Trivia / Empire of the Sun

• Actor-Inspired Element: "Suo Gân" was chosen for the film after the Welsh Christian Bale was cast.
• Actor-Shared Background: Eric Flynn plays a British prisoner. He had been in a POW camp as a child.
• Deleted Role: Many of the actors in the POW camp had larger parts but those portions of the film were heavily cut down from what was shot. Robert Stephens and Paul McGann claimed they filmed larger parts of the film, but most of their scenes were cut.
• Dueling Movies: This came out within months of another coming-of-age film set in China during the first of the 20th Century The Last Emperor. It lost all of its Academy Award nominations to The Last Emperor too.
• Enforced Method Acting:
  • In the scene where Jamie goes back home to look for his parents, a maid he berated earlier slaps him and steals some furniture. The look of pain and betrayal on Jamie's face was genuine since behind the cameras, the scene was practiced with a fake slap, but when it was filmed for real, Steven Spielberg told the actress to slap Christian Bale for real.
  • Christian Bale would run around, jump up and down and breathe heavily before each take - to properly convey Jamie's excitement.
• Magnum Opus Dissonance: Steven Spielberg considered this one of his more important, serious works, but it remains overshadowed in the public by Indiana Jones, Jaws, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and Schindler's List. Critics such as Joseph McBride and Andrew Sarris generally agree with Spielberg and rate it as one of his very best films.
• Non-Singing Voice: James Rainbird sings "Suo Gân" in place of Christian Bale.
• Referenced by...: The 2017 TV adaptation of David Walliams' book Grandpas Great Escape references various images and soundtrack elements.
• Star-Making Role: "And introducing Christian Bale."
• Underage Casting: Not at first. Christian Bale was twelve, the same age as Jamie at the first part of the film. But then the Time Skip means that Jamie is fifteen by the end.
• What Could Have Been:
  • David Lean originally wanted to direct before the project went to Steven Spielberg. It was Lean who suggested Nigel Havers for the role of Dr. Rawlins.
  • Hugh Grant was considered for Dr. Rawlins.
  • The airfields being bombed was planned as one continuous shot that would need to be done in one take. Christian Bale however got nervous when the explosions started going off, and didn't react as much as was needed. As most of the explosions were used on this shot, Steven Spielberg experimented with different close angles for Jamie's reactions - allowing Christian to give more excited reactions.
  • Mark Rylance turned down a part to take a role on the stage instead. He would later work with Steven Spielberg on Bridge of Spies, The BFG, and Ready Player One.

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