Trivia / A Few Good Men

• All-Star Cast: Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, Demi Moore, Kiefer Sutherland, Kevin Bacon, J. T. Walsh, and Christopher Guest. Kevin Pollak, Noah Wyle, and Cuba Gooding Jr. don't really count since they weren't particularly well-known at the time, making them more a case of Retroactive Recognition.
• Beam Me Up, Scotty!: The famous quote said on this page is often interpreted as simply just one line: "You want the truth? You can't handle the truth!" This is mostly due to the fact that it's usually just one person making the reference where accurately quoting it takes two people.
• Breakthrough Hit: Aaron Sorkin had had some success as a playwright, but was no household name. Adapting his play to the big screen opened the door to other movies and successful ventures in television.
• Cast the Runner-Up: Kevin Bacon originally wanted to play Jonathan Kendrick, but Rob Reiner thought it was a typical role for him. He wanted to give him a more challenging role and cast him as "Smiling" Jack Ross instead.
• Completely Different Title: The film would be titled A Question of Honor for its international release in quite a few countries (Cuestión de honor in Latin America, Et spørgsmål om ære in Denmark, Eine Frage der Ehre in Germany). Meanwhile in Sweden, its title was På heder och samvete (By Honor and Conscience). In Italy its title was Codice D'Onore (Code Of Honor).
• Descended Creator: In the film, Harold Dawson was played by Wolfgang Bodison, who served as a film location scout during production.
• Dueling Dubs:
  • The movie has been dubbed in Korean for airing twice. One for KBS and the other for MBC.
  • It has also been dubbed twice in Latin American Spanish. The original dub was made by Procineas S. C. L. in Mexico, while the redub was made by Palmera Record in Argentina.
• Hide Your Pregnancy: Demi Moore was eight months pregnant with her second child Scout Willis when she was cast, which is why Galloway is almost never seen out of her (clearly too large) uniform.
• Irony as She Is Cast: Tom Cruise, whose Star-Making Role was in Top Gun, and who is a licensed pilot in real life, playing Daniel Kaffee, who's afraid to fly because he gets sick on planes.
• The Other Darrin: Quite a few characters in the film are not played by the actors from the stage play.
  • Tom Cruise plays Daniel Kaffee instead of Tom Hulce.
  • Demi Moore portrays JoAnne Galloway instead of Megan Gallagher.
  • Jack Nicholson plays Nathan Jessep instead of Stephen Lang.
  • Kiefer Sutherland plays Jonathan James Kendrick instead of Ted Marcoux.
  • Wolfgang Bodison portrays Harold Dawson instead of Victor Love.
  • J. T. Walsh plays Matthew Markinson instead of Robert Hogan.
  • Michael De Lorenzo plays William Santiago instead of Arnold Molina.
  • James Marshall plays Louden Downey instead of Michael Dolan.
  • Christopher Guest plays Walter Stone instead of Fritz Sperberg.
  • Kevin Pollak plays Sam Weinberg instead of Mark Nelson.
  • Kevin Bacon portrays Jack Ross instead of Clark Gregg.
• The Pete Best: On stage, Roxanne Hart originated the role of Galloway during out-of-town tryouts and early on Broadway, only to soon be replaced with Megan Gallagher, a highly publicized move as Gallagher was in a relationship with Aaron Sorkin at the time.
• Playing Against Type: J.T. Walsh was well known for playing slimy shady characters. Here he plays an upstanding, ethical (if spineless) military officer.
• Production Posse:
  • This marked Josh Malina's second time working on something Aaron Sorkin wrote; he plays Tom, Jessep's secretary. Malina was first in the Broadway play this movie is based on, as an ensemble member and understudy, later getting promoted up to play private Downey.
  • In addition, it also featured three creatives who previously worked on Stand by Me; its director (Rob Reiner), studio (Columbia Pictures) and co-star (Kiefer Sutherland).
• Real-Life Relative:
  • Aunt Ginny is played by Rob Reiner's sister-in-law, Maud Winchester.
  • Kevin Pollak's mother Elaine Harlow is in the crowd watching the trial. According to Pollak, she hit on Jack Nicholson.
• Self-Adaptation: Aaron Sorkin wrote the film adaptation from his own stage play.
• Throw It In!:
  • The infamous "You can't handle the truth!" line was originally written as "You already have the truth!" Nicholson felt the character's hubris would be better communicated by revealing that he believes himself so intellectually superior to everyone else that no one but him could comprehend the reasoning behind his actions rather than simply attempting to skirt blame.
  • Tom Cruise's Jack Nicholson impersonation (when his character is quoting Colonel Jessep) was not scripted. Demi Moore's and Kevin Pollak's reactions are genuine.
• Uncredited Role: William Goldman did an uncredited re-write of the screenplay. Aaron Sorkin was so impressed by Goldman's new dialogue, as well as changes that tightened the story, that he re-wrote and re-published the play to incorporate the changes.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Robert De Niro and Richard Dreyfuss wanted to play Col. Jessep.
  • Jodie Foster, Linda Hamilton, Elizabeth Perkins, Michelle Pfeiffer, Nancy Travis and Julie Warner were considered to play Galloway. However, Castle Rock wanted a tougher actress, so the role eventually went to Demi Moore.
  • Jason Alexander was supposed to play Sam Weinberg, but when Seinfeld was unexpectedly renewed, he was no longer available.
• Write What You Know: Aaron Sorkin wrote the play after learning from his sister Deborah, who had recently joined the Judge Advocate General's Corps, that she was working on a case that inspired the events of the play.
• You Look Familiar: In the film, Jessep's clerk is played by Josh Malina, who previously appeared as an ensemble member in the original stage play.

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