- Director John Moore has said that he tried to please fan requests as much and frequently as possible.
- Mark Wahlberg reportedly never played the video game as he didn't want to become addicted, and felt the script connected him to the story enough.
- When initially submitted to the MPAA the film was given an R rating. Director John Moore then reportedly trimmed a few frames and the picture was promptly given the more financially viable PG-13 rating.
- James McCaffrey, the voice of Max Payne in the video game franchise, makes a cameo as the FBI agent that Lt. Jim Bravura introduces to the "real" police officer.
- The trailer for Max Payne is seen playing on a TV in the background of Ari Gold's office in "Entourage" (2004) - a show produced by Mark Wahlberg.
- Was shipped to some theaters under the title "Sour Shoes".
- The role of Jason Colvin was originally offered to Tobey Maguire.
- Early in the film, Max beats up three thugs in the Roscoe Street subway station. This fictitious station is the setting of one of the first levels in the video game, where DEA Agent Alex Balder (upon whom the film's Detective Alex Balder is based) is murdered.
- Max keeps most of the stuff from his old house in a shipping container at a place called Gognitti's Self-Storage. This is named for Mafia lieutenant Vinnie Gognitti, one of the video game's minor villains.
- Olga Kurylenko's second movie based on a video game. First was Hitman (2007/I).
- The club where Lupino stores the Valkyr drug is called Rag Na Rock. In Scandinavian mythology, which is referenced a few times throughout the film, the word Ragnarök indicates the end of the world.
- The game designers at 3D-Realms were apparently unimpressed by the motion picture adaptation.
- The main villain of the video game Nicole Horne plays only a minor role in the feature film.
- This marks the third collaboration between director John Moore and composer Marco Beltrami.
- Due to the PG-13 rating that the studio wanted, John Moore filmed two versions of the two biggest action sequences in the film, a) The Aesir Swat Building Shootout and b) Max Payne's attack on the Aesir building starting from the parking garage scene. John Moore filmed a version with impact squibs (seen in the PG-13 cut) and one with bloody wound squibs. Moore also stated that the parking garage scene during the filming of using the blood wound squibs was "one of the bloodiest shootouts he has ever filmed".
- Despite the games being based around slo-motion, or "bullet time" shootouts, there are only two slo-motion sequences in the whole movie.
- The NYPD precinct where Max works is the "55th", also the name given to the fictional NYPD precinct and fire station used in TV series "Third Watch" (1999).
- The Valkyr graffiti tag from the original Max Payne video game, is visible just before Max takes a whipping in the alley by Mona Sax.
- The gun used by Max in the subway bathroom scene is the Taurus .410 Judge. It can shoot either .45's or .410 shotgun shells.
- Very little of the movie was actually shot on green screen. Instead, director John Moore opted to shoot in Toronto during the night, in order to add extra reality to his actors' reactions.
- Mark Wahlberg has stated in interviews that John Moore is one of the best directors he has ever worked with. Other directors Wahlberg has worked with include Tim Burton , Martin Scorsese and Paul Thomas Anderson
>>> WARNING: Here Be Spoilers <<<
Trivia items below here contain information that may give away important plot points. You may not want to read any further if you've not already seen this title.
- SPOILER: Jason Colvin's death scene was scaled back due to the PG-13 rating. Originally, there was a wide shot of him being shot in the chest with an enormous amount of blood spray from the wound, along with an impact squib underneath the bloody squib (to create a more brutal effect). In the PG-13 version of the scene, it is only a close shot of Jason Colvin (Chris O'Donnell) with a bit of the impact squib seen going off. The original scene is included on the Unrated Director's Cut DVD.
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