Trivia / Pearl Harbor

• Bloopers:
  • The building in the background of one scene with "EST 1953" painted on the side.
  • In one shot, the USS Arizona memorial is visible.
  • In the stock footage used, an M26 Pershing, a tank that wasn't to be seen in the war until 1945, is seen.
  • In the shot of Cuba Gooding Jr. running at the sound of the alarm on his ship, the cameraman can clearly be seen stepping into view as the shot pans to the right.
  • Catapult shuttle tracks are seen in the Hornet's flight deck when the B-25s are launching for the Doolittle Raid.
• Cast the Runner-Up: Matt Damon was originally supposed to play Danny Walker, but was unavailable. He did make a cameo as a gunner.
• Creator Backlash:
  • Michael Bay's least favorite shot in the movie is the cutaway during the Doolittle Raid to the Japanese women turning and seeing the attack in the distance. On the DVD Commentary, he admits he has no idea why this shot is in the movie or what he was trying to achieve in shooting it.
  • Pretty much everyone associated with the film have since distanced themselves from it following its dismal critical reception.
  • Bay has gone to pin much of the blame for the film's fictional love triangle on screenwriter Randall Wallace, maintaining that his original vision was much closer to a spiritual remake of Tora! Tora! Tora! made with modern visual effects.
• Creator Killer: This film's poor reception along with the box office failure of Atlantis: The Lost Empire made Disney Studios chairman and Disney animation alumni, Peter Schneider step down from his post to form his own theatre production company.
• Dawson Casting: A minor example. Admiral Yamamoto was 57 at the time of the events depicted, while Mako was 68 at the time of the film's release.
• Doing It for the Art: Bay and Jerry Bruckheimer agreed to give up $4 million in salaries in return for a cut of the profits to get the budget down. The film's stars also took a drop in salaries in return for a cut of the profits for the same reason.
• Executive Meddling:
  • Touchstone Pictures insisted on a PG-13 rating. This meant that even the non-bloody deaths had to be rushed, thus killing a lot of potential drama. The Director's Cut DVD includes all of the cut gore.
  • Word of God suggests that the Romantic Plot Tumor and many historical mistakes were against the wishes of Michael Bay, who wanted to do something more along the lines of Tora! Tora! Tora!. That said, Mr. Bay never misses an opportunity to blow something up with a spectacular fireball.
  • The addition of the Doolittle raid was also a mandate by Touchstone, against the wishes of producer Jerry Bruckheimer.
• Fake American: Kate Beckinsale. Also Canadian-born Dan Aykroyd as the signals analyst and Englishman Peter Firth as Captain Mervyn S Bennion, the commanding officer of the USS West Virginia.
• Follow the Leader: Titanic (1997) with regards to the love story set to the backdrop of a famed historical disaster and Saving Private Ryan when it comes to a resurge of interest in films about World War II.
• Font Anachronism: The ticker-tape coded messages Capt. Thurman reads is printed out in Helvetica.
• Genre-Killer: The film is often pointed towards as the death-knell of the very specific subgenre of "absurdly big-budget love story used to chronicle a historical disaster" started by Titanic.
• Irony as She Is Cast: Despite playing a pilot, Ben Affleck is afraid of flying.
• Method Acting:
  • Michael Bay went through a lot of effort to avoid CGI and have the actors actually flying the planes (to an extent). Ben Affleck, Josh Hartnett and Alec Baldwin were all given basic flight training so they could handle the planes. To get the shots of the actors in the pilot seat, the 'real' pilot would just pilot the plane to the desired destination and switch seats with the actor.
  • Jon Voight wore duplicates of steel leg braces that the real Franklin D. Roosevelt used while filming. He suffered from chafing and bruising for weeks after finishing the film.
• On-Set Injury: A stunt plane dressed like a Japanese fighter crashed during a flight over the set. The pilot survived the crash escaping serious injuries.
• Suspiciously Similar Song: No, Faith Hill is not singing a country music cover of "My Heart Will Go On."
• What Could Have Been:
  • According to Michael Fassbender, this was the first film he ever auditioned for.
  • Jim Caviezel was considered for Rafe.
  • Gwyneth Paltrow was the first choices to play Evelyn, but couldn't commit to filming. Charlize Theron turned down the role in order to star in Sweet November.
  • Wes Bentley and Ashton Kutcher tried out for Danny.
  • Kevin Costner turned down the role of Col. James P. Doolittle. He actually looks a lot more like the real Doolittle than Alec Baldwin does.
  • Gene Hackman turned down the role of President Roosevelt.
  • Adrien Brody was considered for the role of Red Winkle, but he turned it down because he felt it was too small.
  • Rafe and Danny's love interest was originally Hawaiian before Kate Beckinsale was cast, and the character was rewritten as an American nurse.
• Working Title: The script was originally called Tennessee.

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