Line #43 Trivia/TheFly1986


1	* ActorInspiredElement:
2	** 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.
3	** Seth buying the necklace for Veronica (which she wears for most of the rest of the film) was a bit of business that Goldblum and Creator/GeenaDavis came up with according to the latter's memoir ''Dying of Politeness''.
4	* 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 the challenge -- and more besides; according to designer Chris Walas he didn't just want to work ''through'' the makeup but ''with'' it, as a tool. 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 is vital).
5	* {{Blooper}}: There's a brief shot in the climax (right after Brundlefly breaks the window on the telepod) where an exhausted Borans falls to the ground and rolls over on his side with his ''left'' hand intact, rather than the right one.
6	* ChristmasRushed: 20th Century Fox locked in an August 1986 release date; principal photography only started in December 1985. Normally Chris Walas's team would have about six months to create special effects for a film of this sort; on this film they had roughly ''two''. This may or may not have helped the film's box office in the end, because Fox's scheduling meant it arrived right on the heels of its big summer release for '86, ''Film/{{Aliens}}'', which appealed to a similar demographic.
7	* DeletedScene: Several sequences were filmed but cut from the final release of ''Film/TheFly1986''; most appear on the non-VanillaEdition releases as standalones and/or as part of the making-of documentary ''Fear of the Flesh'':
8	** Veronica interviewing Seth for the video camera the morning after his fateful teleportation. Some of this footage ended up being used in ''Film/TheFlyII''.
9	** The most (in)famous is a 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 sets 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.
10	** Seth ''eating'' the remains of Stathis' foot! [[https://youtu.be/xW_C-JuVdaw Warning: this is not for the timid.]]
11	** ''Four different epilogues'', all of which involved a DreamSequence for Veronica involving a baby with beautiful butterfly wings, but each of which had a different final fate for her: [[spoiler: 1) she aborts Seth's child and weds Stathis, 2) she weds Stathis and is now carrying ''his'' child, 3) she is alone and has not kept Seth's child, or 4) she is alone and is going to keep it]]. None tested well and the cast and crew didn't care for 1 and 2 especially, so they went with NoEnding instead on that front.
12	** There were also short scenes cut for pacing and conversations that ran longer in the original screenplay and workprint. Again, most of this footage turns up in the DVD extras in one way or another.
13	* DVDCommentary: Someone found an interesting way to split the difference when it came to bonus features -- Creator/DavidCronenberg provides a lively solo commentary track. Then the feature-length (as in ''longer than the movie'') retrospective documentary ''Fear of the Flesh'' features just about all of the film's '''other''' major participants -- the three lead actors, the other writer, the producer, the production designer, the effects crew, the cinematographer, the director ''originally'' attached to the project, etc. -- to give their sides of the story of its production, with optional extended segments featuring tangential anecdotes.
14	* EnforcedMethodActing:
15	** Creator/GeenaDavis was genuinely grossed out while filming the scene where Seth's ear falls off.
16	** In the cafe scene, Davis' silent, surprised reactions to Seth's rambling, increasingly frantic monologue from "Listen, not to wax messianic" onward are real because that half of the speech was not in the shooting script -- Creator/DavidCronenberg and Creator/JeffGoldblum 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.
17	* FocusGroupEnding: FOUR different epilogues were shot and tested, all involving a DreamSequence in which a human baby with butterfly wings emerges from a chrysalis as a counterpart to the maggot baby NightmareSequence. They were: [[spoiler: 1) Veronica and Stathis are a couple again and she's carrying ''his'' child rather than Seth's (this is the epilogue in the shooting script), 2) Veronica and Stathis are a couple but she is not pregnant, 3) Veronica is single and not pregnant, 4) Veronica is single and visibly pregnant, meaning she's keeping Seth's child.]] NONE of them went over well. As the retrospective documentary ''Fear of the Flesh'' discusses, the stop-motion work on the "butterfly baby" wasn't of a piece with the film's other effects, and even the cast and crew didn't want endings 1 or 2 because they cheapened the love Seth and Veronica shared. But the ultimate reason the movie ends where it does, according to Creator/DavidCronenberg, was because test audiences were so devastated by [[spoiler: Seth's death]] that they weren't in the mood for a hopeful epilogue immediately afterward.
18	* MissingTrailerScene: Many promotional materials included photos/clips from the deleted "monkey-cat" reel, which are quickly recognizable to fans because Seth's appearance in that sequence is unique -- he still has the hair he did in the WallCrawl scene, but the rest of him is closer to his final humanoid form.
19	* NeverWorkWithChildrenOrAnimals: Typhoon, the baboon who played both of Seth Brundle's test monkeys, was notoriously difficult on set, and was kept in check largely because he accepted Creator/JeffGoldblum as the alpha male on set.
20	** Due to the flashing lights in the telepod, he was freaked out, and ended up ripping the door off to escape. As such, during additional takes, his trainer had to be inside the telepod, out of view, to keep the him under control.
21	** Typhoon also had a crush on script supervisor Gillian Richardson, and as such, he had a [[RagingStiffie large erection]] that had to be painted out in some shots.
