Trivia for
The Warriors (1979) More at IMDbPro »

• 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.
  
  
• The name Ajax came after the Greek Warrior.
  
  
• James Remar earned his roll 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.
  
  
• In the original script for the movie, Cleon is killed by the Grammercy Riffs, Cochise is killed by the Baseball Furies, Ajax is caught by the police, Vermin is killed by the Lizzies, and Swan gets kidnapped by the Dingos. This leaves only four Warriors in the battle with the Punks. Swan does, however, reappear at Coney Island to fight the final battle after the Riffs learn the truth about who shot Cyrus.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• In the script, Snow was originally named Snowball and did not say a single word until the end when he gave a small statement about how they should fight the Rogues to avenge their fallen friends.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• Filming during the scene with the Orphans was interrupted by a police chase.
  
  
• There were always crowds of spectators during filming, even at 3am in the freezing cold.
  
  
• Filming was allowed to take place uninterrupted all night, a first.
  
  
• When the fictitious Turnbull ACs visited a hamburger joint during filming, people fled in fear of being attacked.
  
  
• 1,000 extras were used at the big meeting, many coming from Riverside Drive Park.
  
  
• 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 scene in the men's room with the Punks was the only scene shot on set. The set was located at Astoria Studios, Long Island City - Queens.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• Filming sometimes had to move due to noise from crowds that came to watch. Some crowd members were forcibly removed from set.
  
  
• 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 Baseball Furies were created due to Walter Hill's love of baseball and the music group Kiss.
  
  
• The crew once got urinated upon from a tower block due to the noise they were creating in the night.
  
  
• The film trucks were "protected" by a real gang called The Mongrels for $500 a day.
  
  
• David Patrick Kelly improvised Luther's "come out to play-ay" taunt, basing it on an intimidating neighbor of his.
  
  
• Swan was to be abducted by a homosexual and sadomasochistic gang who had doberman pinschers. He was scripted to escape and lead The Warriors home.
  
  
• Walter Hill originally wanted a tough Puerto Rican girl to play Mercy.
  
  
• Michael Beck was discovered by Walter Hill when Hill was watching the movie Madman (1978), which Beck co-starred in with a then less-famous Sigourney Weaver. Hill saw that film because he wanted to see Weaver's performance, as she was being considered for the upcoming film Alien (1979), but was so impressed by Beck's work that he had him come in for an audition which led to his being cast in THE WARRIORS.
  
  
• 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 the subway where Mercy is running with Fox's double, she fell and sprained her wrist because the actor didn't let go of her hand. This is why she later appears in a jacket as it is covering up the bandage. The filmmakers had Mercy disappear from the film for a while, meeting up with the Warriors at the subway platform and saying that she stole the jacket she was wearing before arriving there.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• Though it wasn't shown fully in the film, Cleon was killed.
  
  
• The film apparently took 60 days to shoot from 8am to midnight.
  
  
• The original poster featured the words "These are the armies of the night. They are 100,000 strong. They outnumber the cops five to one. They could run New York City." This upset and outraged many people; some tried to have the film banned.
  
  
• The film is based on the novel by Sol Yurick, who bases his novel on Xenophon's The Anabasis. The movie is closer to The Anabasis than to Yurick's novel.
  
  
• The fight with the Punks took 5 days to film (eleven hours a day!).
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• Real street gangs appear in the film.
  
  
• 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 Warriors' vests were made of fake leather.
  
  
• The Baseball Furies were all around 30 or older and from Stunts Unlimited.
  
  
• The Warriors sign painted on the bath house for one of the photos was painted over a real gang's tag. The gang didn't take to lightly to this, so the producers paid them to be in the film.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• The subway footage during the opening titles was filmed along the express tracks of the IND Fulton St. line in Brooklyn.
  
  
• Robert De Niro was asked to be Cowboy, but he passed on it.
  
  
• The last part to be cast was Cochise.
  
  
• The choreographed fight in the men's room took 5 days (8am to 7pm) to shoot.
  
  
• The IND Hoyt-Schermerhorn subway station in Brooklyn was used for the 96th St. station scenes. The train operated on one of the unused outer tracks.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• After several violent incidents that occurred at various showings of the film, the producers decided to change the poster as a way of cutting down on the violence. The original poster featured the logo as well as a picture of several tough looking gang members. The second poster just featured the logo against a white background.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• One of the "Baseball Furies" was late martial-artist/actor Steve James.
  
  
• 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 (1981) and The Long Riders (1980).
  
  
• Tony Danza was offered the lead, but he chose to film the television series "Taxi" (1978) instead
  
  
• During the opening credits of the T.V. version, the knife that is thrown into the board was thrown (off camera) Penn Jillette.
  
  
• According to an interview with a Hell's Angel Member on the Howard Stern Show, the Warrior's vest logo was taken from a picture of a bike built in a California prison by an incarcerated Hell's Angel, which appeared in a motorcycle magazine. It has apparently caused several fights; Hell's Angels will violently defend ownership of any of their logos.
  
  
• The logo on the back of The Warriors vest appears during amusement ride The Revenge of the Mummy at Universal Studios - Orlando.
  
  
• The fight between the Warriors and the Baseball Furies was scripted as extremely graphic and realistic. Producer Lawrence Gordon suggested adding music to defuse the impact of the violence.
  
  
• 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).
  
  
• Originally planned with Orson Welles narrating.
  
  
• 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".
  
  
• Cameo: ['Michael C. Hall'] As an extra in the opening scene where all of the gangs gathered.
  
  
• Due to lack of Lights, extra light posts were added to the park scenes.
  
  
• 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 principle photography, for being difficult and arguing with Walter Hill (director). To this day, Hill felt bad about the rough times he has with Waites. Finally, Waites is not in the final credits.
  
  
• Walter Hill and Larry Gordon saw David Patrick Kelly in a Broadway play called "Working". Kelly performed a monologue as a hippie that espoused peace and love, but was actually extremely passive-aggressive.
  
  
• Walter Hill told Deborah Van Valkenburgh she was "the unobvious choice" when she was cast.
  
  
• Deborah Van Valkenburgh's boyfriend at the time discouraged her from auditioning because he thought the director was looking for someone more well endowed.
  
  
• The Baseball Furies, wore make-up in the movie. Walter Hill was inspired by his favorite band KISS.
  
  

• SPOILER: 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.
  
  

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