Trivia / Midnight Run

• Actor-Inspired Element: The idea to have Jack Walsh continually checking his watch, and the whole back-story related to his habit, was all Robert De Niro's own idea.
• California Doubling: The scene where John Mardukas falls off a cliff was shot in the Salt River Canyon in eastern Arizona. However, the conclusion of the scene, the shots of Mardukas and Jack Walsh crashing through the river rapids, was shot in New Zealand because the water was too cold in Arizona.
• Completely Different Title:
  • Estonia: Night Escape
  • Greece: The Persecutor of Midnight
  • Hungary: Night Rush
  • Italy: Before Midnight
  • Lithuania: Going Out at Night
  • Norway: Race with Time
  • Poland: Make It Before Midnight
• Enforced Method Acting: In the scene where Walsh and Mardukas are on the freight train, Martin Brest told Charles Grodin to get Robert De Niro to laugh, and Grodin came up with the line "You ever have sex with an animal, Jack?", which did the trick.
• The Foreign Subtitle:
  • Germany: Midnight Run: 5 Days to Midnight
• Leslie Nielsen Syndrome: A proto-example in Robert De Niro's career. While Jack Walsh is still a tough-guy character along the lines of many of De Niro's previous characters, both the character and the movie were more comedic than De Niro was previously known for.
• Missing Trailer Scene: The theatrical trailer for the film shows several scenes which were not included in the final cut. For example, shortly after Jack has captured Jonathan for the first time, there is a scene where they are driving down a city street at night, and Mardukas tries to escape from the car, causing Jack to point his gun at Mardukas and tell him to make himself comfortable, to which Mardukas responds "I'm very comfortable." Another scene involves Jack, Jonathan and Marvin in the car trying to escape from the helicopter, and Jack turns around and yells "They're gaining on us," to which Mardukas responds "Of course they're gaining on us, they're in a helicopter." A third scene occurs when Jack and Mardukas get the lift from the Native Americans, and as they are traveling along the road, a Native American asks them if they travel a lot, to which Jack and Mardukas look knowingly at one another.
• On-Set Injury: Charles Grodin was left with permanent scars on his wrists from spending so much time in handcuffs.
• Playing Against Type: Having just completed The Untouchables, Robert De Niro decided to take on a comedic role. He was originally going to star in Big, but that didn't pan out. It's played with a bit, however, since Jack Walsh is still in many ways the kind of surly tough guy that De Niro had become famous for playing; the key difference was that that the situations that he found himself in were largely played for comedy rather than drama, allowing him to demonstrate more wit and humor about things.
• Recycled: The Series: Three TV continuations (starring Christopher McDonald as Jack) were made for the Universal Action Pack.
• Throw It In!: The famous "Litmus Configuration" scene was mostly improvised.
• What Could Have Been: Paramount originally owned the rights to the film and they suggested that John Mardukas be a woman and be played by Cher, believing that it would lend "sexual overtones" to her relationship with Jack. They then suggested Robin Williams, who read and liked the script, and agreed to audition. In the meantime, however, Brest had auditioned the little-known Charles Grodin and had liked Grodin's interaction with De Niro. As such, Brest cast Grodin without auditioning Williams, and Paramount decided to drop out of the project, selling the rights to Universal, who went ahead with the De Niro/Grodin casting.
  • Jeff Bridges, Charles Bronson, Michael Douglas, Clint Eastwood, Harrison Ford, Richard Gere, Mel Gibson, Gene Hackman, Dustin Hoffman, Tommy Lee Jones, Michael Keaton, Jack Nicholson, Ryan O'Neal, Al Pacino, Kurt Russell, Burt Reynolds, Mickey Rourke, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, John Travolta and Jon Voight were considered for Jack Walsh.
  • Albert Brooks, Chevy Chase^note He was busy filming Funny Farm and Caddyshack II, Steve Martin, Bill Murray, and Bruce Willis were considered for Jonathan "the duke" Mardukas.
  • Alec Baldwin, Dennis Hopper, Harvey Keitel, Ray Liotta, and Ron Perlman were considered for Jimmy Serrano.
  • John Candy and John Goodman were considered for Marvin Dorfler.
  • Originally, Marvin was supposed to die near the end of the movie, but the studio, along with Martin Brest and George Gallo, decided the character was too likable to be killed off and Gallo rewrote the script so that Marvin shows up at the airport during the climax of the movie.
• Write What You Know: George Gallo says that he based the relationship between Jack and the Duke on his own parents. "I don't think they ever realized how funny they were when they were arguing about something," he said. "My father was very emotional whereas my mother was far more calculating. She would let him talk and lead him down alleys and then strike like a cat."

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