Trivia / Mind Hunters

• Box Office Bomb: Budget? $27 million. Worldwide gross? $21 million.
• California Doubling: This was filmed in the Netherlands of all places.
• Channel Hop: Its distribution rights changed from 20th Century Fox to Dimension Films, resulting in America being the last country to receive it – several months after it had been released everywhere else.
• Deleted Scene:
  • One playing up Sarah's vulnerability much more – where she'd be seen behind a desk, after cracking under pressure during a field assignment.
  • A scene in Harris's office where he chews out Sarah and JD for their bad performances. It helps foreshadow both his and Sarah's possible motive to be the killer.
  • At dawn a helicopter begins circling an FBI facility aggressively, before Gabe and Harris begin speaking. Also the students rappel out of the copter to get onto the island.
• Disabled Character, Disabled Actor: Averted with Vince. See below.
• Dyeing for Your Art: LL Cool J dropped 40 pounds to star in this film. Val Kilmer is a strange case. He was to star in Wonderland next and required to have his hair long. He agreed to do this film if he could grow out his hair for it. Clifton Collins Jr. spent considerable time in a wheelchair and working with a doctor to accurately portray someone with a physical disability. All the cast also went through training with FBI and military personnel to prepare.
• Fake American: Lucas is an American, played by British Jonny Lee Miller. Elsewhere averted, with the rest of the non-Americans playing roles of their own nationality – British for Will Kemp and Venezuelan for Patricia Velasquez.
• Funny Character, Boring Actor: Bobby is the Deadpan Snarker of the group. Eion Bailey is usually very quiet and reserved in interviews.
• Manipulative Editing: Gabe's Establishing Character Moment scene with everyone on the island. Note how Sarah only appears in close-ups? The scene was originally filmed with her outside, sitting by the pool. But she was added in later, with a couple of close-ups to pretend she was in the room with the others.
• Missing Trailer Scene: Done intentionally. In the trailer the threatening voice over that plays is distorted. This was to preserve the twist that Harris appears to be the killer. Val Kilmer's voice is heard in the final film.
• The Other Marty: Gerard Butler was going to play Lucas Harper, but dropped out to do Timeline. Jonny Lee Miller was then cast in his place.
• Vacation, Dear Boy: The film was made in Amsterdam, and Renny Harlin joked that it was hard to make sure the cast all showed up for work – as they were having rather a lot of fun touring the city.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Ryan Phillippe was also considered to play Lucas. Phillippe's then-wife Reese Witherspoon was offered the role of Sara Moore, while Christopher Walken, Martin Sheen and Gary Busey passed on the part of Jake Harris.
  • The water title sequence was filmed to be used as a flashback to Sarah's near-drowning experience. After production was over, it was re-edited to serve as the opening titles.
  • Several different endings were filmed, including Harris turning up alive and Gabe killing Lucas instead of Sarah.
  • Renny Harlin edited down much of the violence and gore in order to get a PG-13 rating. The film was still rated R anyway, so he re-inserted the scenes that had been censored.
• Word of God: Rafe Perry, the coffee junkie, was an "English lend-out to the FBI" according to Renny Harlin.
• Working Title: The film's original title was Unsub after a term used by FBI agents referring to an unknown subject (which is spoken a few times in the film). The studio disliked the title and changed it. The screenwriter, in turn, was unhappy with the change, given that there was already a book called Mind Hunter.

---