Bridge of Spies - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

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

[oscar]

When James B. Donovan accepts the assignment, CIA Agent Hoffman stresses that he will be on his own. Neither the U.S. nor the Soviet government can have any involvement in the operation. The German Democratic Republic (GDR) will broker the exchange directly with him. Hanks said: "Donovan had given a vociferous, authentic and passion-filled defense for this Soviet spy who was arrested, which was then tabbed by the other side to help facilitate an exchange that would get one spy back to the Soviet Union and another one back to the U.S."

[terry]

In 1964, James B. Donovan wrote an account of the classic Cold War spy incident, of which this film is the subject. It was entitled: "Strangers on a Bridge: The Case of Colonel Abel (Rudolf Ivanovich Abel) and Francis Gary Powers".

[tammy]

For Mark Rylance, an actor best known for his acclaimed stage work in such productions as "Jerusalem" and "Boeing-Boeing" and the then recent PBS miniseries Wolf Hall (2015), the opportunity to work with Steven Spielberg was incredibly humbling. And while Rudolf Ivanovich Abel was a divisive figure, his selfless patriotism earns the respect and admiration of James Donovan, which Rylance found tremendously appealing. Rylance also found the story moving and incredibly entertaining, and he appreciated the fact that it had the potential to really cause people to think. Rylance said: "This is a film about a man who does the right thing at the right time in the right place, and it's an important story."

[ethel]

The picture was green-lit In June 2014 with the production being co-financed between three production houses: DreamWorks, Fox 2000 Pictures, and Participant Media. This movie was an international co-production being co-produced globally by two nations: Germany and the United States of America. The movie's distribution was split between two studios and was distributed worldwide by Disney Pictures and 20th Century Fox, depending on the territory. Steven Spielberg's next film after this movie, The BFG (2016), would actually be made by the Disney Pictures studio, Spielberg's first ever.

[fred]

In the early scene of the Donovan family eating dinner together, a dish of peas and carrots is clearly visible in the same shot as James B. Donovan (Tom Hanks). "Like peas and carrots" is a favorite catchphrase of Hanks' title character in Forrest Gump (1994).

[leo]

Rudolf Ivanovich Abel's seemingly incongruous accent was accurate. Abel was born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne to Russian parents and spent some of his early years in Scotland. He returned to Moscow in his late teens, but never lost his accent when speaking English.

[richard]

The wardrobe reflected the culture and the period of the story, helping to articulate Spielberg's vision. Tom Hanks said: "The costumes were off the scale, which is really saying something. Anyone can go to a costume house and rent a bunch of stuff, but they still end up looking like rental costumes. I don't know how she did it, but Kasia (Kasia Walicka-Maimone) was always coming up with fresh ideas, everything down to the waitress uniforms in Berlin's Hilton Hotel . . . but that's what artists do."

[wesley]

Arnold Spielberg, the father of Steven Spielberg, actually went on a foreign exchange to Russia as an engineer during the cold war, right after Francis Gary Powers was shot down, when there was tremendous fear and hostility between the two nations. Arnold Spielberg recalled seeing Russian citizens line up to look at Powers' crashed gear and "see what America did." When they saw the American engineers, they pointed at them and said, "Look what your country is doing to us," demonstrating the fear and rage the nations felt towards each other.

[veronica]

Donovan is not just a simple lawyer from a firm that specializes in insurance claims. Prior to joining this law firm he was the general counsel to the OSS, the precursor to the CIA.

[carl]

Amy Ryan's biggest challenge was making her character, Mary Donovan, a woman in the midst of extremely-trying circumstances, believable. Marc Platt said: "Amy's portrayal of Mary has us rooting for her, but we also feel her conflict over wanting to protect her family. Her husband's involvement with the case brings the family some danger, and causes friends to sort of drop away, and you feel the tug-of-war within her to want to protect and love her husband and do what he thinks is right, and yet to protect her family at the same time, and you love her for that conflict."

[frederick]

The producers intentionally tweaked the facts about the shooting down of the U-2. A historical fact, as affirmed by James Donovan in his book Strangers on a Bridge, is that while Powers was blown out of his aircraft as shown and then intentionally bailed out, he did not do this while trying to reach a destruct switch. This shift in the facts did not alter the Abel story in any significant way, but it was intentionally inaccurate.

[jessica]

The movie was filmed under the working title of "St. James Place".

[fred]

Adam Stockhausen explained the film's production design: "We had to work fast in 'blitz-style,' which meant swapping out posters and signage, changing lighting fixtures and redressing everything from top to bottom. And then, of course, everything had to be put back in place as quickly as possible."

[nora]

In midtown Manhattan, the offices of the New York Bar Association, located in a classic historical landmark at 44th Street, provided the ideal setting for James B. Donovan's law firm, "Watters, Cowan & Donovan", instilling a sense of old-world money and prestige.

[duane]

Abel's spy paraphernalia was not only found in his apartment, but also in a store room at another address. The reason why the FBI learned about this other address was because Abel make one enormous mistake. He was going to give a shortwave radio to his junior colleague Reino Hayhanen and, carrying the radio in a suitcase, he met with Hayhanen and the two went to a remote location to test it. The radio was broken but Abel said he had a spare. The two went to a building in Brooklyn. With Hayhanen waiting outside, Abel went in and came out with a working radio, which he gave to Hayhanen. By revealing the location of this store room, he violated a key rule of spycraft by giving critically important information to Hayhanen, who later defected and gave this location to the FBI.

[nina]

Of Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg and Kristie Macosko Krieger said respectively: "Tom is the perfect collaborator. He will try anything and he's got a thousand ideas, and is open to a thousand ideas from other people. He's this incredibly creative vessel that just wants to figure things out in a more original way" (Spielberg), and ""Watching Tom and Steven work is such a joy, such a pleasure. They are both really masters at what they do, and you can see it. They have such fluidity and a sense of ease with each other, which really brings out the best in one another." (Krieger).