Trivia / Highway to Hell

• Acting for Two: Ben Stiller played the cook and Attila the Hun.
• Harpo Does Something Funny: Ben Stiller ad-libbed much of his dialogue.
• Inspiration for the Work: Writer Brian Helgeland got the idea for the film in 1986 when he and his wife were driving to Las Vegas for a friend's wedding. They were driving through a dark deserted road when a police cruiser appeared out of nowhere and pulled them over. The cop shined his light at them and walked around the car a few times before driving off without saying a word. Helgeland turned to his wife and said, "That was a cop outta Hell".
• Real-Life Relative: Ben Stiller appears opposite his father Jerry Stiller, mother Anne Meara and sister Amy.
• The Shelf of Movie Languishment: The film was completed in 1989, but wasn't released until 1991. It didn't see a US release until 1992.
• Troubled Production: The film went through a few hiccups during shooting, namely a couple of duststorms which destroyed sets in the southwestern desert, but the real problems began in post-production. First, director Ate De Jong found himself battling with the producers over editing for the film, namely a change to the ending and the placement of a Where Are They Now text crawl explaining the fate of the protagonists. Then the film was put on The Shelf of Movie Languishment for three years while its studio, Hemdale, was going through bankruptcy proceedings, and was only screened in eight theaters when it was finally released in the U.S. in 1992.
• What Could Have Been: Originally the ending had Charlie and Rachel separate at an airport, with ambiguity of whether or not they'd get back together again.

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