Trivia for
The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008) More at IMDbPro »

• The design of Gort is similar to his original portrayal in The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), but Gort is now a biological form rather than mechanical, as Scott Derrickson considered some extraterrestrial races would develop advanced biological forces instead of technology.
  
  
• Director Scott Derrickson was an ardent admirer of sci-film director Robert Wise, and had wanted to remake Wise's The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) since 1993.
  
  
• Jennifer Connelly was Scott Derrickson's first choice for the role of Helen Benson.
  
  
• According to Keanu Reeves, in The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) Klaatu was an alien WITH a human body, while in this film Klaatu is an alien IN a human body.
  
  
• Keanu Reeves was producer Erwin Stoff's first and only choice for the role of Klaatu.
  
  
• 'Farewell to the Master' by Harry Bates is the short story upon which this film is based.
  
  
• In The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), Klaatu instructed Helen to say the famous line "Klaatu Barada Nikto" to Gort in the event of his death, which she did. In this film, Klaatu himself says the famous line to Gort shortly after arriving on Earth, after being shot by the army.
  
  
• The bridge under which our heroes shelter during the finale is the same bridge sheltered under by the heroes of Cloverfield (2008) in that film's finale.
  
  
• Klaatu uses the phrase "tipping point", which is a climatological term meaning the point at which the reversal of climate change becomes impossible. Some scientists believe that this has already happened.
  
  
• As part of the German (and probably too in other countries) promotional campaign, advertisements changed the title of the film to include the name of the city where the ads were published (i.e. "The Day Cologne Stood Still").
  
  
• The film was released on December 12, 2008, which was coincidentally star Jennifer Connelly's 38th birthday.
  
  
• The words "Klaatu Barada Nikto", which are in the original 1951 film spoken by Helen Benson to Gort the robot, has featured in many other productions, for instance in Army of Darkness (1992), where they are the spell Ash must speak to stop the undead army from appearing.
  
  
• Self-replicating robots are the Holy Grail of Nanotechnology Research.
  
  
• WILHELM SCREAM: Heard when Gort breaks out of the military facility and the metal door crashes on top of multiple soldiers.
  
  
• The computer game Jacob Benson (played by Jaden Smith) plays is World of Warcraft (2004) (VG).
  
  
• The film was primarily filmed in tones of green and blue, the Earth's natural colours.
  
  
• The line "Klaatu barada nikto" from The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), was reused in this film at Keanu Reeves's insistence. In both films, the line is used to stop Gort from attacking the humans.
  
  
• Keanu Reeves recorded the line "Klaatu barada nikto" twice, and one recording was played backward and spliced with the other (which was left normal) to make the overall dialog sound more otherworldly.
  
  
• The orb was supposed to be filled with white limbo light, but Scott Derrickson felt the concept would then be unoriginal and changed the colour to greenish, a more appropriate colour for an environmentally conservative race.
  
  
• As in The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), Klaatu was going to travel in a spaceship, but Scott Derrickson wanted the extraterrestrial aspect of the film to be more mysterious and replaced the ship with a glowing orb.
  
  
• The filmmakers thoroughly enjoyed working with Cleese, and were sorry when shooting was finished.
  
  
• According to the filmmakers, John Cleese was the most difficult choice in casting as he was primarily noted for comic roles. Cleese felt that at his age, a dramatic role with subtle humour would be an easier role to play rather than another manic old man.
  
  
• Renowned astronomer Seth Shostak was hired as a consultant on the film. He reviewed the script several times for errors, and gave suggestions for making the scientists less dry: "Real scientists don't describe an object entering the solar system as 'notable for the fact that it was not moving in an asteroidal ellipse, but moving at nearly 3*10 to the seventh meters per second'. More likely, they would say that there was 'a goddamned rock headed our way!'" He also noted the scientists should refer to one another by a first name basis.
  
  
• John Cleese says he is not interested in extraterrestrial life as he often philosophizes about the purpose of life and why humans are distracted by trivial matters.
  
  
• The joysticks used by the Drone pilots during the first air raid are modified versions of the Saitek X52 Flight Control System.
  
  
• The toll-free number seen on TV to report seeing Klaatu is 1-800-472-0391, which is actually NOAA's National Weather Service Alaska Weather Information Line.
  
  
• The phrase, "Klatuu, Barada, Nikto" was used by George Lucas in Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983) as names for three characters in Jabba's Palace.
  
  
• The car that Helen drives is a Honda Hybrid - an appropriate vehicle for a heroine in a movie with an environmental message.
  
  
• When Javon is watching TV at Professor Barnhardt's house, it shows various pictures of riots around the world, and one footage is from actual events on October 5th 2000 in Serbia. It is the day when Slobodan Milosevic was overturned. Footage shows large crowd in front of Serbian Parlament, and there is visible smoke because the part of building was on fire.
  
  
• Jaden Smith's dad Will Smith turned down the lead which became Keanu Reeves' for The Matrix (1999).
  
  
• The DVD and Blu-ray disc release of the film come packaged with a disc containing the original classic. This is a new disc, and does not contain any special features, although the copy packaged with the Blu-ray of the 2008 film is also a Blu-ray disc.
  
  
• In the final scene, the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge can be briefly seen from the point of view of Mrs Macquarie's Point - the same park used for the final scene of Keanu Reeves's other sci-fi-apocalypse story, The Matrix Revolutions (2003).
  
  
• 3x10 to the 7th meters per second is exactly one-tenth the speed of light.
  
  
• In the original movie, Gort was 8 feet tall. In the remake, he is now 28 feet tall.
  
  
• Gort's trademark eye beam is only used once in the entire movie.
  
  

• SPOILER: Klatuu used the famous line, Klatuu Barada Nikto twice in the movie, at the beginning after he is shot by the military, to stop Gort from hurting them and then at the end of the movie when Klatuu touches the sphere and says Klatuu Barada Nikto to stop Gort, who now is in the form of the Nanobots, from destroying the world. Once he touches the sphere and says, Klatuu Barada Nikto, the nanobots all die.
  
  

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