22	* OrphanedReference:
23	** 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. Alternatively, it's just a way of emphasizing the tragic LoveTriangle at the story's heart.
24	** After his tryst with Tawny, Seth is often clutching the left side of his abdomen for the next few minutes; some time later when he has figured out how to WallCrawl Seth reveals to Veronica that there is a bizarre growth there and jokes "Oh, look at this. What's this? I dunno." The payoff to this scene was part of the infamous "monkey-cat" DeletedScene that was slotted between Veronica telling Stathis about her pregnancy and her NightmareSequence: Seth, alone in TheMadnessPlace and having just created and slain a hybrid baboon-cat creature with his telepods, is on the roof of the warehouse when a sudden pain from the growth causes him to tumble off. Managing to slide down the wall and land on an awning, he is horrified to see an insect leg emerge from the growth — so he ''bites it off''. In the finished film's climax, the right-side counterpart to the severed leg emerges upon his OneWingedAngel transformation (meaning he was ''supposed'' to have six limbs, just like a fly).
25	* ProductionPosse: Many recurring Cronenberg collaborators turned up here (one section of the documentary ''Fear of the Flesh'' discusses this, and is cheekily titled "The Ultimate Family").
26	** Les Carlson, who appeared as Barry Convex in ''Film/{{Videodrome}}'' and a newspaper editor in ''Film/TheDeadZone'', played the abortion doctor whom Veronica and Stathis go to in the third act.
27	** Mark Irwin, who photographed all of Cronenberg's films from ''Fast Company'' onward, once again handled cinematography duties; this was his final collaboration with the director.
28	** Music/HowardShore provided the musical score.
29	** Ronald Sanders handled editing; like Irwin, he first joined the Cronenberg fold with ''Fast Company''.
30	** Carol Spier handled the production design.
31	** Deirdre Bowen handled casting.
32	** 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/MapsToTheStars'' (she passed away in 2020).
33	* ReleaseDateChange: 20th Century Fox ran a newspaper ad in the runup to Summer 1986 announcing an August 8th release date, but it was subsequently pushed back one week to the 15th, possibly to give it a little more distance from the same studio's ''Film/{{Aliens}}'', which opened in July.
34	* RomanceOnTheSet: Creator/JeffGoldblum and Creator/GeenaDavis 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 from most (save, crucially, Cronenberg) 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.
35	* SleeperHit: This was not initially a high-priority release for 20th Century Fox. Of the ''five'' genre pictures they released over summer 1986, it was the one locked down for [[DumpMonths August]] (''Film/SpaceCamp'' and ''Film/TheManhattanProject'' got June while ''Film/BigTroubleInLittleChina'' and ''Film/{{Aliens}}'' got July), partially because it seemed to have the most limited appeal of the bunch. But once a rough cut was screened, the studio suits saw breakout potential via its GenreBusting and an excellent marketing campaign ensued, quickly seizing on the rave reviews it received from many critics. It ended up spending two weeks at the top of the North American box office, handily turning a profit even before it reached the video market.
36	* StarMakingRole: For Creator/JeffGoldblum. So much so that [[Series/SiskelAndEbert Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert]] actually said he was snubbed an Oscar nomination for Best Actor because of the Academy's [[SciFiGhetto refusal to consider horror]] when working out candidates. While the international blockbuster ''Film/JurassicPark'' truly made him a household name seven years later, this was the film that proved to the world just how talented an actor who had mostly played supporting/ensemble roles up to that point was, and Seth Brundle remains one of his signature characters to this day.
37	** It was also a major stepping stone, though less obviously so, for Creator/GeenaDavis. Prior to this film she was best-known if at all for television work, mostly comedy at that -- this was her fourth film role and first lead. A bonus clip from the ''Fear of the Flesh'' documentary has her recounting how, during the long hours spent preparing Goldblum's makeup, she read books to him -- one was Anne Tyler's just-published ''The Accidental Tourist''. She knew that there were already plans for [[Film/TheAccidentalTourist a film adaptation]] of it, and she was ruing that there was no hope for ''her'' getting the juicy role of Muriel...but not only did she do so come 1988 (her sixth film, with the major hit ''Film/{{Beetlejuice}}'' in between), she won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar.
38	* ThrowItIn: Veronica flushing the toilet to scald Stathis? According to Cronenberg, that was something Geena Davis came up with as they were getting ready to shoot the scene. ''Everybody'' loved it, so...
39	* TroubledProduction: It wasn't an especially ''painful'' one, but dealing as it did with -- among ''many'' other things -- the first contracted director (Robert Bierman) dropping out in the wake of his daughter's death and being replaced at the last possible moment by Cronenberg, Cronenberg doing a complete rewrite of the script, a real-life couple playing romantic leads, a special effects crew whipping up everything in a ''third'' of the time it normally would get to do so to meet a very short production period (it started shooting in December '85 for an August '86 release date locked down by Fox), and several big scenes not surviving the test screening phase, this movie went through a lot to become the success story it was. Full details can be found on [[TroubledProduction/Film0ToL the trope subpage]].
