Over the Top - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of Over the Top or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to Over the Top

[bryan]

In one of the final matches Sylvester Stallone goes up against Mad Dog Maddison, played by Randy Raney. They would come up against each other again in Rambo III (1988).

[tammy]

The truck appears in the 1989 movie "The Wizard". The first appearance says "Hawk Trucking" on the driver door. A few minutes later, the passenger door has a white sign with a different name on it.

[steve]

John Wetton, lead singer of the rock group Asia, sang "Winner Takes It All" for the movie. The produce didn't think his voice was "mean" enough, so the song was offered to Sammy Hagar, whose version ended up on the soundtrack. Hagar did a music video to promote the song, and the film, which featured both Zumwalt and Stallone.

[carl]

John Brzenk, the real-life arm-wrestler who inspired the Lincoln Hawk character, won in the Truckers Class of the actual "Over the Top" tournament, and won the Volvo White Truck and Trail-mobile Trailer that were the grand prize in the movie. It was worth about $250,000. Brzenk took the truck on tour across the country to promote the film. He later sold it and bought a 1987 Corvette with some of the money.

[carla]

Don Johnson was originally envisioned for this film before Cannon made the choice of focusing on star power; they chose to cast Sylvester Stallone instead for Hawk

[fred]

Riffed by Michael J. Nelson from MST3K under the Rifftrax name.

[gabriel]

Rick Zumwalt was paid $10,000 to shave his head for the film. He liked it so much he never let his hair grow back.

[christina]

The truck was a 1967 Autocar model a64. Three trucks were purchased from a local logging company.

[oscar]

Though it is a very quick and faraway shot, the final scene where Hawk takes Mike with him shows that Hawk and Cutler parted on good terms (you can see Cutler walking away in the aftermath of a goodbye as Hawk and Mike walk to the truck)

[claude]

David Engelbach was appalled at the changes made to his script. He recalled having tears in his eyes when he saw the film. He remarked that his original draft wasn't nearly as dumb as the final film and that it was more about truck driving and arm-wrestling than it should've been.

[elmer]

The production company flew professional wrestlers Manny Fernandez and Sione Vailahi (a.k.a The Barbarian) to the set, but they weren't used in the film. The wrestlers were given some money for food, but instead, they decided to go to a bar for drinks. According to Fernandez, Barbarian got so drunk that after a patron insulted him, Barbarian smashed his and Manny's mugs of beer over Barbarian's own forehead, then laughed as blood poured down over his face. The patrons were so shocked they called the police, who arrested Sione and put in him jail overnight. Manny called Sione's wife Seini, who bailed him out and flew him home. Sione later told Manny that Seini had cooked him a big Tongan meal when they got home. When Sione started eating, Seini blindsided him with a skillet, chastised him for his actions, and warned him not to get drunk again. Sione said, "Brother, I crawled on all fours, and she kept hitting me."

[elmer]

When Hawks is picked up from jail, the Japanese writing scrawled on the wall that says "Kelly," along with nonsense writing that isn't kanji.

[mathew]

Years later, Sylvester Stallone explained why he agreed to appear in this movie. "Menahem Golan kept offering me more and more money, until I finally thought, 'What the hell - no one will see it!'"

[ruby]

Scott Norton: an arm wrestler.

[miriam]

A real-life "Over The Top" arm wrestling tournament was created once the movie was approved for production. Organizers worked closely with producers at Cannon Films in hosting the tournament while the film was being made. The contest was described as "the biggest event in arm-wrestling history." Beginning with the first qualifier in Beverly Hills in August 1985, the competition lasted a year throughout North America and included qualifying events in Europe, Israel, and Japan. The finale took place on July 26th, 1986, with an 18-hour marathon tournament at the Las Vegas Hilton. The movie featured many real-life arm-wrestlers and footage from the Vegas finals. The only exceptions were the scenes that featured Sylvester Stallone, whose matches were filmed the day after the real finals. The same location was used, and the extras who made up the audience in those scenes were the same fans who had filled the venue the day before.

[ivan]

As an inside joke, the writers named David Mendenhall's character Michael. With his father's last name, that meant that his character's name is Mike Hawk.

[morris]

Sylvester Stallone was reportedly unhappy with the final film. In an interview with Ain't It Cool News, he said that if he'd directed the film he would've changed the setting to an urban environment, used scored music instead of rock songs, and made the Las Vegas finale more ominous.