Trivia / Assault on Precinct 13 (1976)

• Dawson Casting: Reference is made to "the juvenile gang problem", and Street Thunder is further referred to as a "youth gang", yet all its members appear to be much older.
• Mid-Development Genre Shift: John Carpenter had hoped to make a Howard Hawks-style Western like El Dorado or Rio Lobo, but when the $100,000 budget prohibited it, Carpenter refashioned the basic scenario of Rio Bravo into a modern setting.
• No Budget: The film had a very small budget of $100,000. In fact, its copyright owner is the "CKK Corporation" (which is short for the initials of John Carpenter and co-producers J.S. Kaplan and Joseph Kaufman, who financed the film out of their own pockets).
• Referenced by...
  • The French movie The Nest can be seen as tribute to this movie.
  • In From Dusk Till Dawn (which has a similar The Siege premise after a lengthy Developing Doomed Characters) Scott's t-shirt reads "Precinct 13".
  • The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes. The episode "Assault on 42" has the superheroes aligning with the inmates of a prison for supervillains to fight off The Swarm of Insectoid Aliens attacking the prison.
  • Angel. While waiting to fight off an attack on the Hyperion Hotel, Wesley and Gunn discuss what action hero they feel like imitating. Wes likes John Wayne in Rio Bravo while Gunn prefers Austin Stoker (Lt. Bishop) in Assault on Precinct 13. Cordelia tells them to sell their DVD players and get a life.
  • The Punisher (2017) episode "Trouble the Water" uses the premise with Frank Castle as the prisoner let out of his cell to fight the bad guys, who are after Frank and the young girl he's protecting. Once he's allowed to do his thing, Frank doesn't need much help.

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