Trivia

Kurt Russell agreed to do the film without reading the script.

The title Vanilla Sky was considered for Cameron Crowe’s previous movie, Almost Famous. The original title for Almost Famous was actually “Untitled”, however Dreamworks would not allow this, so Cameron Crowe titled the bootleg edition of Almost Famous on DVD “Untitled”.

The scene with Tom Cruise alone in Times Square is not computer enhanced. The production was given unprecedented permission to shut down Times Square for one Sunday. At the time, the news ticker was providing updates on the Bush-Gore election. To avoid dating the film, Crowe got permission to change the NASDAQ sign in post-production.

Penélope Cruz also starred in Open Your Eyes, of which this film is a remake.

To Kill a Mockingbird is one of director Cameron Crowe’s all time favorite films and is prominently featured in Vanilla Sky. Also, at the beginning of Almost Famous, Crowe’s previous work, William Miller and his mother are having a discussion about Atticus Finch, the protagonist of “To Kill a Mockingbird.”

Cameron Crowe says that there are 428 references to pop culture made in the film – 429 if you include one made in error.

Early in the film, David’s car’s inspection sticker reads “2/30/01″.

The sticker on David’s car reads 2/30/01, a fictional date. On the commentary, Cameron Crowe says that it was an accident, although it lead to one of the different interpretations of the story.

Studio executives wanted Cameron Crowe to use special effects to remove shots of the World Trade Center after the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001. Crowe didn’t remove them, and they appear in several shots of New York.

The photo on the magazine cover that the editor keeps asking David’s opinion on, (white letters or yellow letters) is of Izabella Miko, taken from the “Girls of Coyote Ugly” issue of Maxim.

Cameo: [Steven Spielberg] A guest at David’s birthday party (wearing a Pre-Crime cap from Minority Report. (Spielberg and Cruise were preparing to begin filming “Minority Report” at that time)

The song “I Fall Apart” on the soundtrack is credited to ‘Julianna Gianni’ – the name of Cameron Diaz’s character – and is actually performed by Diaz.

In David’s bedroom, there is a poster for Jules and Jim, a French movie in which the climactic scene involves the female star driving a car with her and her lover off a bridge. Other connections to Jules and Jim in Vanilla Sky include the brief freeze-frames interspersed in the love scene between Penélope Cruz and Tom Cruise (a technique made famous by François Truffaut’s direction of Jules and Jim) and the fact that the plot centers around two men in love with the same woman. David also has a poster for Breathless, for which Truffaut wrote the story.

During David’s birthday party, someone comments on a guitar in a glass case. They state “Danny Bramson gave it to him for his birthday last year”. Danny Bramson is the music supervisor for this film.

The Monet painting which gives the film its title and which is seen during David’s birthday party is the Seine at Argenteuil, 1873.

In the scenes with McCabe interviewing David in the prison cell, the word DREAM can be seen written backwards on a blackboard in the background.

During the pop culture montage scene towards the end of the movie a picture of Nancy Wilson from Heart (and Cameron Crowe’s wife) can be seen.

In the series of still frames at the end of the film, for one frame you see Billy Crudup as Russell Hammond, from Cameron Crowe’s previous film, Almost Famous.

During the pop culture montage scene towards the end of the movie, a picture of Cameron Crowe’s sister leaving home (curlers and all) is seen. This event is shown in Almost Famous.

During the pop culture montage at the end of the film, there is a quick shot of a picture of Patrick Fugit and Kate Hudson that was taken from Cameron Crowe’s previous film, Almost Famous.

Tara Lipinski was auditioning for a part in The Banger Sisters when she stopped by the set. Crowe saw her and offered her a cameo in the movie. She improvised a scene with Cameron Diaz. She had to stand on a box to get closer to Diaz’s height since Lipinski is 5’1″ and Diaz is 5’9″. The scene didn’t make the US version but can still be seen in the international versions of the movie.

During the quick montage of stills at the very end of the film, one of the shots (which lasts for only one frame) is of Dr. Pomerantz, David Aames’s plastic surgeon (played by Armand Schultz), flipping the bird at the camera.

The name of Kurt Russell’s character, McCabe, was inspired by Nancy Wilson’s first solo album, “Live at McCabe’s Guitar Shop”. ‘Nancy Wilson’ is the wife of Cameron Crowe.

A short scene of Björk’s video “Big Time Sensuality” can be seen in the movie in a vision sequence Tom Cruise has.

The large portrait of David’s “father”, seen at the party is actually a portrait of the contemporary artist Robert Rauschenberg.

David Aames’ birthday is 22 September 1968.

The song at the end (on the roof of the skyscraper) is called “Njósnavélin” (a.k.a. “The Nothing Song”) by the Icelandic band Sigur Rós. During the series of random still frames at the end of the film, one of these is an over-exposed picture of the band Sigur Rós.

Cameron Crowe and Tom Cruise both tried to persuade legendary director Billy Wilder to make an appearance in the film, but he declined.

Sofia’s line, “I’ll tell you in another life, when we are both cats” was a phrase actually uttered spontaneously in a moment of frustration by Penélope Cruz to Cameron Crowe.

Michael Keaton, Harrison Ford, and Alec Baldwin were all considered for the role of Dr. Curtis McCabe.

According to Cameron Crowe’s commentary, there are 4 different interpretations of the ending.

#1 is that tech support is telling the truth, that 150 years have passed since David Aames killed himself, and that everything after his passing out on the sidewalk was a dream.

#2 is the entire movie was a dream, as evidenced by the sticker on David’s car that reads ’2/30/01′.

#3 is the idea that the movie takes place with David’s Coma.

#4 is Cameron Crowe’s own idea, that it is the novel that Brian was working on.

In the opening Times Square dream sequence, the brief video seen on one of the building monitors shows a man rushing a judge on the bench, and being pulled away by two men. This is a portion of an episode of the Twilight Zone episode “Shadow Play”, where Dennis Weaver’s character knows that he’s in a dream, that none of what’s happening is real, and that none of the people in the dream really exist.

When David is arrested, the plaque on his photo lineup reads “W85N 494 T85 4R51M 253OM5 1 N978TM1R5?” Some elementary code-breaking reveals “WHEN DID THE DREAM BECOME A NIGHTMARE?”. There are two other coded messages (mentioned on Crowe’s commentary) on the 3D X-Ray of David Aames’ skull. To the lower left of the skull it reads “4ON0TW1K589MUP” = “Do not wake him up.” To the lower right there is the message, “PL: 51S1NT 4R51MS”, or “Pleasant Dreams”.

Cameron Crowe featured “number stations” (the infamous short-wave radio stations that transmit coded messages) from the CD set The Conet Project in the film.