Saving Private Ryan

Steven Spielberg cast Matt Damon as Private Ryan because he wanted an unknown actor with an All-American look. He did not know Damon would win an Oscar for Good Will Hunting (1997) and become an overnight star before the film was released.

Throughout the movie American characters are shown saying "thunder" to identify friendlies, and waiting for the response "flash". But in actuality the challenge word was "flash", and "thunder" the response. The word order is important, as "thunder" was chosen as the password because of its "th" sound. (There is no such sound in German, thus a German soldier would likely be unable to hide his accent if he tried to answer the challenge.)

There are no opening credits after the title is shown.

In the German-dubbed version of the movie, they were unsure how to distinguish dialog between the German and the American soldiers, since they would all be speaking German. In the end, they decided to address all the American soldiers by their English titles, such as "Sergeant" and "Captain".

Featured in At the Movies: The Mask of Zorro/Polish Wedding/There's Something About Mary/Lolita/Poodle Springs (1998)