Trivia / Falling Down

• Banned in China: The Korean American Coalition protested the film for its treatment of minorities, as well as the South Korean grocer. Because of this, and the boycott threats that followed, this movie was banned in South Korea.
• Cast the Runner-Up: Michael Douglas and Robert Duvall swapped roles.
• Completely Different Title:
  • In Portuguese the title became a straightforward description of the plot: Um Dia de Fúria (One Day of Fury) in Brazil, and Um Dia de Raiva (One Day of Rage) in Portugal.
  • Similarly, in Spanish it became Un día de furia.
  • In Italy the film is known as Un giorno di ordinaria follia (A day of ordinary madness).
  • In French, the title became Chute libre (Freefall) and L'Enragé (The Enraged) in Québec.
  • In Finland, it's called Rankka Päivä (Rough Day).
  • In Czech the title was Volný pád (Freefall).
  • In Russian, the title became С меня хватит! (I'm done with this!).
• Creator's Favorite Episode: Michael Douglas considers this his favorite performance of all the movies he has been in.
• Dawson Casting: In the movie, Foster/D-Fens is referred to as being in his late 30s, but Michael Douglas was 47 at the time the movie was shot in 1992.
  • The homeless man lies about having served in Vietnam with Foster pointing out that he couldn't possibly have been older than ten when the conflict ended. His actor, John Fleck, was born in 1951, making him old enough to have been in the war.
• Doing It for the Art: Michael Douglas loved the script so much that he agreed to take a much lower salary so the film could also have more money to be made.
• Fake Nationality: Detective Brian says that he can't translate for Mr. Lee because he is Japanese and Mr. Lee is Korean. In real life, Steve Park is Korean and Michael Paul Chan is Chinese.
• One-Hit Wonder: While he's had a long career as an actor both before and after this film, it's one of only two writing credits that Ebbe Roe Smith has, alongside the critically-mauled film adaptation of Car 54, Where Are You?.
• Playing Against Type: Michael Douglas is no stranger to playing villains, but it's certainly a departure for him to play a villain who is antisocial, uncharismatic, unhinged, petty and really rather pathetic.
• The Red Stapler: The film had the effect of associating the main character's distinctive browline glasses with far-right-wing angry white men, which caused them to fall in popularity. Browline glasses became popular once more in the 00s, when Mad Men made them seem cool.
• Referenced by...:
  • The Foo Fighters did a Whole-Plot Reference homage to the movie in their video for "Walk".
  • Frank Grimes from The Simpsons episode "Homer's Enemy" is a parody of William "D-Fens" Foster, in both his design and his character arc as a miserable "everyman" who snaps after a Trauma Conga Line and dies as a result of his own vices. Reportedly, the show's staff even wanted Douglas to voice him at first.
• Technology Marches On:
  • Much of the plot revolves around using payphones, to the point the entire film is kicked off by Foster needing change to make a call. Pay phones would fall out of use as cell phones became more common.
  • Foster is shown reading the wanted ads in the paper to look for a job. Nowadays, almost all job applications are done online and he would be seen looking through a site like Indeed for positions that match his skill set.
• Troubled Production: Downplayed, but the 1992 Los Angeles riots were happening while they were filming this.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Dennis Hopper was considered to direct.
  • Alec Baldwin, Jeff Bridges, Robert De Niro, Harrison Ford, Mel Gibson, Ed Harris, Dustin Hoffman, Michael Keaton, Jack Nicholson, Nick Nolte, Al Pacino and Robin Williams were considered for D-Fens.
  • Gene Hackman, Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Paul Newman, Sidney Poitier and Jason Robards were considered for Lester Prendergast.

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