Trivia

Loosely based on Xenophon's "Anabasis", the account of an army of Greek mercenaries who, after aligning themselves with Cyrus the Younger in the battle of Cunaxa (401 BC) in his attempt to seize the Persian throne, found themselves isolated behind Persian enemy lines.

James Remar earned his role as Ajax after becoming so involved in the audition reading of the park bench scene, that he lifted the massive table around which the director and producers were seated.

Vermin was scripted to be killed by the Lizzies but Terry Michos who played Vermin made his character more comical to make it more memorable and get more on-screen appearances in the movie, which worked and the death scene was taken out.

Newcomers were cast to create the feel of "real people caught in dangerous situations". The cast felt like they were a gang before filming started. James Remar even spent time in Coney Island so he could observe real individuals to base his portrayal of Ajax on.

There were always crowds of spectators during filming, even at 3am in the freezing cold.

When the fictitious Turnbull ACs visited a hamburger joint during filming, people fled in fear of being attacked.

The Warriors aimed to create "tribal feeling of going into battle together, of loyalty, of support and shared goals" and to have "the audiences' sympathy as they fight off all the other gangs in the city".

The Homicides were a real Coney Island gang, and they didn't approve of fictional gangs wearing colors on their turf. The wardrobe department made sure nobody walked off location wearing The Warriors colors. The actors were safe during the cemetery scene in Brooklyn because of a fence surrounding it.

Crew members were sent death threats because local gangs weren't cast. Thousands of dollars worth of equipment were damaged when one gang tore through the set during a lunch break.

The crew once got urinated upon from a tower block due to the noise they were creating in the night.

David Patrick Kelly improvised Luther's "come out to play-ay" taunt, basing it on an intimidating neighbor of his.

Walter Hill originally wanted a tough Puerto Rican girl to play Mercy.

Walter Hill originally wanted the Warriors to be an all-black gang. Producers disagreed. He also wanted an initial subtitle which read "Sometime in the future" but Paramount thought it sounded too much like Star Wars.

In one take, Michael Beck (Swan) swings a bat into Deborah's face (in the scene where he throws it at the cop). She was rushed to hospital at 3am for stitches and still has a scar.

The film apparently took 60 days to shoot from midnight to 8am.

The television version started with a day shoot at Coney Island with Cleon and his girlfriend (played by Pamela Poitier). The producers cut this scene stating that the only day scene should be at the end of the film after a night of horror.

Here are the gangs that were listed in the script (some made it into the movie; others didn't): - The Alleycats, - The Amsterdam All-Stars, - The Baseball Furies, - The Black Hands, - The Blackjacks, - The Big Trains, - The Boppers, - The Boyle Avenue Runners, - The Charlemagnes, - The Colt 45's, - The Dealers, - The Delaney Rovers, - The Dingos, - The E Street Shufflers, - The Easy Aces, - The Electric Eliminators, - The Eighth Avenue Apaches, - The Fastballs, - The Fifth Street Bombers, - The Filmores, - The Firetasters, - The Five Points, - The Gerrards, - The Gladiators, - The Go Hards, - The Gun Hill Dancers, - The Gramercy Riffs, - The High Hats, - The High Rollers, - The Homeboys, - The Hoplites, - The Howitzers, - The Huks, - The Hurricanes, - The Imps, - The Jesters, - The Jones Street Boys, - The Judas Bunch, - The Jupiters, - The Knockdowns, - The Knuckles, - The Lizzies, - The Locos, - The Magicians, - The Meatpackers, - The Mongols, - The Moonrunners, - The Napoleons, - The Nickel Steaks, - The Nightriders, - The Ninth Avenue Razors, - The Orphans, - The Panzers, - The Phillies, - The Plainsmen, - The Punks, - The Queen's Bridge Mutilators, - The Real Boys, - The Red Hook Shooters, - The Roadmasters, - The Rogues, - The Romans, - The Runaways, - The Saracens, - The Saratogas, - The Savage Huns, - The Shanghai Sultans, - The Southern Cross, - The Speedwagons, - The Sports, - The Stevedores, - The Stilletos, - The Stonebreakers, - The Terriers, - The Turks, - The Turnbull AC's, - The Van Cortlandt Rangers, - The Warriors, - The Whispers, - The Xenophones, - The Xylophones, - The Yo-Yo's, - The Youngbloods, - The Zodiacs, - The Zulus.

The Baseball Furies were all around 30 or older and from Stunts Unlimited.

Subway equipment throughout the entire movie consisted of IND/BMT R-27 and R-30 units, even though the IRT is implied in many instances. Apparently, no attention was paid to train markings, which varied considerably and were often unrelated to the actual routes traveled on. Other subway cars seen briefly are R-12, R-42 and R-46 units.

Robert De Niro was asked to be Cowboy, but he passed on it.

