History Trivia / ReservoirDogs

** Creator/HarveyKeitel, Creator/MichaelMadsen, and Creator/TimRoth all considered playing Mr. Pink. Keitel and Roth were also considered for Mr. Blonde.

* MethodActing: According to an interview on the DVD, Creator/MichaelMadsen says that Kirk Baltz asked to ride in his trunk to experience what it was really like. Madsen agreed, but decided as he went along that this was time for his own character development. So he drove down a long alley with potholes, and then a Taco Bell drive-through, before taking Baltz back to the parking lot and letting him out. The soda he ordered at said drive-through is the same one he can be seen drinking during his character's first appearance in the warehouse.

* CreatorBacklash: Eddie Bunker (Mr. Blue's actor) said in an interview that the heist crew eating in a public diner wearing the suits they intend ''to wear while carrying out a robbery'' and working with people you don't know and are unable to trust were bad ideas -- and since Bunker was a career criminal before going into acting, [[DoWrongRight he was probably speaking from experience]]. Bunker didn't seem to hate the film overall, however, as he named his autobiography after his character.

** The budget didn't stretch to obtaining police assistance for traffic control, so in the scene where Mr. Pink forces a woman out of her car and drives off in it, they had to wait until the traffic lights were green each time .

** Creator/DavidDuchovny auditioned as well. According to Duchovny, Tarantino told him "I like what you do, I just don't know if I want you to do it in my movie."

** Creator/DennisHopper was offered the role of Mr Pink by Tarantino and Keitel, but he was unavailable. Creator/JonCryer was offered the role, but he turned it down. He admitted that he did not understand the script and would not have gotten the part. Creator/TomSizemore was also considered.

* CareerResurrection: Before this film, Creator/HarveyKeitel's career was in a lull, after having been one of Hollywood's most sought after stars in the 70's, and he was mainly stuck in supporting roles throughout the 80's. The film's success garnered Keitel more attention than he got in years.

** Creator/QuentinTarantino was originally just going to write and act in the film -- the person he actually wanted to direct was Monte Hellman, who had directed some cult films way back in the '60s and '70s, but was '''way''' past the best of his career by that stage -- his last film had been the abysmally poor ''Film/SilentNightDeadlyNightIIIBetterWatchOut'', for perspective. A Hellman-directed version of ''Reservoir Dogs'' might not have been a total disaster, but it's hard to see it being anywhere near as good as what we ended up with. Fortunately, Tarantino eventually summoned up the courage to direct the film himself.

** The woman Mr. Orange shoots is Creator/TimRoth's dialect coach Suzanne Celeste. Roth insisted that she take the role, as she was very hard on him.

* BannedInChina: It's illegal to own a copy and/or import the video game in New Zealand. Australia also banned it.

* CareerResurrection: Before this film, Creator/HarveyKeitel's career was in a lull after being one of Hollywood's most sought after stars in the 70's, and was mainly stuck in supporting roles throughout the 80's. The film's success garnered Keitel more attention than he got in years.
* CastTheExpert: Mr. Blue, a member of the gang who only shows up in two scenes is played by Eddie Bunker, a real life former criminal and convicted felon before he went into acting and writing crime fiction and, despite his criminal impulses remaining in his twilight years, was able to retire from a life of crime based solely on the profits he made in crime fiction.

** Creator/HarveyKeitel, Creator/MichaelMadsen and Creator/TimRoth all considered playing Mr. Pink. Keitel and Roth were also considered for Mr. Blonde.
* CompletelyDifferentTitle: Although a case that actually makes more sense than the very [[NonIndicativeName non-indicative original]]: in Portuguese, it was ''Rental Dogs'' (presumably confusing "reservoir" with "reserve") in Brazil and ''Damn Dogs'' in Portugal, both of whom could serve as a description of the robber protagonists.
* CreatorBacklash: Eddie Bunker (Mr. Blue's actor) said in an interview that the heist crew eating in a public diner wearing the suits they intend ''to wear while carrying out a robbery'' and working with people you don't know and are unable to trust were bad ideas -- and since Bunker had been a career criminal before going into acting, [[DoWrongRight he was probably speaking from experience]]. Bunker didn't seem to hate the film overall, however, as he named his autobiography after his character.

* HostilityOnTheSet: Creator/LawrenceTierney didn't make any friends onset due to his difficult personality. He would often provoke Creator/QuentinTarantino and his younger castmembers, almost getting into a fight with Creator/MichaelMadsen. According to Creator/SteveBuscemi in a podcast interview, everyone had a difficult time with Tierney because he was easily distracted and kept forgetting his lines. Tarantino and everyone else were so upset with him that he fired Lawrence on the third day of filming.
* MethodActing: According to an interview on the DVD, Creator/MichaelMadsen says that Kirk Baltz asked to ride in his trunk to experience what it was really like. Madsen agreed, but decided as he went along that this was time for his own character development. So he drove down a long alley with potholes, and then a Taco Bell drive-through before taking Baltz back to the parking lot and letting him out. The soda he ordered at said drive-through is the same one he can be seen drinking during his character's first appearance in the warehouse.

