Flip-Flop of God: During filming of the movie, Rob Lowe asked SE Hinton what happened to Sodapop later, and she said he would get drafted to Vietnam and die. Years later on Twitter however, she said she didn't view that as canon, and said that was merely something to help him get into character.
Rule 34 – Creator Reactions: As stated on the YMMV page, S.E. Hinton may not be homophobic, but she can get hostile if anyone mentions their sexuality headcanons for her characters, particularly Ponyboy and Johnny. It has been reported that she even blocks some people on Twitter for calling her attention to the amount of Slash Fic there is for The Outsiders.
Staff-Created Fan Work: S. E. Hinton published multiple anonymous fanfictions based on her own novel.
Write What You Know: SE Hinton had a greaser friend when she was fifteen, who one day got badly beaten up at school, and she was so upset about it she began to write the book.
Actor-Inspired Element: Emilio Estevez approached his character as a laid-back guy and thought up Two-Bit's interest in Mickey Mouse, shown by his uniform of Mickey Mouse T-shirts and watching of cartoons.
Approval of God: S. E. Hinton loved the film and was heavily involved in production. The teenage cast thought of her as a Team Mom on set and she fondly remembers them calling her "mom."
Blooper: Dallas falling out of the chair at the drive-in was an unscripted accident. Ponyboy looks at the camera briefly, expecting Coppola to say "cut" but they kept rolling.
Tom Cruise auditioned for Sodapop Curtis, Darrel Curtis, Randy Anderson and Dally Winston before being cast as Steve Randle.
Rob Lowe also auditioned for Randy, but did not want to play a Soc - so he actually considered lowering his performance level in the audition to seem like a better fit for Sodapop.
Creator Recovery: Francis Ford Coppola had been reeling from the disaster that was One from the Heart, which was his worst flop and went Direct to Video when he pulled it from theatres after only a week. When a group of school children sent him a letter asking him to adapt The Outsiders, he read the book and immediately wanted to make the movie.
The actors playing the Socs were given preferential treatment and better accommodation, while the actors playing the Greasers had to stay on the ground floor - all in the name of creating tension between them.
Otherwise defied by Matt Dillon. Francis Ford Coppola suggested he spend a night in jail to help him understand Dallas. Dillon balked at that idea and thus it didn't happen.
Fatal Method Acting: A near-miss. During filming of the church fire, Francis Ford Coppola requested "more fire" and this unfortunately triggered a larger and almost uncontrollable blaze. A sudden downpour managed to put it out.
While Ponyboy and Johnny are best friends in the novel and film, C. Thomas Howell recalls often not getting along with Ralph Macchio, saying he was very serious and professional. He remembers a specific argument dealing with him wanting to beat his high score on Pacman and Macchio demanding they rehearsed their lines. Their differences could be attributed to the fact that Howell was only 16 years old and Macchio was 20 years old at the time.
In the film, Dallas harasses Cherry and the two have an altercation. The scene was shot early in filming, and Matt Dillon and Diane Lane recalled years later that it got them off on the wrong foot and created real tension between them off set, which is why their irritability with each other in the scene seems very real. When the cast reunited in 2003 for the 20th anniversary, the men laughed when Lane told them about this, all agreeing that they remembered the ongoing feud between her and Dillon. Lane blames her adolescent insecurities for being so sensitive to Dillon's teasing. She also admitted that she remembers fondly how protective he and the other boys were of her. Dillon and Lane ended up shooting two other films together, both of which they are each other's love interest, and became good friends.
The Production Curse: Several actors from the sequel TV series died very young: Rodney Harvey (Sodapop) at age 30 from a cocaine and heroine overdose, Harold Pruett (Steve Randle) at age 32 from a drug overdose, and Kim Walker (Cherry Valance) at age 32 from a brain tumor.
The first scene shot between Diane Lane and Matt Dillon was the one where Dallas harasses Cherry. The tension between them is very real and Lane claims the scene got them off on the wrong foot. However they played love interests in two later movies and became good friends.
Diane Lane also had a massive crush on Leif Garrett, lending credence to her scenes with Bob.
The first punch that Ponyboy gets in the rumble scene was real and actually knocked C Thomas Howell out.
Johnny and Ponyboy's arguments had some real life basis, as their actors did not get on during filming. It's understandable when you think the age difference was twenty one and fourteen respectively.
The hat that Two-Bit finds in Johnny's backyard? Belonged to a crew member who lost it when a fan blew it off his head.
Matt Dillon ad-libbed the line "You'll never get me alive."
When Dallas falls out of his chair at the drive-in, it was completely accidental, and Ponyboy looks briefly at the camera while laughing.
Tom Cruise decided that he would be eating chocolate cake in the background of one scene. Unfortunately he had to keep eating the cake for continuity reasons as they filmed the rest of the scene.
In the poster for the film, the Greasers are shown laughing as Johnny is smirking. This was a candid shot, taken during the photo session in which the actors were supposed to look tough at the camera. What happened was that Leif Garrett (Bob, the Soc) was approaching the food table off-camera, and a stagehand (who did not know who Garrett was) said, "The food is for the talent (meaning the actors)," and Ralph Macchio sarcastically said, "Yeah, it's for the TALENT!" This comment cracked up the cast, and the photo was used.
Val Kilmer was offered the role of Ponyboy, but he turned it down because of a theatrical commitment. Presumably, the play in question was The Slab Boys which co-starred Kevin Bacon and Sean Penn. Supposedly, had Kilmer pulled out the play would have shut down and everyone involved would have lost their jobs. Anthony Michael Hall also auditioned for the role.
Nicolas Cage auditioned for the role of either Darry or Dallas. He did some Method Acting for the part by locking himself in a room for two weeks, drinking beer and staring at a photograph of Charles Bronson, hoping that the physical and mental attitude of playing a thug would rub off on him. Francis Ford Coppola turned him down and told him to audition for the part of Two-Bit, but Cage was so fed up at this point from all his hard work being in vain, that he walked away from the project.
Word of God: According to SE Hinton, in the restored cut where Sodapop runs away, the piece of paper he's holding is a "Dear John" Letter from Sandy - whom he had hoped to marry. Sandy had cheated on Soda and gotten pregnant, so she moved to Florida to live with her grandmother.
