50 Fun Facts About 2015 Movies

Which crop does stranded astronaut Mark Watney grow in Martian soil to survive in The Martian?

Potatoes were actually grown on a sound stage next to the one used for filming. In the story, the botanist fertilises his garden with the crew's own bio-waste.

Which festival's parade did Mexico City stage for the first time in 2016, inspired by the opening of Spectre?

Day of the Dead had no such parade in the capital until the Bond film invented one. The authorities organised a real procession the following year, and 250,000 people attended.

Which of Riley's five emotions in Pixar's Inside Out finally takes the controls and sends her back home?

Sadness takes over the console and prompts Riley to get off the bus and rush back to her parents. The emotions then make a new core memory that is both happy and sad.

Which genetically engineered hybrid escapes its paddock and terrorises the theme park in Jurassic World?

Indominus rex turns out to carry Velociraptor DNA. That lets it take command of Owen's trained raptors and become the pack's new alpha.

Which actress shaved her head to play Imperator Furiosa, a one-armed rig driver, in Mad Max: Fury Road?

Charlize Theron's Furiosa later got a film of her own. The prequel Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga arrived in 2024, again written and directed by George Miller.

Which Furious 7 star died during production, leaving his two brothers to stand in for his remaining scenes?

Paul Walker died in a car crash and filming was suspended for months. The song that plays over the ending, See You Again, is a tribute to him.

Which singer's Writing's on the Wall, the theme from Spectre, was the first Bond song to top the UK chart?

Sam Smith's theme also won the Oscar for Best Original Song, making it only the second Bond theme to take that award.

Which actress voices Scarlet Overkill, the supervillain the yellow henchmen serve in 2015's Minions?

Sandra Bullock's villain ends up locking Kevin, Stuart and Bob in a dungeon. The film grossed $1.16 billion, the fifth-highest total of the year.

Which animal mauls frontiersman Hugh Glass and leaves him near death early in The Revenant?

A grizzly bear attacks while Glass is out scouting for game. Leonardo DiCaprio's performance in the role won him his first Oscar, after five earlier nominations.

Which actress appears as herself in a bathtub to explain subprime mortgages in The Big Short?

Margot Robbie's cameo trended again six years later, during the GameStop short squeeze. Viewers used her explanation as a reference point for the stock frenzy.

Which rolling droid escapes with a vital map and befriends a scavenger in Star Wars: The Force Awakens?

BB-8 was performed on set by a rod puppet and a remote-controlled unit rather than added later by computer. Seven puppets of the character were built for filming.

Which actress, then almost unknown, plays the Jakku scavenger Rey in Star Wars: The Force Awakens?

Daisy Ridley had been working as a bartender at two London pubs before she was cast. The film went on to become the highest-grossing release of 2015.

Which director cast Tom Hanks as a lawyer negotiating a Cold War prisoner exchange in Bridge of Spies?

Steven Spielberg's film takes its title from the Glienicke Bridge, where the real swap took place. Mark Rylance won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor as the Soviet agent Rudolf Abel.

Which actress won the Best Actress Oscar for Room, playing a mother held captive with her young son?

Brie Larson's character has been a prisoner for seven years when the story begins. Jacob Tremblay plays her five-year-old boy, who was born in captivity.

Which newspaper's investigative team exposes abuse by Catholic priests in Spotlight, the Best Picture winner for 2015?

The Boston Globe's unit is the oldest continuously operating investigative team at an American newspaper. The film took only one Oscar besides the top prize, for its screenplay.

Which hip-hop group's rise and fall under manager Jerry Heller is told in Straight Outta Compton?

N.W.A member Ice Cube is played in the film by his own son, the rapper O'Shea Jackson Jr.

Which actor earned an Oscar nomination for Creed by returning to a boxer he first played in 1976?

Sylvester Stallone won the Critics' Choice Award for the part. His Rocky Balboa is now the trainer, mentoring the son of his old rival Apollo.

Which comedian voiced Count Dracula in Hotel Transylvania 2 and fought video-game aliens in Pixels, both in 2015?

Adam Sandler also co-wrote the monster sequel. In Pixels he plays Sam Brenner, a former arcade champion called up when invaders attack with video game characters.

Which Pixar director made Inside Out after noticing his daughter's personality change as she grew older?

Pete Docter saw his daughter Elie becoming more quiet and reserved, and began to wonder what was happening internally. The project was green-lit in October 2009.

Which future co-creator of Yellowstone made his screenwriting debut with the 2015 thriller Sicario?

Taylor Sheridan earned a Writers Guild nomination for the script. His Kevin Costner ranch saga reached television in 2018, three years after the film came out.

Which actor plays the Apple co-founder in the 2015 film Steve Jobs, written by Aaron Sorkin?

Michael Fassbender took the part after Leonardo DiCaprio and Christian Bale had each been lined up for it. Ashton Kutcher had played the same man two years earlier in Jobs.

Which actor plays the painter Lili Elbe in Tom Hooper's 2015 drama The Danish Girl?

Eddie Redmayne earned a Best Actor nomination for the role. His co-star Alicia Vikander, as the painter's wife Gerda Wegener, won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.

Which actress plays FBI agent Kate Macer in Sicario, Denis Villeneuve's thriller about a drug cartel task force?

Emily Blunt joined the film in April 2014, shortly before Benicio del Toro. The studio went on to commission a sequel centred on his character.

Which Italian composer won the Oscar for Best Original Score for Quentin Tarantino's The Hateful Eight?

Ennio Morricone had not written a complete Western score for 34 years. It was also the first Tarantino film to use an original score at all.

Whom does Katniss Everdeen shoot instead of President Snow at the end of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2?

