Trivia / Escape to Victory

• Awesome, Dear Boy: John Huston couldn't care less about football, but he liked the opportunity of directing Michael Caine.
• Cast the Expert: Other than Sylvester Stallone and Michael Caine, the rest of the allied players (that play in the game) are actual soccer stars from various countries around the world, mostly from the 1970s and 80s. Some of them perform the "tricks" that they were famous for, such as Pelé with a bicycle kick.
• Creator Backlash: For Sylvester Stallone. He enjoyed meeting Pelé, but would like to erase the film from his memory.
• Creator's Apathy: John Huston had never watched a soccer match and left the direction of that part of the movie to the second unit entirely. He also left early and went to his trailer while Hatch's night escape from the camp was still being filmed, which Stallone didn't find out until he finished shooting.
• Dyeing for Your Art: Sylvester Stallone lost about forty pounds for the film because he didn't want a prisoner of war to look like an "Olympic boxer", and he felt he needed that weight reduction to perform the tasks of a soccer goalie.
• Fake Nationality:
  • Most Allied players share their nationality with their actors, for a change. The exceptions are Pelé's character Luis Fernandez, who is from Trinidad, and Argentinian Osvaldo Ardiles playing Carlos Rey, who is French (but likely of Spanish descent given his name).
  • Most German named characters, as usual, are played by non-German actors. Mostly British and American with the exceptions of Max von Sydow (Swedish), Arthur Brass (German), and George Mikell (Lithuanian).
  • Most members of the French Resistance are played by French actors, but Carole Laure is Quebecois and Zoltán Gera was Hungarian (though his character Viktor could be a Hungarian emigré).
• Hostility on the Set: At least according to rumor, Huston didn't enjoy working with Stallone.
• No Stunt Double: Played with. Although Paul Cooper (Ipswich Town's goalie at the time) was used as a double for Sylvester Stallone in some of the match scenes, Stallone insisted on doing some of them himself — and ended up with a dislocated shoulder and a broken finger for his troubles.
• Reality Subtext: Despite being inspired by story that happened in Ukraine, the film has no reference whatsoever to Ukraine or the Soviet Union. Rather, the fact that the emaciated players are said to be from Poland and Czechoslovakia can be taken as a jab against the then existing Warsaw Pact.
• Wag the Director:
  • Reportedly, Sylvester Stallone didn't think it would be that hard to play goalkeeper at first, so he demanded to do all scenes with No Stunt Double and also ignored the advice given to him by Paul Cooper. This resulted in Stallone injuring his shoulder on the first shoot, after which he quickly changed his tune.
  • Stallone then insisted that his character score the game-winning goal, as he felt he was the biggest star in the film. The non-American crew was ultimately able to convince him of the absurdity of the goalkeeper scoring the winning goal, and the penalty shot was specifically written to placate his ego.
• What Could Have Been:
  • The movie was originally slated to star Lloyd Bridges and Clint Eastwood. Alain Delon was also touted to appear.
  • Roger Moore considered accepting the role of Captain John Colby.
  • The original draft of the script was a serious drama, based on the true story of a group of allied POWs challenged to a football match by the Germans. The deal was that if the Germans won the match, the POWs would be set free in Switzerland. However if the POWs won, they would be shot. The POWs decided to go for 'victory', won the match and were consequently executed.
  • Before Stallone agreed to not make the winning goal, it was planned to have Hatch run and dribble all the way from his own goal to the other, like Pelé's character jokes about on the chalkboard.