Trivia
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Spoilers (3)
Friends Veronica Sawyer and Betty Finn are named after other fictional friends Veronica and Betty from the comic strip "Archie", and Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.
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The high school is named "Westerburg High". Winona Ryder's favorite band at the time was "The Replacements", whose lead singer is named Paul Westerberg.
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The police officers are named Milner and McCord, after Kent McCord and Martin Milner, who played police officers in Adam-12.
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Originally, the book that suicidal students supposedly underline "meaningful" passages from was "The Catcher in the Rye". The producers could not get clearance to use this book and it was changed to "Moby Dick" instead.
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When Heather Duke gathers signatures for the Big Fun petition, one of the students stamps his name: Dennis Di Novi. This is a reference to the film's producer, Denise Di Novi.
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The radio call-in show "Hot Probs" featured in the movie is a version of the now nationally famous KROQ radio show "Loveline", and the radio DJ in the movie is James 'Poorman' Trenton, the creator and original host of "Loveline".
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Heather Duke's kitchen in the dream sequence was also the kitchen used for Heather Chandler's house. They just switched the colors and lit it differently.
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Lying on top of the glass table through which Heather Chandler fell were a copy of the Cliff's Notes for "The Bell Jar" (which was written by Sylvia Plath, who committed suicide) and a magazine with a cover story "The Fall of the American Teenager."
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The role of Heather McNamara, the cheerleader, was originally offered to 17 year old actress Heather Graham. Heather's parents decided against letting her do the role because of the dark subject matter.
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The hotel imploded on TV in the movie is the Hotel King Cotton in Memphis, Tennessee which was destroyed 29 April 1984.
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Brad Pitt auditioned for the role of J.D., but was rejected because he was considered "too nice" for the part.
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At the beginning of the film Heather Chandler asks Heather Duke "did you have a brain tumor for breakfast?" The actress who played Heather Chandler, Kim Walker later died of a brain tumor.
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The first day of filming took place on Ash Wednesday and the first scene filmed was the croquet game that took place after J.D. fires his gun in the cafeteria.
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The film's first scene was actually the last one to be shot. By that time, Lisanne Falk had cut her hair and had to wear a wig.
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Christian Slater has stated that his performance was heavily inspired by Jack Nicholson. He claims that he wrote a letter to Nicholson asking him to watch the film but did not receive an answer.
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Mid-1990's-era ska/punk band Edna's Goldfish named their song "Veronica Sawyer" after the main character in Heathers. The song's theme of alienation among suburban teenagers reflects the themes of the movie. Reel Big Fish covered the song on their 2009 album "Fame, Fortune and Fornication."
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Two stars of the movie died at an early age: Jeremy Applegate (Peter Dawson, whose character prays he will never commit suicide) committed suicide with a shotgun on March 23, 2000, and Kim Walker (Heather Chandler, who had the line "Did you have a brain tumor for breakfast?") died of a brain tumor on March 6, 2001.
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In the scene when Kurt Kelly and Ram Sweeney are found by police they are each holding the same gun they were shot with.
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In addition to Westburg High being named after The Replacements frontman 'Paul Westerburg', another reference to the band occurs later in the film when J.D. says "Color me impressed", which is the title of a song from their album 'Hootenanny'.
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Daniel Waters originally wanted Stanley Kubrick to direct, citing that "He's the only one that can get away with a 3 hour movie."
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Australian electro-rock/pop-punk band The Veronicas took their name from Veronica Sawyer, specifically from when Jason Dean asks her "Are you a Heather?", to which she answers "No, I'm a Veronica".
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After they kill Kurt and Ram, Christian Slater's character, J.D., says that, "Football season is over." Rolling Stone magazine published an article with Hunter S. Thompson's suicide note, its title was, "Football Season is Over."
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Jennifer Rhodes plays Veronica Sawyer's mother. She later plays the grandmother to TV series Charmed actress Shannen Doherty who plays Heather Duke.
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Spoilers
The original screenplay had a different ending in which Veronica kills J.D. by shooting him and then straps the bomb (a much larger and more complicated piece of equipment, described as being "a cylinder as large as a television set") to herself, blowing up as J.D. does in the final ending. What is placed in the final ending as JD's boiler-room speech about "imagine I blew up the school, imagine I blew up all the schools" is contained in a suicide note found in Veronica's locker by Heather McNamara and Betty Finn. The movie ends with an eerie prom sequence set in Heaven, tying into JD's assertion that the only place everyone will truly get along is in Heaven. The prom begins with students dancing within their social cliques, then switching partners in odd pairings like metalheads dancing with Heathers and one of the murdered jocks getting his prom picture taken with a tipped cow; the punch being served is the drain cleaner used in the first murder scene, and "Dumptruck" is singing onstage as the entertainment for the evening. This was intended to be shot but the studio thought it was too dark for the target teenage crowd and opted for a lighter ending.
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J.D. tricks Veronica into killing the jocks by claiming to use "ich luge" bullets, which he claims only pierce the skin. "Ich lüge" is German for "I'm lying".
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Body count 5. (although it's unknown how many people Big Bud Dean killed during the explosion).
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