The acclaimed 1992 courtroom drama A Few Good Men couldn’t help but become a hit, with Jack Nicholson cast as a Captain Queeg-like commander who comes unhinged under the right pressure from Tom Cruise and his legal team. It may have been a long time since you’ve seen it, but you remember certain scenes well all these years later. Let’s learn some things you don’t know about the movie.
8. JACK NICHOLSON WAS PAID $5 MILLION FOR 10 DAYS OF WORK.
Nicholson, as Colonel Nathan R. Jessup, was in just three scenes in the entire movie. Technically he worked an extra morning for free when Reiner and crew didn’t get all of his footage shot in time.
9. NICHOLSON DID A LOT MORE WORK THAN HE HAD TO.
He recited the famous courtroom speech an estimated 40 to 50 times, at full intensity every time—even for all of the shots that were of Cruise, Moore, Pollak, Kevin Bacon, and the rest of the courtroom simply reacting to what he was saying. Nicholson said he was “quite spent” by the time he finished.
The effort paid off, as the film was nominated for four Academy Awards and five Golden Globe Awards. Read the rest of the trivia list about A Few Good Men at mental_floss.