Trivia for
Fargo (1996) More at IMDbPro »

• When working on her Minnesota accent for the film, Frances McDormand worked with Larissa Kokernot, "Hooker #1." McDormand referred to her accent and mannerisms as "Minnesota Nice."
  
  
• The region was experiencing its second-warmest winter in 100 years. Filming of outdoor scenes had to be moved all over Minnesota, North Dakota, and Canada.
  
  
• In the kidnappers' cabin, Bruce Campbell can be seen on the fuzzy TV screen. Bruce Campbell was in the Coen Brothers' The Hudsucker Proxy (1994) and has been in various films by Coen buddy Sam Raimi. The footage was not shot for this film, but was actually old footage of a regional soap opera in which Campbell appeared.
  
  
• After being shot, Steve Buscemi swears: "You fuckin' shot me!" He says the same line under the same circumstances in Mystery Train (1989).
  
  
• The film is not actually "Based on a true story". The Coens later admitted that they added that disclaimer so the viewer would be more willing to suspend disbelief in the story.
  
  
• The seal for the Brainerd police department has a silhouette of Paul Bunyan and Babe the blue ox.
  
  
• Approaching Brainerd from the south, you see a statue of Paul Bunyan with a sign reading "Welcome to Brainerd." In reality, Brainerd has no such statue. Paul Bunyan Amusement Park, located just outside Brainerd, had a huge statue of Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox. The park is now at 'This Old Farm,' between Brainerd and Garrison.
  
  
• In the Lundegaard's house, the magazine rack by the toilet holds a Playboy magazine. It's visible when Jerry comes back home and sees the aftermath of the kidnapping.
  
  
• Director Trademark: [Joel Coen] [Stanley Kubrick] Carl says he's in town for "just a little of the ol' in-and-out," a reference to A Clockwork Orange (1971).
  
  
• The GMAC representative who keeps after Jerry is named Reilly Diefenbach. Gen. Reilly and Gen. Diefenbach were two of the characters in Seven Days in May (1964) who pushed for a coup.
  
  
• William H. Macy begged the directors for the role of Jerry Lundegaard. He did two readings for the part, and became convinced he was the best man for the role. When the Coens didn't get back to him, he flew to New York (where they were starting production) and said, "I'm very, very worried that you are going to screw up this movie by giving this role to somebody else. It's my role, and I'll shoot your dogs if you don't give it to me." He was joking, of course.
  
  
• None of the movie scenes, either exterior or interior, were actually filmed in Fargo. The bar exterior shown at the beginning of the movie is located in Northeast Minneapolis.
  
  
• Director Trademark: [Joel Coen] [Kubrick] . When Carl and Gaear are driving outside Minneapolis, the song 'These Boots are Made for Walkin' can be heard on the radio, a reference to Full Metal Jacket (1987), which features the same song.
  
  
• The Hautmanns, Norm's competition for the duck stamps, are three brothers who frequently win federal and state wildlife stamp competitions.
  
  
• William H. Macy stated in an interview that, despite evidence to the contrary, he did hardly any ad-libbing at all. Most of his character's stuttering mannerisms were written in the script exactly the way he does them in the film.
  
  
• Jerry Lundegaard's last name comes from Bob Lundegaard, movie critic for the Minneapolis Star and Tribune from 1973-1986.
  
  
• The reference to "Midwest Federal... talk to ol' Bill Diehl" is a nod to film critic Bill Diehl, who wrote for the St. Paul Pioneer Press-Dispatch and interviewed the Coen Brothers shortly after the release of Blood Simple. (1984).
  
  
• The airplane seen just before Carl goes to the airport parking lot to steal a license plate, is a Northwest DC-9.
  
  
• The irate customer's name is Bucky (you can hear his wife say his name under her breath).
  
  
• During the scene where Steve Buscemi shoots Harve Presnell, Buscemi says the word "fuck" a total of 10 times.
  
  
• The role of Carl Showalter was written specifically for Steve Buscemi.
  
  
• The duck paintings briefly shown in the Gunderson home were painted by "those Hautmanns," who are close friends of the Coen brothers.
  
  
• The snow plow that drives past the motel at the end of the film was not part of the script. Signs in the area warned motorists not to drive through due to filming, but a state employee ignored them.
  
  
• The specific crimes shown in Fargo didn't happen, but the plot has elements of two well-known Minnesota crimes. In 1962, a St. Paul attorney named Eugene Thompson hired someone to kill his wife, Carol. Unbeknownst to Thompson, his man hired someone else to do the job. The second man fatally wounded Mrs. Thomspon in her house, but she managed to escape him. She went to a neighbor's house for help while her assailant fled the scene. The sloppiness and brutality of the crime attracted great attention. The murderers were quickly caught and gave up Thompson, who denied knowing anything about the crime for many years afterward. In 1972, Virginia Piper, the wife of a wealthy Orono banker, was kidnapped. A million-dollar ransom was paid, one of the largest in U.S. history. Mrs. Piper was found tied to a tree in a state park. Two men were convicted of the crime, but were acquitted after a re-trial. One of them later went on a shooting spree after his wife left him, killing her, their 5-year-old son, her son from a previous marriage, her new boyfriend, and one of his sons. Only $4,000 of the money was ever recovered.
  
  
• Joel Coen had Frances McDormand and John Carroll Lynch conceive a back-story for their characters to get the feel of them. They decided that Norm and Marge met while working on the police force, and when they were married, they had to choose which one had to quit. Since Marge was a better officer, Norm quit and took up painting.
  
  
• The morning talk show hosts on the TV right before Mrs. Lundegaard are kidnapped were actual Minnesota morning talk show hosts for many years during the 80s and early 90s. They hosted a show called "Good Company".
  
  
• About thirty minutes into the film when Peter Stormare's character Gaear Grimsrud chases after the eyewitnesses in the car, he says, "Jävla fitta!" which in Swedish means 'f**ing c**t!'
  
  
• "Fuck" and its derivatives are said 75 times, mostly by Carl Showalter.
  
  
• A Danish band called "Diefenbach" has taken their name from the character Riley Diefenbach in this movie.
  
  
• At the hideout towards the end, Grimsrud is watching a soap opera on TV featuring Bruce Campbell. When Grimsrud mentions to Carl that they are supposed to split the Ciera, Carl raves, "How the fuck do you split a car, ya dummy? With a fuckin' chainsaw?" The movie takes place in 1987, the same year that Evil Dead II (1987), starring Bruce Campbell--and a chainsaw--was released.
  
  

• SPOILER: Steve Buscemi dies in almost every Coen Brothers film in which he appears, with the notable exception of The Hudsucker Proxy (1994). With each successive role, his remains are smaller; in this film, we only see half of his leg in the wood chipper. (See also Miller's Crossing (1990), Barton Fink (1991), The Hudsucker Proxy (1994), and The Big Lebowski (1998)).
  
  
• SPOILER: Body count- 7 (the state trooper, the 2 passers-by, Wade Gustafson, the parking-lot attendant, Jean Lundegaard, and Carl Showalter)
  
  
• SPOILER: Despite hints at the time of the film's release and in the closing credits, the Victim in the Field is played by J. Todd Anderson, a storyboard artist on the film, not Prince. It was yet another Coen Brothers in-joke; Prince is a famous native of Minneapolis, Minnesota. To further muddle matters, that moment in the film was memorialized in a "Snow-Globe" promotion included with a special edition version of the DVD, subtly hinting that the dead victim in the snow was a famous cameo.
  
  

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