Sicario - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

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

[maureen]

This was director Denis Villeneuve and cinematographer Roger Deakins' second collaboration. Their other collaborations were on Prisoners (2013) and Blade Runner 2049 (2017).

[carl]

The thermal vision shots were filmed with a FLIR SC8300 thermal vision camera; they were not added in post-production.

[bessie]

When Kate and Matt take off from Luke AFB in Glendale, Arizona, the runway is labeled "35." However, the actual runway at Luke is labeled "03" (North East) or "21" (South West).

[kristina]

Having just completed Everest (2015), an exhausted Josh Brolin turned down this film. Cinematographer Roger Deakins sent him an email imploring him to join the project. Since it was so uncharacteristic of Deakins to take this stand, Brolin changed his mind.

[claude]

Emily Blunt started filming four months after she delivered her daughter, Hazel.

[chris]

The Wild Pony bar is actually on Hwy 314 SW in Los Lunas, New Mexico, about twenty-nine miles south of Albuquerque, New Mexico and 425 miles from Tucson, Arizona, where Kate and Reggie were supposed to be.

[francisco]

Cinematographer Roger Deakins was inspired by the photography of Alex Webb, especially his "Crossings: Photographs from the U.S.-Mexico Border," published in 2003.

[tom]

This is the second time that actor Benicio Del Toro and actress Emily Blunt have worked together - the first time was on the feature film, The Wolfman (2010).

[tom]

Emily Blunt and Benicio Del Toro both appeared in The Wolfman (2010). At the end of this film, he tells her to move to a new town because this is now "a land of wolves" and she would not survive there.

[wallace]

For the sequence involving the thermal and night vision goggles (that were non-functional), a props man heated the soles of his shoes so his footprints would register more prominently throughout the length of the shot. Two systems were used: one for night vision and one for thermal imaging, in order to differentiate between the two POVs. The production only had the use of the FLIR SC8300 infrared camera for one day.

[jessica]

When discussing the score with composer Jóhann Jóhannsson, director Denis Villeneuve said he wanted the the sound of a threat. The one film Villeneuve used as a comparison was director Steven Spielberg's Jaws (1975) (music by: John Williams).

[kristen]

Josh Brolin (Thanos), Benicio Del Toro (The Collector), Daniel Kaluuya (W'Kabi), Jon Bernthal (Frank Castle/The Punisher), and Maximiliano Hernández (Agent Sitwell) are all a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Also, Emily Blunt was originally cast as Black Widow but had to pull out due to scheduling conflicts.

[kristen]

The theatrical poster for this film is nearly identical to that of Mars and April (2012). The right profile of the lead female character (Emily Blunt in one case, Caroline Dhavernas in the other) as a central, dominant figure, with the main supporting cast integrated in her silhouette. Martin Villeneuve, the director of Mars et Avril (2012), is the younger brother of Denis Villeneuve, who directed Sicario (2015). Mars et Avril (2012) came out three years prior to Sicario (2015).

[wallace]

When the team has entered the tunnel, Emily Blunt hits her head on the top of the tunnel. Director Denis Villeneuve said in an interview that he left that take in because it added realness to the mission and the film itself.

[sylvia]

Emily Blunt based Kate Macer's character on one of four female FBI agents she spoke to in preparation for the role, whom she described as "shy" and with a "loner quality" to them.

[cameron]

Director, Denis Villeneuve wanted Emily Blunt for the role after seeing her in The Young Victoria (2009).

[darrell]

While Benicio Del Toro's character is frequently silent in the movie, he initially had more lines. "In the original script, the character explained his background several times to Kate," Del Toro said. "And that gave me information about who this guy was, but it felt a little stiff to have someone you just met fifteen minutes ago suddenly telling you what happened to him and who he is." Working with director Denis Villeneuve, Del Toro began cutting some of his dialogue to preserve the mystery of who his character is; Villeneuve estimated they cut 90% of what Del Toro was originally intended to say by screenwriter Taylor Sheridan. Like Del Toro, Villeneuve saw power in stripping the character down to a brooding silence, stating that dialogue belongs to plays and "movies are about movement, character, and presence, and Benicio had all that."

[bernard]

The word "Sicario" derives from the Latin word "Sicarius," meaning "dagger man." The term was used by Romans to describe Jewish zealots who killed Roman citizens using a "sica" or small dagger hidden in their cloaks. There were so many murders in the province of Judea around the 1st Century AD that the figure of "Sicarius" was codified in Roman law ("Lex Cornelia de Sicariis et Veneficis -- Cornelian Law for Stabbers and Poisoners") of 81 AD. These words also derive from the verb "secare," which means "to slice."