Alma Coin, the leader of District 13, is accused by Snow of staging a bombing to turn his followers against him. Katniss fires at her during his public execution.

Which Pixar film followed Inside Out into cinemas in 2015, the studio's first year with two feature releases?

The Good Dinosaur imagines a world where the giant reptiles never died out. It follows Arlo, a timid young Apatosaurus who befriends a human boy called Spot.

Which real-life gangster and FBI informant does Johnny Depp play in the 2015 crime drama Black Mass?

Whitey Bulger led the Winter Hill Gang. The film shows him exploiting his status as an informant, using the bureau's protection as cover for his crimes.

Which household invention does Jennifer Lawrence's character sell on the shopping channel QVC in the 2015 film Joy?

Miracle Mop inventor Joy Mangano designed the self-wringing gadget out of frustration with ordinary ones. Bradley Cooper plays the QVC executive who agrees to put it on television.

Which actress plays Lady Tremaine, the jealous stepmother, in Kenneth Branagh's 2015 live-action Cinderella?

Cate Blanchett was the first actor cast in the film. Her character resents her stepdaughter for her unbreakable spirit and kindness.

Which actor voices the title villain, a rogue artificial intelligence, in Avengers: Age of Ultron?

James Spader's machine is created by Tony Stark and Bruce Banner as a peacekeeper. It promptly decides that world peace requires human extinction.

Which fictional Eastern European country's capital is lifted into the sky in Avengers: Age of Ultron?

Sokovia was filmed around Fort Bard in Italy's Aosta Valley, where crews replaced local storefronts with signs in Cyrillic script.

Which city's Etihad Towers host the Furious 7 heist of a chip hidden in a billionaire prince's supercar?

Abu Dhabi is where the crew go after an airdrop of their cars over the Caucasus Mountains. The singer T-Pain turns up as himself, DJing a party in the emirate.

Which Game of Thrones star plays Sarah Connor in the 2015 reboot Terminator Genisys?

Emilia Clarke was the second cast member of the fantasy series to take the part. Lena Headey had played the same heroine in a television spin-off in 2008 and 2009.

Which vehicle does Tom Cruise cling to the outside of in mid-air in Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation?

A cargo plane, an Airbus A400M, carried the actor more than 5,000 feet up. He performed the sequence himself, without a stunt double.

Which country does Eilis Lacey leave for a new life in 1950s New York in the film Brooklyn?

Ireland keeps its pull on her. After building a life in America she is drawn back to her home town of Enniscorthy and has to choose where her future lies.

Which real-life children's horror author does Jack Black play in the 2015 film Goosebumps?

R. L. Stine makes a cameo appearance himself. Black's fictionalised version of him has to save his town after monsters escape from the original manuscripts.

Which sports league tries to suppress Bennet Omalu's research into brain disease in the 2015 drama Concussion?

NFL officials dismiss the pathologist's published findings on CTE, a degenerative brain disease he found in former professional players.

Which country's Holocaust drama Son of Saul won the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar for 2015?

Hungary had not won the award since Mephisto in 1981. The film, set in Auschwitz, was the feature debut of its director, László Nemes.

Which actor played Max Rockatansky, both Kray twins and the trapper John Fitzgerald in three 2015 films?

Tom Hardy earned an Oscar nomination for the trapper and a British Independent Film Award for playing Reggie and Ron in Legend.

Which late singer is the subject of Asif Kapadia's 2015 film that won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature?

Amy Winehouse's story is told through more than 100 interviews with her friends and family, set against unseen footage and unheard tracks.

Which streaming service released the war drama Beasts of No Nation in 2015 as its first original feature film?

Netflix paid around $12 million for the worldwide rights. The film went online on the same day that it opened in a limited cinema release.

Which everyday device did director Sean Baker use to shoot the whole of the 2015 film Tangerine?

An iPhone 5s, in fact three of them, each fitted with an anamorphic lens adapter to give the film its widescreen look.

Which studio produced the 2015 stop-motion Shaun the Sheep Movie, told entirely without dialogue?

Aardman kept the film wordless, as the television series had been. The lack of speech began as a practical decision by a team with limited resources.

Which director left Marvel's Ant-Man over creative differences in 2014 but kept a screenplay credit?

Edgar Wright had already cast Evangeline Lilly. She was reluctant to stay on after he went, until she read the revised script and met his replacement.

Which thriller writer's 1952 romance The Price of Salt was filmed in 2015 as Carol?

Patricia Highsmith changed the book's title herself when it was republished in 1990, which is why the film is not called The Price of Salt.

Which New York landmark does Philippe Petit cross on a high wire in the 2015 film The Walk?

The World Trade Center site helped the star prepare: Joseph Gordon-Levitt walked the distance between the memorial's two pools, where the Twin Towers once stood.

Which actor appeared in Brooklyn, The Revenant and Star Wars: The Force Awakens, all released in 2015?

Domhnall Gleeson played General Armitage Hux in the space saga. He kept the role through the rest of the sequel trilogy, up to 2019.

Which director made The Visit, a 2015 horror about two siblings staying with their estranged grandparents?

M. Night Shyamalan has the children notice their hosts behaving bizarrely. They then set out to find the truth behind the strange goings-on at the farmstead.

Which actress made her directorial debut with Pitch Perfect 2, the 2015 a cappella sequel?

Elizabeth Banks also appears on screen as Gail, one of the commentators at the singing competitions.

Which instrument, doubling as a flamethrower, does the Doof Warrior play in Mad Max: Fury Road?

Guitar and wagon were both fully functional. None of the eyeless musician's scenes were rendered with CGI, even when the instrument shoots fire.