Paul - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

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

[norma]

Seth Rogen's 2nd time voice acting in a live action film. His first was in The Spiderwick Chronicles (2008) three years prior, and his 3rd time would later be in The Lion King (2019) eight years later.

[tom]

The RV driven by Graeme Willy (Simon Pegg) and Clive Gollings (Nick Frost) is a 1987 Winnebago Chieftain, often referred to as a 'Traveller Beagle'. The HMS Beagle was Charles Darwin's famous ship.

[frances]

Right before Paul (Seth Rogan) is about to walk up the stairs onto his UFO he turns to Tara Walton (Blythe Danner), after Tara says "but I don't have my toothbrush", to respond with "Toothbrush? Baby, where we're going you don't need teeth" which is a direct reference to the line said by Doc Brown to Marty McFly in Back To The Future "Roads!? Where we're going we don't need roads"

[nicholas]

WILHELM SCREAM: As Agent Haggard is driving off the cliff when chasing the group.

[linda]

After Paul heals Ruth's eye and she wakes up from her nap, the Jesus shooting Darwin "EVOLVE THIS" cartoon is no longer on her T-shirt, suggesting that she was healed in more ways than one; having also been freed from her religion. She turns it inside out it doesn't magically disappear.

[nora]

When Paul, driving the RV, crashes through a windmill, it's a reference to the Aurora, Texas, UFO incident on April 17, 1897, in which the "object" clipped Judge Proctor's windmill (also a reference to/by BTTF when Marty is first transported back to 1955 in the DeLorean).

[charlie]

When O'Reilly shoots out at the RV from the farm house causing it to explode, the camera zooms in really quickly in a type of shot called a "dolly zoom". This was an intentional homage to an identical shot from Jaws (1975), where Chief Brody blows up the shark. There was another nod to Jaws when Agent Haggard pulls along side the RV and aims his gun at Paul and says, "Smile you son of a bitch!". This was Chief Brody's final line in Jaws right before he blew up the shark.

[sandra]

The movie begins in 1947 in Moorcroft, Wyoming, where Paul crashes to Earth. In Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss) travels to Moorcroft looking for an answer about his meeting with a U.F.O. The mountain where Paul signals his ship, Devil's Tower, is also in Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977).

[dustin]

The odd presence of sailors in the bar fight in landlocked Wyoming is actually a direct reference to a line in David Bowie's song "Life on Mars" ("Take a look at those sailors fighting in the dancehall; ooh man, look at those cavemen go"). Alternatively it is both an in-joke about the presence of sailors in seemingly all Hollywood bar fights, and a nod to Steven Spielberg's 1941 (1979).

[frances]

This was originally intended for a reunion between Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, and director Edgar Wright, after the successes of Shaun of the Dead (2004) and Hot Fuzz (2007). Wright had to leave the project to work on Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010), so Greg Mottola was approached. Pegg and Frost were fans of Mottola's work on The Daytrippers (1996) and Superbad (2007).

[ethel]

There is a Retro duo (Super Nintendo/NES pirate console) standing on the table in the camper. It has Super Mario World inserted in its slot.

[russell]

During the fight scene in the woods, at the movie's ending, before punching Sigourney Weaver to save Kristen Wiig, Blythe Danner says "Get away from her you bitch!" This is the same line spoken by Weaver's character Ellen Ripley in Aliens (1986), when defending Newt from the Alien Queen.

[ethel]

Clive Gollings is left-handed because Nick Frost broke his right hand.

[kyle]

The Albuquerque Convention Center was dressed up to resemble San Diego Comic Con. The same thing would happen for Frank (2014).

[wallace]

Haggard and O'Reilly are first seen in a roadside dive called Gertie's. Gertie (Drew Barrymore) was Elliott's (Henry Thomas) little sister in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982).

[jessie]

Seth Rogen's first Voice Over performance in a Mature Themed film. His 2nd time would later be in Sausage Party (2016) 5 years later, which also starred Kristen Wiig.

[beth]

Another homage to Spielberg is the movie marquee which shows one of the movies is Duel, a 1971 Steven Spielberg TV movie which was released theatrically in Europe.