Alligator (1980)
Trivia
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Spoilers (7)
"Ramon", the oft-malfunctioning animatronic alligator used in the film, was later donated to the Florida Gators as a team mascot. Ramon made several appearances before games and during halftime.
Robert Forster improvised the jokes in regard to his receding hairline, which a delighted John Sayles wrote into the script during shooting for the other characters.
The shot of the SWAT team emerging from the sewers looked so real that people actually thought they were terrorists and some called the police.
John Sayles read Frank Ray Perilli's script for the film once and then totally scrapped it. Sayles said it was set in Milwaukee and explained that the alligator grew gigantic because of beer from a brewery going into the sewers.
According to director Lewis Teague, the film was supposed to be scored by James Horner, who actually wrote a full score. However, due to a strike he could not record his score, so he was replaced by another composer.
This film was inspired by "Jaws (1975)," and like that film the mechanical "villain" often malfunctioned. Lewis Teague either shot around the alligator to build suspense or shot a regular alligator on miniature sets (which is plainly obvious in some shots).
Bryan Cranston worked on the movie as a production assistant for the Special Effects department.
The alligator's first victim is a sewer worker named is Edward Norton. This is an homage to The Honeymooners (1955), one of whose characters is a sewer worker named Ed Norton.
Robert Forster was recovering from a case of spinal meningitis when principal filming began.
Joe Dante was offered the job of director, but turned it down.
In the prologue showing young Marisa and her baby alligator at home, in order to set the time period, news on the radio mentions riots at the Democratic Convention in Chicago, which took place in 1968. Robert Forster starred in "Medium Cool (1969)," which centered on those same riots.
Screenwriter John Sayles also wrote Roger Corman's Battle Beyond the Stars (1980), released the same year as this film. During this period, Sayles wrote the first draft of a script for Steven Spielberg known as "Night Skies," which was never made but helped inspire E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) (which includes a mention about "alligators in the sewers").
The first of two movies where Robert Forster's character mentions his hair loss and how he's making up for it. The second happens in "Jackie Brown (1997)." In both films, someone else points it out and Forster explains further. Here it's Sydney Lassick and then Pam Grier.
On the DVD commentary, Robert Forster states that he was friends with painter Ramon Santiago and he suggested they include a painting of his on the wall in his character's home.
After Robert Forster's death, Breaking Bad (2008) star Bryan Cranston tweeted that Forster, who also worked on "Breaking Bad", and Cranston first met on the set of this film, where Cranston worked on the crew.
The proceeds that John Sayles earned from his screenwriting duties were used to finance "Return of the Secaucus Seven (1979)."
Kelly (played by Perry Lang), the young police officer who follows David through the sewers, is always seen with chewing tobacco in his mouth.
The graffiti on the sewer wall at the end of the film is a reference to Orson Welles' character in "The Third Man" (1949).
Cue's from Jerry Goldsmith's music score from "The Twilight Zone" episode 'The Invaders' were used throughout the film.
The term "meds" for medication is a household word today, but in this movie, Bart Braverman's character had to ask a nurse what it meant, so back then it was more or less medical lingo.
Sue Lyon (in her last role) is credited as ABC Newscaster but was actually an NBC Newscaster: the "peacock" logo with the letters "NBC" are on her microphone. In her scene, she interviews Henry Silva, who tells her she's pretty. Lyon began her career in Stanley Kubrick's Lolita (1962), about a very pretty girl older men are crazy about.
Still yet, one of the strangest aspects of the titular monster is that he's indicated to be named after the little known, late painter, Ramón Santiago. How or why that association between the gator & the painter was made is a total mystery, in David's apartment, there are prints on the wall by Ramón Santiago (obvious inspiration for the alligator's name). According to Santiago's website, he stated, 'My paintings are what dreams are made of.'
The would-be bomber has the bomb strapped to a radio on his chest, and starts singing Donna Summer's "On The Radio", which was part of Foxes (1980), which came out the same year.
This is not only a Jaws (1975) clone for involving a deadly creature larger than usual, but the three main characters are similar: Robert Forster is a cop and the hero of the movie, like Roy Scheider's Chief Brody; Robin Riker is a scientific expert like Richard Dreyfuss as Hooper; and Henry Silva is a tough and experienced hunter, like Robert Shaw's Quint. Also similar is Perry Lang as a naive rookie cop like Jeffrey Kramer's Hendricks, and Murray Hamilton's Mayor is a cross between this film's mayor Jack Carter and villain/instigator Dean Jagger (who shares attributes with Joseph Mascolo in Jaws 2 (1978)).
Spoilers
In the scene in the sewers where young officer Kelly sneaks up on Robert Forster as a prank, the two take a look at the map and just at that moment, one of their flashlights shines on the area behind them for barely a second showing the audience that the alligator is standing on a platform behind them.
The little girl from the beginning of the movie, billed as Young Marissa and played by Leslie Brown, is a herpetologist and Robert Forster's love interest, Marisa, as a child. Her pet baby alligator, whom she named Ramon, is the giant man-eating alligator as a young gator. In an ironic example of the Butterfly Effect Theory, if her dad had let her keep the alligator, she and Forster's character would probably never have met.
Col. Brock says to Marissa about the alligator, "if I get myself killed chasing it what fun would it be?", foreshadowing his own death when Ramon eats him in an alley.
When Bart Braverman is attacked, his flashing camera gets a shot of the alligator's mouth, which also happens in Jaws 2 (1978). In both films, the camera-shooter dies right after taking the picture. In each, the main character, a cop, uses the picture as evidence to possibly turn the tables for his case that no one else believes.
Perry Lang (the young blonde cop) played characters who died in two horror movies in 1980: this and The Hearse. In both, he's a nice guy who befriends a main character who no one else trusts.
In a moment many might not have caught, Robert Forster mentions, while buying his new dog, that his old one was stolen outside a market. Judging by the expression of the pet store owner, he stole the dog. So the cop's former dog is part of the same operation he winds up trying to bust.
