The Film:
- Actor-Inspired Element: DeeTee plays a saxophone because Reg E Cathey brought his own saxophone to the audition.
- Awesome, Dear Boy: Malcolm McDowell signed on because he was getting a lot of hate mail for his work on Star Trek Generations, and wanted to do something outlandish.Rachel Talalay: "He was just delighted to come in to a movie where everything was a farce and that had the same kind of cheekiness that his whole early film career had."
- Box Office Bomb: Appropriate for its name, Tank Girl tanked. Budget, $25 million. Box office, $4,064,495.
- Completely Different Title: For the film:
- Argentina and Uruguay: The Warrior
- Greece: Steel Girl
- Romania: Water Masters
- Creator Backlash:
- Hewlett and Martin hated the experience in making this film so much that Tank Girl was put on hiatus for ten years. Hewlett noted that while other franchises metaphorically went through a sewer to break into a bank vault, they went through a bank vault to break into a sewer.
- Director Rachel Talalay was upset by the film's outcome, citing much of its failure on studio interference that was beyond her control. She was reportedly so embarrassed by the film's financial and critical failure that she couldn't talk about it for years, though has mellowed out as she became more aware of the film's cult fandom.
- Creator Killer: The producers of this film, who managed to land themselves on copyright holders Jamie Hewlett and Alan Martin's "really deep shit list" with their handling of production, all suffered a nasty dropdown in their careers when the film imploded, as did director Rachel Talalay (this was part of a line of flops for her). However, Talalay has gone on to much greater success directing TV.
- Deleted Role: Sub Girl originally played an integral part in the movie but the studio cut her role down to a cameo.
- Deleted Scene: According to Rachel Talalay, almost an hour of footage was deleted:
- An opening showing the comet crashing into Earth. Rebecca would be shown as a child, hiding in a trailer to survive, while her parents were killed.
- The original opening also featured men from Water & Power shooting an old woman who finds bottled water buried in the desert.
- Several more scenes creating a Running Gag of Sgt Small getting soaked by the waterfall curtain in the office.
- Sam and Jet Girl being shown singing in the "Let's Do It" sequence.
- More gags in the chase scene towards the end.
- The novelization shows a production still of a jubilant, laughing Tank Girl and Booga standing in a rainstorm, hinting at the original ending where Sub Girl/Rain Lady's prophecy came to pass and the rains finally returned to destroy Water and Power's hold over humanity.
- Disowned Adaptation: Original creators Jamie Hewlett and Alan Martin hated the movie. Hewlett derided the writers, claiming the script was so lousy he and Martin had to attempt rewrites to return to the comic's style and insert Grange Hill and The Benny Hill Show jokes since "they obviously weren't getting it". Martin mockingly described the result
as "fat businessmen sitting in offices arguing what's cool" destroying "the heart" of the movie. They were further angered by the fact that the producers were so incompetent they forgot to film "about ten major scenes" and had to bring the duo in to animate them instead, with Hewlett describing the result as "a horrible experience" and Martin joking that "I don't think me or Jamie have ever forgiven them, really." - Doing It for the Art: Stan Winston and his studio were so excited to work on the film that they agreed to design and create the Rippers for half-price in order to keep the film within budget.
- Dueling Works: An odd example. According to Rachel Talalay, Tommy Boy opened the same week as Tank Girl. Because of the latter's R-rating, cinema owners reported people buying tickets for Tommy Boy and sneaking into Tank Girl - so the former did better financially by statistics.
- Dyeing for Your Art:
- Lori Petty shaved her head for the lead role.
- Naomi Watts was blonde at the time, but darkened her hair to audition. As she was so broke at the time, the casting director paid for the hair appointment.
- Executive Meddling: Talalay, Hewlett, and Martin have all reported extensive studio interference in several stages of production, a large reason for why they have such negative opinions of the final product:
- Hewlett and Martin had a constant uphill battle regarding the script, with many of their attempts to preserve the quirky and punk-inspired humor being constantly vetoed by higher-ups who they felt didn't "get" it.
- A scene featuring Tank Girl and Booga reclining after sex was ordered to be cut, because of the prosthetic penis Booga was wearing.
- Another scene between Rebecca and her boyfriend was cut because her collection of dildos was shown.
- The studio also cut down a scene of Tank Girl being tortured by Kesslee because she apparently looked "too ugly" in the sequence.
- The studio cut the original ending, a live-action scene in which it begins to rain; the film was to have ended with Tank Girl burping.
- The Foreign Subtitle:
- Brazil: Tank Girl, Detonating the Future
- Portugal: Tank Girl: A Woman of Weapons
- Franchise Killer: Hewlett and Martin protested this movie by stopping production on their comic when it tanked; they didn't pick it up again for another decade.
- Missing Trailer Scene: The theatrical trailer shows some deleted scenes and extra lines of dialogue;
- One of the Rippers crashes through the window of Water & Power flyer and kills the pilot.
- Kesslee saying "Talented, isn't she?" to Sargent Small while they are watching Rebecca and Jet talking inside the tank.
- Kesslee saying "What's it like, knowing you're about to die?" to Rebecca during their final fight and she responds by saying "You tell me!" while swinging at him.
- Money, Dear Boy: Ice-T was apparently paid $800,000 for second billing and a role that doesn't even appear for the first hour of the movie.
- The Other Marty: Emily Lloyd was originally going to play Tank Girl, but got fired from the part because she refused to shave her head.
- Promoted Fanboy: Rachel Talalay had become a big fan of the original comic while directing Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare, and waited for a whole year to get the film rights. Talalay was heavily insistent on capturing the tone and aesthetic of the comics as accurately as possible, pushing to have original co-creators Alan Martin and Jamie Hewlett involved in maintaining the script, and was just as disappointed when the studio began interfering with things without their consent.
- Star-Derailing Role: Lori Petty had built up some good momentum with well-received performances in A League of Their Own and Free Willy. After this tanked, she quickly disappeared from the mainstream. She did achieve some Career Resurrection by starring in Orange Is the New Black and directing The Poker House.
- Throw It In!: Lori Petty states she improvised a fair bit of the dialogue.
- Troubled Production: MGM were insisting on numerous changes and holding even more test screenings. When the director refused, the studio took the movie away from her and had it directed and re-edited by the people involved in marketing. This plus the failure to film several scenes enraged the creators of the comic, Hewlett and Martin, who canceled it for a decade after the end result of the production tanked.
- What Could Have Been:
- Posh Spice, Baby Spice, Ginger Spice and Gwen Stefani each tried out for the role of Tank Girl.
- Rachel Tallahay wanted Joan Chen for Jet Girl. Courtney Love was offered the role of Jet Girl, but backed out when her husband Kurt Cobain committed suicide. She did work on the soundtrack.
- At one time or another, Steven Spielberg and James Cameron both expressed interest in directing. Spielberg was flattered to be offered the job, but didn't think he was hip enough. This led to a slogan that the film was "Too Hip for Spielberg". An executive for James Cameron's company turned the film down because "we already have a film with a female lead."
- Björk was offered the role Sub Girl. She later dropped out, her character's scenes were re-written, and the role was then given to Ann Cusack.
- One band they wanted for the soundtrack was little-known act named Green Day. During production, they got so big that they could no longer afford them.
