Trivia / Cool Runnings

• California Doubling: Averted. The movie was really filmed in both Jamaica and Calgary. They even used the same bobsled track which was used at the 1988 Winter Olympics, which is how they could seamlessly cut in Stock Footage of the real Jamaican bobsled team.
• Colbert Bump: Thanks to the everlasting popularity this movie has, the real Jamaican bobsled teams always get a nice share of exposure every time they qualify for the Olympics.
• Completely Different Title: According to Google Translate, foreign titles translate as Rasta Rocket (France), The Apprentice Champions, Jamaica Below Zero (Portugal, Israel and Latin America), Reggae on Ice (Poland), Running Below Zero, Coconuts on Ice (Czech Republic) and Ice Trek. The Russian title of the film is Cool Turns/Banks (although the Russian word for the slang "cool" can also literally mean "sharp", which works too).
• Doing It for the Art: John Candy lobbied hard for his role in this film and even took a pay cut to help keep the budget down.
• Fake Nationality: The four Jamaican bobsledders are all played by American actors. Meanwhile, Canadian John Candy plays American Irv Blitzer, while fellow Canadian Peter Outerbridge plays East German Josef Grool.
• Playing Against Type: Singer-actor Leon, who in his cinema acting career had played a Scary Black Man in action films such as Band of the Hand (opposite Laurence Fishburne) and Cliffhanger (which was released the same year as this film), plays a friendly lead character who wouldn't harm a fly and stated himself to be "not a boxer," as he quoted early in the film. Instead, the Scary Black Man role is held by character Yul Brenner (Malik Yoba) in this film, although for comedic effect.
• Reality Is Unrealistic: Despite what the movie implies, Jamaica was not the first tropical country to compete in the Winter Olympics (that was Mexico way back in 1928) or even the only tropical country competing that year. Also, the idea of Jamaicans in Canada isn't a stretch either. Canada has a huge Caribbean population, to the extent that one in three Black Canadians are of Caribbean descent, with a majority of immigrants and their descendants being Jamaican (except Quebec, whose Caribbean community is predominantly Haitian due to both primarily speaking French).
• What Could Have Been:
  • Kurt Russell was Disney's original choice for Irv Blitzer, until John Candy learned about the project and campaigned for it.
  • Cuba Gooding Jr., Jeffrey Wright, and Eriq La Salle were all considered for roles as the Jamaican team.

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