Planet Terror - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

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

[michele]

The appearance of Bruce Willis in a minor role is a subtle nod to an old marketing trick often employed by Grindhouse makers. They would contract a big-name movie star to appear in their movie for one day, for a few frontal shots only, while the rest of the scenes were done with a double filmed from the back. A picture of the big star would then be placed prominently on the movie's poster in order to boost sales. (Example: Bruce Willis' character of Lieutenant Muldoon is never in the same frame with the other actors, indicating that all of his scenes were filmed separately.)

[michele]

The original title for Planet Terror was "Project Terror".

[gabriel]

In the scene in the hospital when Dakota is called on by her husband Dr. Bill Block to bring the needles there is a brief shot of her notepad which reads: "To do / Cereal for Tony / Crickets for Tony's pets / Kill Bill" - the latter of course a reference to Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill" films.

[mathew]

Rose McGowan has mysophobia (fear of germs) and had to have the stripper pole sanitized before doing her dance routine.

[chris]

While on set, Robert Rodriguez would play the soundtracks from Escape from New York (1981) and The Thing (1982) to set the mood for the movie.

[maureen]

Robert Rodriguez found the scene where Dr. Dakota Block leaves son Tony in the car with a gun to be so chilling to film, he didn't want to use anyone else's children to play Tony, so he used his own son, Rebel Rodriguez, so he wouldn't feel as bad "killing a child".

[darrell]

Robert Rodriguez specifically wrote the part of Dakota for Marley Shelton after working with her on Sin City (2005).

[jamie]

The scene where Dakota jumps out of the window and lands on top of the trash cans was filmed twice, the first shot had a stunt double falling onto a crash mat from the original height and the second had her falling onto the trash cans from a scaffolding at a lower height. A car driving by was put in to disguise the switch.

[chris]

Both Rose McGowan and Marley Shelton have had roles in the Scream franchise.

[jesse]

In the scene, at the beginning of the movie, in the strip club, Cherry is zipping up the boot of her right leg when she says "I need a dramatic change in my life". Her right leg is also the same leg which is later amputated.

[toni]

John Carpenter, who composes the scores to his own films, was originally chosen to compose the score to Planet Terror. Robert Rodriguez ended up taking over the job as composer instead, though excerpts from Carpenter's Escape from New York (1981) score would appear throughout the film.

[clayton]

Felix Sabates, who plays Dr. Felix, is a real doctor and is Robert Rodriguez's personal physician.

[kylie]

Robert Rodriguez first came up with the idea for Planet Terror while making The Faculty (1998). He told Elijah Wood and Josh Hartnett that zombie movies were about to come back in a major way. He wanted to be there first when it happened so he prepared a script. But he only got as far as 30 pages before he got stuck for ideas. And when he got attached to other projects, the zombie craze happened just as he predicted. Rodriguez later commented, "I knew I should've made my zombie movie."

[jim]

Planet Terror is also the second film in which both Freddy Rodriguez and Stacy Ferguson, a.k.a. Fergie, appear, but not together in the same scene. The first film was Wolfgang Petersen's Poseidon (2006). Just as in Poseidon, both characters died violently.

[scarlett]

Rose McGowan played the role of Tatum Riley in Scream who was the younger sister of David Arquette's Dewey Riley. Marley Shelton appeared in Scream 4 as Deputy Judy Hicks, who has a crush on Dewey whose now the Sheriff. Coincidentally, Michael Biehn played Corporal Hicks in Aliens.

[tammy]

A box of Great White Bites cereal can be seen in Dr. Block's kitchen. This fictional cereal can also be seen in Rodriguez' kids film, Shorts (2009).

[miriam]

The "machine-gun leg" effect was pulled off by putting a cast on Rose McGowan's leg to keep it stiff and wrapping green first aid tape around it. A gray wrap was sometimes used.

[chris]

Jeff Fahey (J.T.) And Naveen Andrews (Abby) both star in the hit television series Lost (2004-2010).

[duane]

Partly to avoid traumatizing his son Rebel Rodriguez with knowledge of his disturbing death scene, Robert Rodriguez shot several scenes with Tony surviving all the way to the end of the movie. Some of this is seen on the DVD, but apparently the only complete edit with this footage is a private copy of the Rodriguez family's.