The choreographed fight with the Punks in the men's room took 5 days (8pm to 7am) to shoot.

The park at the beginning of the movie was supposed to be in the North Bronx. The scene was actually shot in Riverside Park, on Manhattan's Upper West Side.

One of the "Punks" in the men's room-brawl is Craig R. Baxley. He is the one that gets thrown into a toilet booth upside down. Another is the late stunt-great A.J. Bakunas.

This is a "collective hero" movie, in which the protagonist actually consists of nine people acting (more or less) as one. Walter Hill uses this gimmick frequently; other movies he has made that work this way are Southern Comfort and The Long Riders.

During the opening credits of the T.V. version, the knife that is thrown into the board was thrown (off camera) by Penn Jillette.

The logo on the back of The Warriors vest appears during amusement ride The Revenge of the Mummy at Universal Studios - Orlando.

Director of Photography Andrew Laszlo campaigned successfully to have a scene early in the film where there is a sudden rainstorm, because this allowed him to "wet down" the streets for the rest of the movie and produce lighting effects that wouldn't have been possible on dry surfaces (it also worked well with the film's limited budget).

The Baseball Furies are a reference to Second Base, an uptown gang from the 1970. Second Base wore Lettermen jackets with "Second Base" across the backs, not the baseball uniforms and painted faces of the Baseball Furies. The connection is quite obvious when New York Boppers are informed that The Warriors have "... made it past Second Base".

In the script, Fox was originally the love interest of Mercy, but the two actors had no chemistry and the Mercy romance was transferred to Swan. Waites was fired eight weeks into principal photography, for being difficult and arguing with Walter Hill (director); his character was removed from the movie when a cop threw him into the path of a train during a fight. To this day, Hill felt bad about the rough times he has with Waites. Waites is not in the final credits because he didn't finish the movie.

Walter Hill told Deborah Van Valkenburgh she was "the unobvious choice" when she was cast.

The night scenes of The Warriors talking about Cyrus and the big meeting at The Bronx were part of re-shoots after the original opening of the film was cut out. The original opening of the film (which can be viewed on the Ulimate Edition DVD) was set in Coney Island during the daytime which Cleon's girlfriend says goodbye to Cleon and also features the rest of the gang being told by Cleon why they were chosen to go to the big meeting. The main reason why this opening was cut was because the editors told Walter Hill that the scene completely fell through because it set in the daytime (95% of the film is set in nighttime) and they felt it wouldn't work since it would cut to nighttime and it was a distraction. Walter agreed and decided to go back and re-shot the conversations that The Warriors have before their train arrives.

According to the filmmakers on the Ultimate Edition DVD, the film was going to be a big hit after the movie was #1 at the box office charts despite negative reviews from critics (it earned $3.5 million in its opening weekend). However, word of mouth and a couple of incidents killed the film's momentum. According to Walter Hill, what had happened was gangs were attracted to the film and they had saw their rival gangs and caused violent incidents. Paramount Pictures panicked and decided to pull the movie out of theaters. Lawrence Gordon said the movie still kept going while the studio pulled the movie out of marketing. Despite this, the movie went on to be not only a cult hit but also a timeless classic; it even made a profit since it earned $22.4 million in initial box office receipts against a budget of only $6-7 million.

President Ronald Reagan was a fan of the film, even calling the film's lead actor, Michael Beck, to tell him he had screened it at Camp David and enjoyed it.

Originally set in Los Angeles.

At some point during the film's promotion or after the initial ruckus when released, it was ordered that several bits of voice over in the trailer be censored. This is done by placing a piece of tape over the optical soundtrack. In the trailer, the narrator states "...between them and safety stand 20,000 cops and 100,000 sworn enemies." The fact that gangs out numbered the police by five times apparently was considered a security issue and the words "ten thousand" and "twenty thousand" were bleeped out with tape. (This probably coincides with Paramount promoting the film after violence at screenings, such as the new poster campaign).

Despite being a movie about tons of gangs, the only gangs that are ever actually seen using guns are the Lizzies and the Rogues.

Irwin Keyes was also considered for the role of Ajax, but wasn't cast because Walter Hill thought he was too old for the part. However, Keyes still appears in the movie as the cop who arrests Ajax in the park.

The film originally sported the subtitle "Sometime in the Future".

Sol Yurick wrote the original book as a rebuttal to the romanticized view of street gangs presented in West Side Story based on his experience as a New York City welfare department worker.

For the last shot in the film, where the vindicated Warriors and Mercy walk away along the Coney Island shoreline as the sun rises, Michael Beck and Deborah Van Valkenburgh were not told when to stop walking. Van Valkenburgh became irritated because they noticed they had reached a point where they were out of the cameras' ranges. But when they went back, they found out that the cast and crew had done this so they could bring out a huge bouquet of roses which they then presented to a surprised Van Valkenburgh.