Trivia
Patrick Swayze was offered a cameo role as a zombie before his cancer diagnosis. His scene would have parodied other Swayze movies like Ghost and Dirty Dancing. Zombie cameo roles were also offered to Joe Pesci, Mark Hamill, Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Bacon, Jean-Claude Van Damme and Matthew McConaughey.
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Tallahassee painted a 3 on his cars as a reference to Dale Earnhardt. Both cars that Tallahassee drove were based on the color schemes of Earnhardt's cars.
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Jesse Eisenberg's character is afraid of clowns. In real life, his mother worked as a party clown.
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Woody Harrelson was arrested for marijuana possession during filming, which delayed shooting for a day.
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Originally titled "Another Day in Zombieland", but the studio feared people would think it was a sequel.
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The biggest opening weekend of any film in Woody Harrelson's career; $24.7 million. Harrelson's previous best weekend debut was Indecent Proposal, with $18.3 million. The record was beaten a month and a half later by 2012's $65.2 million opening. This record was then defeated by The Hunger Games with an opening of $152.5 the first weekend.
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In the highway accident wreckage, the pattern of burn marks and melted aluminum on the side of the scorched big rig truck resemble human skulls.
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Unadjusted for inflation, this is the highest-grossing movie in the US to begin with the letter "Z".
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When Columbus and Tallahassee are walking though a town after their Escalade is stolen, the tank in the background is in a British-made Chieftain main battle tank, painted in an American scheme.
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Both Evan Rachel Wood and Megan Fox turned down the role of Wichita, while Amber Tamblyn auditioned.
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Jamie Bell was originally cast as Columbus but dropped out. Taylor Lautner was considered to replace him but couldn't due to other commitments.
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Abigail Breslin and Woody Harrelson's conversation in the Hummer, about Hannah Montana, was ad-libbed.
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Contrary to popular belief, the supermarket scene was not filmed at an actual supermarket. A movie set was built from scratch to look like a real supermarket, and some of the merchandise is fake. For example, the stuff behind the glass refrigerator doors is just printed on paper. According to the producers, it was cheaper than buying out a supermarket and paying them for broken merchandise.
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The "poor fat bastard" killed in the film's opening shows up again as the zombie "with a pretty mouth" that Tallahassee kills with a banjo in the supermarket.
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The "Zombie Kill of the Week" was leftover from the script's origin as a TV pilot. Every weekly episode would have a Zombie Kill of the Week performed by characters on the show.
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It has been said that this movie was supposed to be based on the video game Left 4 Dead 2. Valve, the creators and developers of the game, denied the studio permission to mention the game and company in the opening and end credits.
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During the Monopoly game, Jesse Eisenberg's character Columbus remarks that one of the best things about Zombieland is "No Facebook status updates". Eisenberg would go on to portray Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, in the film The Social Network.
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It is revealed in the DVD commentary that Emma Stone was originally cast to play the role of "406".
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In the movie 'Natural Born Killers (1994)', Robert Downey Jr.'s character coined the term 'Zombieland' when talking about television audiences. This film starred Woody Harrelson.
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The man that is eaten in the bathroom at the beginning of the film is the same person that Little Rock and Wichita did their ring scam on.
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According to writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, Kirk Ward was originally considered for the role of Tallahassee before Woody Harrelson was cast in the film. Ward would then go on to play Tallahassee in the TV series pilot.
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Cameo
Rhett Reese:
the co-writer of the film plays the man in the white tuxedo with a machine gun in the opening credits.
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Spoilers
At Bill Murray's house, Wichita says that Bill looks just like Edward Van Halen, whose song "Everybody Wants Some" plays after they discover the bag of guns, and in many trailers for the film.
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Bill Murray's mansion in the movie is actually Lee Najjar's house in Buckhead, a wealthy section of Atlanta, GA. Mr. Najjar's red Ferrari F430 Spyder is in the garage.
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Wichita is the only main character whose name is revealed: Krista, named for Emma Stone's mother.
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In Bill Murray's mansion, Woody Harrelson's character mentions that he is a big fan of all his movies. Harrelson starred in Kingpin with Murray.
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With the exception of Wichita (Krista), Tallahassee's son Buck, Cynthia Nickerbocker, Edward Van Halen, Bill Murray, Bob Marley, Tom Cruise, Russell Crowe, Rob Curtis, Scotty Lynch, Willie Nelson, Hannah Montana (Miley Cyrus) and Mohandas K. Gandhi, no other names are mentioned in the movie. This includes Columbus' neighbor, 406, and his made-up lover, Beverly Hills.
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Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) has 32 rules for surviving Zombieland, ten of which are identified in the motion picture. As the rules are punctuated, and in the order in which they appear in the movie, they are, "Rule #1. Cardio"; "Rule #2. Double tap"; "Rule #3. Beware of bathrooms"; "Rule #4. Seatbelts"; "Rule #7. Travel light"; "Rule #31. Check the back seat"; "Rule #18. Limber up"; "Rule #22. When in doubt, know your way out"; "Rule #32. Enjoy the little things"; and "Rule #17. Don't be a hero" (later corrected to "Be a hero"). An eleventh rule of surviving Zombieland is identified in a deleted scene. As punctuated in the deleted scene, the rule is "Rule #2. Ziploc bags". In voice-over, Columbus explains, "You've got enough problems. Moisture shouldn't be one of them."
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Although his character is on a constant hunt for Twinkies, Woody Harrelson is a vegan, and does not eat Twinkies (which contain eggs and beef fat). According to Harrelson, the filmmakers made special "faux Twinkies" out of cornmeal for the scene at the end.
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There is an additional scene after the credits: an outtake with Bill Murray and Tallahassee.
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