera ''Theatre/MadameButterfly'', since the film originally was to end with an epilogue involving a dream sequence for Veronica in which a human baby with butterfly wings emerges from a chrysalis.

** Cronenberg wanted Creator/LindaHamilton for for Veronica Quaife after seeing ''Film/TheTerminator'', but she was too disturbed by the script. Creator/LauraDern and Creator/JenniferJasonLeigh were considered, but the producers wanted an unknown.[[note]]Geena Davis had only appeared in three films prior to this, having mostly worked in television up to that point.[[/note]]

** As noted in the Deleted Scenes section, the final version of the film had 4 endings that were considered but rejected from poor reception. Two had Veronica get back together with Stathis, two had her alone, and perhaps most interestingly only one of them has Veronica decide she'll birth her child from Seth instead of apparently getting an abortion.

* ThrowItIn: Veronica flushing the toilet to scald Stathis? That was something Geena Davis came up with as they were getting ready to shoot the scene. Everybody loved it, so...
* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: Downplayed. While there's a lot aesthetically marking it as a 1980s film -- video cameras (Beta ones at that), audio and video cassettes, EightiesHair, Veronica and Stathis both being smokers, etc. -- the plot wouldn't have to be changed all that much to incorporate modern technology, or even changes in journalism (i.e. the rise of online media over print).

** The first bar and the last bar of music on the soundtrack is taken from the last bar of music from Puccini's tragic opera ''Theatre/MadameButterfly''. Perhaps a reference to the deleted dream sequence of the heroine giving birth to a butterfly.

* TheCastShowoff: Seth welcomes Veronica into his lab/home by playing the piano, showing off Jeff Goldblum's musical talent. Goldblum wanted a piano on set, and Cronenberg thought it would be a wonderful character detail for Seth to have an interest in music by way of hinting that he wasn't just a cold intellectual.

* RomanceOnTheSet: Creator/JeffGoldblum and Creator/GeenaDavis had met on the set of ''Transylvania 6-5000'' and were in a relationship by the time he accepted the role of Seth. He turned to her for help in learning lines, and she was impressed by the script and especially the part of Veronica, so he recommended her to the filmmakers and her readthrough ended up winning her the part. All accounts have it that they were '''very''' committed to making their characters' evolving relationship work on film -- no easy task given that they were already in love, and Cronenberg even had to advise Davis in [[GotMeDoingIt not sounding too much like Goldblum]]! This also affected how the scenes between Veronica and Stathis played out, making them pricklier than they would have otherwise been (''Fear of the Flesh'' discusses how Goldblum tended to hang about the set when they were being shot, and at one point had to be asked to leave because he was too much of a distraction). Goldblum and Davis made one more film as a couple, ''Film/EarthGirlsAreEasy'', were wed in the middle of the shoot in 1987, and divorced in 1990.