** Originally planned to be shot for just $30,000 until Creator/HarveyKeitel saw the script and came on as Mr. White and the executive producer, which increased the budget to $1.2 million.
** The film's budget was so low that many of the actors simply used their own clothing as wardrobe; most notably Chris Penn's track jacket. The signature black suits were provided for free by the designer, based on her love for the American crime film genre. Creator/SteveBuscemi wore his own black jeans instead of suit pants.
** The budget didn't stretch to obtaining police assistance for traffic control so in the scene where Mr. Pink forces a woman out of her car and drives off in it, he could only do so when the traffic lights were green.
** Mr. Blonde's Cadillac Coupe de Ville actually belonged to Creator/MichaelMadsen because the budget wasn't big enough to buy a car for the character.
* RealitySubtext: Note in the opening scene when the gang are discussing {{Music/Madonna}}, Nice Guy Eddie keeps out of the discussion. His actor, Chris Penn, deferred from saying anything on screen about his former sister-in-law.
* RoleReprise: Micheal Madsen returns to play Mr. Blonde in [[VideoGame/ReservoirDogs the video game]] and is the only one of the original cast to do so.
* StarMakingRole: Creator/SteveBuscemi had some good performances under his belt, but this was the point where most people learned who he was. Ditto for Creator/TimRoth and Creator/MichaelMadsen.

** Chris Penn’s squib was accidentally triggered early in the MexicanStandoff and so he dropped at the same time as the other two. Tarantino liked the effect and kept it in despite not really making much sense.

** Creator/QuentinTarantino was originally just going to write and act in the film -- the person he actually wanted to direct was Monte Hellman, who had directed some cult films way back in the '60s and '70s, but was '''way''' past the best of his career by that stage - his last film had been the abysmally poor ''Film/SilentNightDeadlyNightIIIBetterWatchOut'', for perspective. A Hellman-directed version of ''Reservoir Dogs'' might not have been a total disaster, but it's hard to see it being anywhere near as good as what we ended up with. Fortunately, Tarantino eventually summoned up the courage to direct the film himself.
** Creator/SamuelLJackson auditioned for the role of Mr. White, and then for Freddy's contact/handler -- being cast as [[Film/PulpFiction Jules Winfield]] was a favor for not getting either part. One would expect that the naming scene would have included some objections over a black man getting the name Mr. White.

** In the script, it was Mr. White who doesn't tip, not Mr. Pink. Also, it was Mr. Pink who had the first lines about "Like a Virgin." This was when Tarantino still intended to play Mr. Pink himself.
** Creator/ViggoMortensen auditioned for a role. He read the part as a hispanic character for a take where he was performed against Creator/HarveyKeitel. More than twenty years later, Quentin offered him a role in ''Film/TheHatefulEight'', but Viggo couldn't commit due to scheduling conflicts.

** For basically his whole career, Tarantino intended to do a remake as his final film, demonstrating how all his experience changed how he told this story. It also would have had an all-black cast. But then he decided to retire after ''Film/OnceUponATimeInHollywood'' due to feeling it was the best note he could go out on.
* WordOfGod: Creator/QuentinTarantino says that the briefcase from ''Film/PulpFiction'' was originally supposed to have contained a cache of diamonds before Tarantino decided that keeping the contents of the briefcase ambiguous made it more interesting. Since ''Pulp Fiction'' and ''Reservoir Dogs'' take place in the same universe (Vic and Vincent Vega, major characters in both films, are brothers), it's been theorized that the briefcases in both films are actually the same briefcase, which would mean that ''someone'' in the criminal underworld sold the diamonds to Brett and his gang before the police could return them to their rightful owners.

* FanNickname: The heist crew are lovingly called "The Reservoir Dogs" or "The Dogs" by fans
* HostilityOnTheSet: Lawrence Tierney didn't make any friends onset due to his difficult personality. He would often provoke Creator/QuentinTarantino and his younger castmembers, almost getting into a fight with Creator/MichaelMadsen. According to Creator/SteveBuscemi in a podcast interview, everyone had a difficult time with Tierney because he was easily distracted and kept forgetting his lines. Tarantino and everyone else were so upset with him that he fired Lawrence on the third day of filming.

* DescendedCreator: Creator/QuentinTarantino as Mister Brown. He originally wrote the role of Mister Pink for himself.

** Originally planned to be shot for just $30,000 until Creator/HarveyKeitel saw the script and came on as Mr. White & the executive producer, which increased the budget to $1.2 million.

* RoleReprise: Micheal Madsen returns to play Mr. Blonde in [[VideoGame/ReservoirDogs the video game]] and is the only one of the orginal cast to do so.

** Tarantino wanted Creator/JamesWoods to act in the film, but Woods' agent turned it down... without consulting Woods himself, for which he was fired. It's not clear which role Tarantino had in mind, though most fans suspect it was Mr. Orange.

** Creator/ViggoMortensen auditioned for a role. He read the part as a hispanic character for a take where he was performed against Creator/HarveyKeitel. More than twenty years later Quentin offered him a role in ''Film/TheHatefulEight'', but Viggo couldn't commit due to scheduling conflicts.
** Creator/DennisHopper was offered the role of Mr Pink by Tarantino and Keitel, but he was unavailable. Creator/JonCryer was offered the role, but he turned it down. He admitted that he did not understand the script, and would not have gotten the part. Creator/TomSizemore was also considered.

** Creator/MichaelMadsen auditioned for Mr. Pink.