40	* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
41	** Former Music/RoxyMusic frontman Bryan Ferry was commissioned by Creator/MelBrooks and Stuart Cornfield to write and perform "[[https://soundcloud.com/bryanferry/help-me-full-version Help Me]]" for the film's closing credits. However, while Creator/DavidCronenberg liked the song, he felt it didn't fit well with 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 [[LongSongShortScene only briefly appearing in the film's bar scene]] and not appearing on the soundtrack album, making it extremely rare. Its sole CD release was as part of his 1988 GreatestHitsAlbum ''The Ultimate Collection'', and even then it was only [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfK4O3ZGpK0 the radio edit]]. Even so, a VideoFullOfFilmClips [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZ1ou28DMEw exists 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.
42	** A second remake was in the works, to be directed by Todd Lincoln, produced by Fox Searchlight, and was to be released in 2006. In fact, on the ''Screen Drafts'' podcast episode covering the Cronenberg filmography guest critic Drew [=McWeeny=] explains that multiple writers were approached to try their hands at a remake over the course of a decade, but Fox Searchlight finally gave up when no one could get a handle on it, the '86 film being such a ToughActToFollow if only for Goldblum's performance.
43	** Scripted, but never filmed, was a segment meant to have followed the deleted monkey-cat scene: a homeless lady screams after interrupting Brundlefly as he feeds out of an open dumpster. Brundlefly seizes the bag lady and disintegrates her face with his vomit drop. Before he finishes feeding on the woman's corpse, Brundlefly's humanity emerges for a moment, just long enough to contemplate the horror of his sub-human existence.
44	** Between ''those'' two scenes there was 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 effects-reliant. (In the finished film, it's implied that Seth does this to follow and abduct Veronica.)
45	** Initially David Cronenberg wasn't available to direct because he was attached to ''Film/{{Total Recall\|1990}}''. 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.
46	** Creator/JohnLithgow auditioned for Seth, while Creator/RichardDreyfuss and Creator/MelGibson[[note]]He turned it down in order to star in ''Film/LethalWeapon1987''[[/note]] turned it down. Executive producer Creator/MelBrooks' first choice was Creator/PierceBrosnan. Producer Stuart Cornfeld's first choice was Creator/JohnMalkovich, but they couldn't get past his agent, who saw the project as beneath Malkovich. Second choice Creator/WilliamHurt turned it down. The most common reason actors didn't want to do the film, or at least had reservations about it, was the prospect of working under heavy prosthetic makeup. The script reached Jeff Goldblum because he was represented by the same talent agency as the other actors, not because anyone had him in mind, but as soon as he read it and made his case to the filmmakers they realized he was ''exactly'' who was needed.
47	** Cronenberg wanted Creator/LindaHamilton for Veronica Quaife after seeing ''Film/TheTerminator'', but she was too disturbed by the script. Creator/LauraDern, Creator/SallyField 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, Creator/GeenaDavis being comparable in height to Jeff Goldblum was also a key factor! Cronenberg was ready to cast her after her first reading, 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 Creator/ShelleyLong, who had just left ''Series/{{Cheers}}'' at the height of its popularity for movies.
48	** Creator/MelBrooks was asked to cameo, but turned it down as he felt it would hinder the mood.
49	** The original Charles Edward Pogue screenplay draft (viewable on the Collector's Edition/Blu-Ray releases along with Cronenberg's rewrite) was '''very''' different, and closer to the original short story/1958 film in many ways. The lead characters, named Geoff and Barb, were a married couple -- he a scientist, she a painter who specialized in RomanceNovel covers. Barb modeled the heroes on the covers after Geoff, with the horror of his resultant mutation coming more from [[BeautyToBeast the loss of his looks]] (with his appearance becoming, in effect, the "185-pound fly" that Seth jokes about in the finished film) than his mind until the final third. The principal antagonist was Dewitt, a CorruptCorporateExecutive whose main concern upon learning of Geoff's situation was seizing control of the teleporter from him with the help of Geoff's colleague/friend Harry, who was nursing a crush on Barb that she was tempted to give into as the situation deteriorated. (The finished film's Stathis is a more aggressive, complex version of Harry, while Dewitt is in hindsight a precursor to Anton Bartok, the sequel's straight-up villain). In this version, the climax had Geoff destroy Dewitt and then himself along with his machine, aided by Barb. Barb also ended up pregnant, but unlike Veronica [[GoodGirlsAvoidAbortion never considers abortion]], deciding that Geoff will live on through their child -- with the NightmareSequence turning out to be a fake-out final shock before the closing reveal that the child is human.
50	** As noted in the Deleted Scenes section above, four different epilogues were shot and considered but rejected due to poor test audience reception. Two had [[spoiler: Veronica get back together with Stathis]], two had her [[spoiler: alone at the end]]. Perhaps most interestingly one of the latter two has [[spoiler: Veronica decide she'll birth her child from Seth instead of, apparently, getting an abortion]].
51	** Producer Stuart Cornfeld's friend Music/FrankZappa wrote and recorded an entire score for the movie ''without being asked'' and gave it to Cornfeld and said the filmmakers could do whatever they wanted with it, but Cronenberg already had Music/HowardShore working on the film's music.

Context Trivia / TheFly1986