History Trivia / Sicario

* ExecutiveMeddling: Thankfully averted. The studio originally wanted the main character to be male, but was refused.

* ActorInspiredElement: While Alejandro is frequently silent in the movie, he initially had more lines. "In the original script, the character explained his background several times to Kate," Creator/BenicioDelToro said. "And that gave me information about who this guy was, but it felt a little stiff to have someone you just met fifteen minutes ago suddenly telling you what happened to him and who he is." Working with director Denis Villeneuve, Del Toro began cutting some of his dialogue to preserve the mystery of who his character is; Villeneuve estimated they cut 90% of what Del Toro was originally intended to say by screenwriter Taylor Sheridan. Like Del Toro, Villeneuve saw power in stripping the character down to a brooding silence, stating that dialogue belongs to plays and "movies are about movement, character, and presence, and Benicio had all that."

* MethodActing: Blunt met with 4 different FBI agents to influence her performance.

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: The film was conceived during Ciudad Juarez's worst crime period in the early 2010s. As of the film's release in 2015, the city's crime rate is significantly lower.
** On the other hand, if you consider the movie as a representation of Mexico's overall problem with crime, then the crime rate overall has increased from 2010 to 2018.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: There was a [[http://alternateending.co.uk/blog.php?post=alternate-ending-sicario slightly different]] ending in the original version of the screenplay, with Alejandro choosing to [[spoiler: spare Fausto's family]] and [[spoiler: physically humiliate Kate in the ending scene by lifting up her shirt and pointing out all of the bruises he gave her in their earlier confrontation]]. Villeneuve, Blunt, and Del Toro were all dissatisfied with how this played out, so they changed it to better fit how they felt the characters would act in the situations.

* BigNameFan: Creator/HideoKojima mentioned that the film is one of his new favorite movies.

* CaliforniaDoubling: Mexico City standing in as Juarez as the actual city was too dangerous to be film.

* FakeNationality: Alejandro is implied to be either of Mexican or Colombian origin. His actor, Creator/BenicioDelToro, is Puerto Rican.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: There was a [[http://alternateending.co.uk/blog.php?post=alternate-ending-sicario slightly different]] ending in the original version of the screenplay, with Alejandro choosing to [[spoiler: spare Fausto's family]] and [[spoiler: physically humiliate Kate in the ending scene by lifting up her shirt and pointing out all of the bruises he gave her in their earlier confrontation]]. Villeneuve, Blunt, and Del Toro were all dissatisfied with how this played out, so they changed it to better fit how they felt the characters would act in the situations.

** On the other hand if you consider the movie as a representation of Mexico's overall problem with crime then the crime rite overall has increased from 2010 to 2018.

On the other hand if you consider the movie as a representation of Mexico's overall problem with crime then the crime rite overall has increased from 2010 to 2018.

* ActorAllusion:
** Creator/EmilyBlunt and Creator/BenicioDelToro both starred as the lead couple in ''Film/TheWolfman2010''. Here Del Toro's character tells Kate that the border is a land of wolves.
** In ''Escobar: Paradise Lost (2014)'', Benicio Del Toro plays the biggest drug dealer of all time, Pablo Escobar. In this film his character hunts down and kills the biggest current drug kingpin, Fausto Alarcon.

* EnforcedMethodActing: Emily Blunt was sick with the stomach flu (though she insists that she didn't experience diarrhea) during the border scene, so her look of nervousness was a result of her illness.

** Victor Garber, who portrays their boss Dave Jennings, is Canadian.

* ActorAllusion: At one point, [[Creator/BenicioDelToro Alejandro]] claims the border is [[Film/TheWolfman2010 'a land of wolves']]. Bonus points for him saying it to Creator/EmilyBlunt, who was in [[ThoseTwoActors the same movie]].

** Victor Garber, who portrays their boss Dave Jennings, is Canadian.

* BigNameFan: Hideo Kojima mentioned that the film is one of his new favorite movies.

* ActorAllusion: Alejandro tells Kate "you are in the land of wolves now." Their actors, Benicio Del Toro and Emily Blunt, were romantic leads in Film/TheWolfman2010. Not to mention Emily Blunt [[Film/IntoTheWoods starring in a film that has a wolf in it]].