Trivia / Enemy of the State

• Actor-Shared Background: Jack Black (Fiedler) is no stranger to satellite technology, as both his parents were satellite engineers.
• Awesome, Dear Boy: Will Smith signed on for a bargain price salary purely to work with Gene Hackman.
• Backed by the Pentagon: Averted. The NSA refused to co-operate with the production. An aerial shot of their grounds at Fort Meade in Washington DC had to be shot from public air space.
• The Danza: Jamie Kennedy as Jamie.
• Fake American: English actor Ian Hart as NSA Agent John Bingham, and English actor Stuart Wilson as Congressman Albert.
• Hey, It's That Place!: The law firm Dean works for is in the same building used as the headquarters in JAG.
• Life Imitates Art: The current and ongoing controversies surrounding federally-endorsed NSA surveillance conducted on the greater American public certainly seem to echo the points addressed by the film.
• Technology Marches On: For a tech thriller, it's certainly strange in retrospect to see characters making such extensive use of ZIP discs.
  • Not to mention the prevalent use of videotapes with the ascent of the DVD format.
  • Also how the Handheld Game Console in the movie is a Turbo Express namely the Handheld version of TurboGrafx-16 which was discontinued in the US about 4 years before the movie came out.
• Throw It In!: Will Smith improvised Dean's sarcastic line about buying the lingerie for himself to try cross dressing on the weekends. Smith has said it was difficult to restrain his comedic instincts during a dramatic role.
• Uncredited Role:
  • Tom Sizemore plays one of the villains, but his name doesn't appear in the credits.
  • Philip Baker Hall plays one of the presidents of Dean's law firm, but his name is likewise absent from the credits.
  • Aaron Sorkin was an uncredited script doctor for the screenplay.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Tom Cruise was originally signed on to star in this film, but had to turn it down because he was still filming Eyes Wide Shut. George Clooney, Mel Gibson and Sylvester Stallone were also considered.
  • Sean Connery was considered for Edward "Brill" Lyle.
  • Hans Zimmer was the original composer.
  • The movie would have a distant sequel as a drama series on TV when it was first reported in 2016. No network (cable/streaming) was interested to pick it up.

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