Trivia / Battle: Los Angeles

• Actor-Inspired Element: Ne-Yo and Gino Anthony Pesi came up with a relationship for their characters that wasn't scripted, and it was incorporated into many of their interactions on camera.
• Awesome, Dear Boy: Aaron Eckhart lists this as his favourite role and says he would love to do a sequel. He was so enthusiastic about this movie that he continued filming after breaking his arm. He even took the time to record audio for the video game adaptation.
• Backed by the Pentagon: The USMC provided a number of troops to serve as extras, and lent a huge amount of aircraft such as various helicopters and even V-22 Ospreys. They also allowed the crew to film some parts of the movie in Camp Pendleton. Behind the scenes, the cast were trained at a boot camp run by military advisors to make sure they acted, fought, and spoke like Marines. Aaron Eckhart joked that they were very particular about the terminology they used, such as calling a helicopter a "helo" instead of a "chopper".
• California Doubling: Ironically set in California but filmed in Louisiana.
• Dueling Movies: With Skyline. There was a lawsuit over it and everything, primarily due to the same special effects guys doing work on Skyline while this movie was in post-production.
• Dyeing for Your Art: The actors playing the soldiers did three weeks of boot camp to learn how to realistically operate as a platoon in the Marines. Aaron Eckhart actually spent several months beforehand training with the Marines. Michelle Rodriguez joked that it gave her "a great set of abs" for Machete.
• Life Imitates Art: Interestingly, the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami happened the day this was released in theaters, so as the movie about things coming out of the water and attacking Los Angeles was released, Los Angeles (and the rest of the Pacific Ocean) was under threat of a tsunami coming out of the water and "attacking".
• The Mockbuster: The Asylum with "Battle OF Los Angeles".
• On-Set Injury: Aaron Eckhart broke his upper arm after falling off a ledge during an action sequence. He was able to continue filming without having to put it in a cast.
• Typecasting: Michelle Rodriguez as The Squadette in an action/sci-fi movie seems pretty standard. She however survives this film.
• What Could Have Been: Santos wasn't in the original script. She was added in about a month before filming began.

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