----
!!The original
* CaliforniaDoubling:
** The Energy Corporation is based in UsefulNotes/{{Houston}}, Texas. However, shooting for the film took place in Europe, with the then-recently built BMW Headquarters in Munich, Germany being portrayed as the Energy Corporation's headquarters. Other scenes were shot in Hampshire, England.
** All of the game scenes were filmed at the Rudi-Sedlmayer-Halle. The same venue used for Basketball in the 1972 Olympics. The site of the infamous [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1972_Olympic_Men%27s_Basketball_Final Gold Medal]] game where the USSR was inexplicably given extra time to win the final game in the last few seconds.
* DyeingForYourArt: Many of the extras received an additional wage in order to cut their fashionably long hair, so the look of the movie would not be tied to the era in which it was produced.
* FakeNationality: British Chinese actor Creator/BurtKwouk plays a Japanese doctor.
* SelfAdaptation: William Harrison adapted his own short story "Roller Ball Murder", published in 1973 by Esquire Magazine.
* ThrowItIn:
** The cast made up their own rules for Rollerball, which greatly adds to the realism.
** Supposedly, when filming was completed, the stuntmen wanted to play a for-real game before the sets were struck, but the studio nixed the idea. Something about "liability" and "lawsuits the size of the Oort Cloud"...
* UncreditedRole:
** Creator/AndyHo as a reporter.
** Creator/MacMcDonald as an executive.
** Creator/DavidGriffin as a man collecting coats.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
** The scene where drugged-up party-goers shoot up some magnificent trees with a futuristic rocket gun is disturbing enough. But just imagine how it would've been if they'd followed the original scripted idea, where they took turns shooting a ''dog''...
** Creator/SylvesterStallone was considered for Jonathan E.

!!The remake
* BoxOfficeBomb: Budget: $70 million. Final box office tally: $25,852,764.
* CreatorBacklash: Music/LLCoolJ admitted in a guest appearance on ''Series/LateNightWithConanOBrien'' that the film "sucked" but that it was his duty to promote the film.
* CreatorKiller: The remake was a serious blow to director Creator/JohnMcTiernan's decorated career before receiving a double tap with ''Film/{{Basic}}'' the following year and was torpedoed entirely by his arrest for lying to the FBI a short few years later.
* DeletedRole: Matilda Szydagis, who would later become known for her role as Zelda in ''Series/TheMarvelousMrsMaisel'', was supposed to make her credited acting debut in this film,[[note]]after having {{Uncredited Role}}s in ''Film/TheFirstWivesClub'', ''Film/PrivateParts'' and ''Film/DeconstructingHarry'',[[/note]] but her part ended up on the cutting room floor.
* DisownedAdaptation: William Harrison has said that he never saw the remake, let alone had any interest in it. It was even disowned by Creator/JohnMcTiernan himself, the film being butchered by heavy editing due to ExecutiveMeddling, which completely altered its message.
* ExecutiveMeddling:
** Following the negative test screenings, Creator/{{MGM}} ordered massive re-shoots and re-edits to be done on the film in the summer of 2001. Shortly after the test screenings, MGM appointed a new head of marketing and distribution, Robert Levin, who convinced Creator/JohnMcTiernan to let go of the summer release date. This would give the studio more time to devise a better marketing strategy and allow [=McTiernan=] to do re-shoots and to re-edit the film for a PG-13 rating, in an attempt by studio to get a wider audience to see the film. The release date was then pushed again from August all the way to February of 2002, due to all the post production work causing delays. [=McTiernan=] shot two weeks of additional footage in the fall of 2001 to clarify certain scenes, especially the film's ending, and also cut down the violence and nudity.
** Around 30 minutes were cut out of the original rough cut of the film, and the entire ending was re-shot and changed. Some of the cuts were made because MGM thought that the movie was "Too Asian". In the original ending, Petrovich gets killed by Sanjay, while Jonathan and Aurora take the plane back to the US, during which Jonathan says that he will continue playing the Rollerball game there, and how he is now part owner of the game.
** The original score by Brian Transeau was also removed because it sounded "Too Arabic" and was replaced with a new score by Eric Serra. Also, some of the other music was changed or removed from the first cut of the film.
* FakeNationality: Frenchman Creator/JeanReno as Kazakh Alexi Petrovich.
* MissingEpisode: Some of the scenes that were cut to get a PG-13 rating, but were never put back, even in later DVD and Blu-Ray releases (which are advertised [[RatedMForMoney as now being R rated]]), including a lot more blood in all the Rollerball scenes and parts like skulls getting smashed, bones getting broken, teeth flying out... The scene where Aurora is topless and walks towards Jonathan in the locker room originally didn't have a shadow over her (this was added in post production to cover her up for the PG-13 rating); their sex scene was also longer, and so was their conversation while they're laying down in the sauna. Some of the other similar edits that were done on more graphic scenes in the film included digitally replacing blood spurts with sweat.
* ReleaseDateChange: Following negative test screenings, the release date was pushed forward from May to 13 July of 2001 by Creator/{{MGM}} in order to test the movie again, hoping that they would find the right audience for it. Ultimately, the wide-ranging changes pushed the film back to February of 2002.
* RoleEndingMisdemeanor: Creator/JohnMcTiernan's decision to have a private detective wiretap the phone of one of his producers ultimately completely destroyed his directing career. [=McTiernan=] wanted to get dirt on the producer in the event he was badmouthing the studio to blackmail him into moving along with his vision of the film, and then later lied to the FBI about it by claiming that it was only about his divorce proceedings at the time, and that there was no discussion of wiretapping. Ultimately, when he finally faced the music, in an attempt to prevent his ranch from being taken away, he filed for bankruptcy. [=McTiernan=] has not had any film roles ever since.
* StarDerailingRole: Creator/ChrisKlein never really recovered from the remake's poor box office performance and negative critical reception. After gaining recognition from the ''Film/AmericanPie'' films, this film's failure (along with that of ''Film/SayItIsntSo'') killed his potential future as a headliner. Klein attempted one last shot at a leading man role with ''Film/StreetFighterTheLegendOfChunLi'', whose failure closed the lid on his star's coffin.
* TroubledProduction:
** Anyone who's seen the original script says it was very good, but Creator/JohnMcTiernan disliked it and ordered multiple rewrites. Principal photography took place in 2000, but after uniformly negative test screenings the studio ordered reshoots. The film was then heavily cut for a more family-friendly rating.
** The infamous night vision sequence was actually a re-shot version of the scene. After realizing that they shot original version of the scene to look too dark, the filmmakers had to return and re-shoot the entire sequence, delaying the movie's release for six months. But due to the budget issues, this scene couldn't be finished properly, so it was decided to add a green visual tint to the scene to make it look like night vision, even though it makes ''no sense'' for why this scene would have that look.
** In the middle of all this, the director hired a private investigator to put a wiretap on the phone of one of the producers and then lied to the FBI about it, for which he would later serve several months in a federal prison. The end result was critically panned (3% on Website/RottenTomatoes) and earned just over a third of its budget.
* WagTheDirector: Creator/RebeccaRomijn only accepted her part in the film once they agreed to remove a nude scene and provide her with a deep facial scar.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Creator/KeanuReeves was originally intended to play Jonathan Cross. Creator/NicolasCage was offered the role, but he turned it down to be in ''Film/TheFamilyMan''. Creator/RussellCrowe and Creator/MelGibson were also considered.
----