The Great Wall - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

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

[sara]

Not knowing the entire Yimou Zhang filmography, the following might be considered director's trademark or intentionally linking this movie and Hero (2002). They both start with an introductory text ending with the sentence, "This is one of the legends." Also, the main character of Hero is called Nameless, and the army in The Great Wall is called Nameless Order. Among other common points is the use of colors to separate characters/stories.

[toni]

The beasts in this film are called the Tao Tei, named after an evil fiend in Chinese mythology. Here they are represented as alien beings.

[linda]

The belief that the Great Wall of China is the only manmade structure on Earth that can be seen by the naked eye from the International Space Station is only a myth.

[scarlett]

This was the most expensive Chinese film ever, with a budget of $135 million and, due to the huge amount of crew involved, had over 100 translators.

[scarlett]

Matt Damon and Andy Lau both started in a movie where they're both gang members infiltrating the police force. Andy Lau was a senior inspector for the Hong Kong police working as a mole for the Triads in Infernal Affairs (2002). Matt Damon started in the American remake The Departed (2006) as sergeant of the Massachusetts State police working as a mole for the Irish mob.

[steve]

This was Andy Lau's first Hollywood movie.

[kyle]

The filmmakers were denied permission to film on the actual Great Wall, so the locations were added digitally.

[kylie]

A majority of the movie was filmed in China, with some scenes shot in New Zealand.

[carla]

When William (Matt Damon) was asked if he had been left behind before, he replied, "Yes. Twice before. And it didn't end well for them." This is an homage to his previous films Interstellar (2014) and The Martian (2015), in both of which he was left behind on other planets and the expedition went wrong.

[scarlett]

Benjamin Walker was cast for a role in the film but dropped out.

[leo]

The Nameless Order is not nameless.

[wallace]

The poster says the Great Wall took 1,700 years to build. This is technically accurate, since it was actually constructed as a series of several walls built separately over that time by various ruling dynasties. Each new wall section built by any single ruler would take approximately ten to 20 years to construct.

[norma]

Matt Damon and his family spent nearly half a year in China during filming.

[carla]

Edward Zwick was set to direct at one point, with Henry Cavill to star.

[kylie]

James Horner was contracted to write a score to this movie before his death.

[ray]

In the first battle against the tao tei, the Spaniard Tovar uses a red cape, much as would a matador in a bullfight in Spain.

[chad]

The colored mountains in the film are real. They can be seen in Zhangye in the northwest region of China.

[frederick]

For his role as an archer, Matt Damon was trained in Hungary by Lajos Kassai, a world-champion archer.

[bessie]

Bryan Cranston was in early talks for the role of Ballard.