Trivia / Salt

• Fake Russian: Deep Cover Agent stuff aside, we have an enforced case with Orlov. Andrei Konchalovsky told director Philip Noyce that such an evil Russian character could only be played by a Polish actor.
• Life Imitates Art: Just as the film was being released, real-life cases of sleeper agents implanted in the US were brought to light with a prisoner exchange between Russia and the US, some of the prisoners being undercover spies. The plots and skills of the real sleeper agents were less impressive than the ones in the film.
• No Stunt Double: Angelina Jolie did most of her own stunts.
• Viral Marketing: The film's producers ran a multi-week game where the player, being a rookie agent, is given the choice to assist Salt or turn her over to the government. If the player turned her over, the game ended. If the player helped her, she used the player to assist her in eliminating other, deep-cover agents. After the last episode, she then had the player trapped in an abandoned warehouse and then called the player's superior officer, who came and picked up the agent, presumably for arrest and punishment. The premise of the game was the rookie agent unwittingly helped her (a Russian deep-cover mole) while thinking she was actually being framed for the crime.
• What Could Have Been:
  • The movie was originally written with Salt as a male (Edwin A. Salt), and Tom Cruise was approached to play him. Ultimately, he felt it was too similar to the Mission: Impossible Film Series and backed out. The script was rewritten with a female lead when Angelina Jolie came on board.
  • Michael Mann and Peter Berg came close to directing at one point or another.

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