48 Fun Facts About 50 First Dates

Which director of Nutty Professor II and Get Smart also made 50 First Dates?

Peter Segal: he said yes while still finishing another Adam Sandler film and had just 48 hours off before the cameras rolled, a schedule he says turned his hair white.

In 50 First Dates, what is Henry Roth's job?

Marine veterinarian: Adam Sandler's character treats the animals at a Hawaiian sea park, which is why Lucy notices at their first breakfast that his hands smell of fish, and tells him she loves it.

In 50 First Dates, what is Lucy Whitmore's profession?

Art teacher: she tells Henry she teaches at a junior high, and by the end of the film she is giving art classes at the brain-injury clinic that treats her.

In 50 First Dates, where does Lucy eat breakfast every morning?

The Hukilau Cafe: its staff are in on the family's secret, so they play along each morning and keep a wary eye on any stranger who joins her table.

In 50 First Dates, what is the fictional name of Lucy's form of amnesia?

Goldfield's syndrome: the doctor credits it to a brilliant Lithuanian psychiatrist, but the condition was made up for the film, and a BMJ review said it matched no known disorder.

In 50 First Dates, what were Lucy and her father doing on the day of the crash?

Picking a birthday pineapple: the outing was a family tradition for her father's birthday, which is why he and her brother restage that same birthday every day.

In 50 First Dates, which animal causes Lucy's car crash?

A cow: when Lucy later asks how it is doing, Henry says it is the same as her, and has to be convinced every day that it is a cow.

In 50 First Dates, which thriller do Lucy's father and brother rewatch every night?

The Sixth Sense: it was her present to her father that day, so every evening the two men unwrap it again, sit through it again and gasp that Bruce Willis is a ghost.

In 50 First Dates, which Beach Boys song does Lucy sing only on days she has met Henry?

Wouldn't It Be Nice: it was her parents' song, and hearing her sing it in her studio, the first change in her routine since the crash, persuades her father to let Henry keep meeting her.

Who plays Lucy's bodybuilding, lisping brother Doug in 50 First Dates?

Sean Astin: he went straight from three films as the hobbit Samwise Gamgee to playing Doug, who helps his father restage the same day for Lucy.

Who plays Ula, Henry's marijuana-smoking best friend, in 50 First Dates?

Rob Schneider: his Ula keeps lining Henry up with dates, explaining that with five children and an unhappy marriage he has to live vicariously through his friend.

In 50 First Dates, what kind of bird is Henry's friend Willy?

Penguin: Willy waddles around the sea park at Henry's side, and Henry jokes that the bath he gave him today will have to be given all over again tomorrow.

In 50 First Dates, what kind of animal is Henry's friend Jocko?

A walrus: Jocko was played by Sivuqaq, a star of a California theme park, and the director said a kiss from him nearly sucked the cheek off his face.

Who plays Dr. Keats, the brain-injury specialist, in 50 First Dates?

Dan Aykroyd: the Ghostbusters star plays the doctor with a bedside manner all his own, breaking off from Lucy's brain scans to crack jokes at her family's expense.

In 50 First Dates, how long does hospital patient Tom's memory last before it resets?

Ten seconds: he lost part of his brain in a hunting accident and reintroduces himself with 'Hi, I'm Tom' several times a minute, a character the director admits was pure comic licence.

In 50 First Dates, what does Lucy's father Marlin do for a living?

Fisherman: Lucy tells Henry that her dad and brother go to sea for months at a time, which is why she calls the smell of fish the best smell in the world.

In 50 First Dates, how does Henry help Lucy start each day knowing the truth?

A video from friends and family: Henry sees that what hurts Lucy most is being lied to, and a New York care home later copied the idea with morning videos for residents with dementia.

In 50 First Dates, what makes Lucy realise that far more time has passed than she thinks?

A ticket for expired plates: she storms out to tell the officer her tags are good for months yet, and the pretence her family has kept up for a year falls apart on the spot.

In 50 First Dates, why does Lucy break up with Henry?

His abandoned voyage: Henry had spent ten years preparing to sail to Bristol Bay for his research, and Lucy refuses to be the reason he never goes.

After their breakup in 50 First Dates, how does Lucy show that some memory of Henry has stuck?

She paints his portrait: her studio at the clinic is full of pictures of a man she says she dreams about almost every night, though she still has no idea who he is.

Where does Lucy wake up in the final scene of 50 First Dates?

On a boat in Alaska: she looks out at glaciers instead of palm trees, and goes up on deck to find Henry, her father and a young daughter she never knew she had.

The script for 50 First Dates was originally titled Fifty First what?

Kisses: that was still the title when Adam Sandler signed on in December 2002, and Drew Barrymore says it was the script under that name that she fell for.

50 First Dates opened in American cinemas in 2004 on the eve of which holiday?

Valentine's Day: the film opened on Friday the 13th of February and still went straight to number one at the American box office.

On which Hawaiian island was most of 50 First Dates shot?

Oahu: the crew worked on the island's windward side and North Shore, though several aquarium and animal scenes were shot at a theme park in California.

Which Hawaiian ranch, also a Jurassic Park location, provided the road Lucy drives each day in 50 First Dates?

Kualoa Ranch: the family estate has hosted so many shoots that it now runs movie-site tours, and the film's country road runs through its Kaʻaʻawa Valley.

What was the first film Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore made together?

The Wedding Singer: Barrymore says she sought Sandler out before that 1998 film, telling a man who barely knew her that the two of them were cinematic soul mates.

How did Drew Barrymore get 50 First Dates moving?

She wrote Sandler a letter: Barrymore says she sat at a typewriter in tears, certain she had found the film the two of them were supposed to make next.

Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore won which MTV Movie Award for 50 First Dates?

Best On-Screen Team: they beat Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom of Pirates of the Caribbean, Will Smith and Martin Lawrence of Bad Boys II, and Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson of Starsky & Hutch.

The clinic in 50 First Dates is funded by auto-parts tycoon T.B. Callahan of Sandusky, Ohio, echoing which 1995 comedy?

Tommy Boy: its hero is Tommy Callahan, heir to an auto-parts firm in Sandusky, Ohio, and the film was an earlier hit for the director of 50 First Dates.

What kind of music dominates the 50 First Dates soundtrack album?

Reggae covers of 80s and 90s hits: UB40 took on the Police, Ziggy Marley the Cars and Wyclef Jean the Outfield, and the album went on to top Billboard's reggae chart.

In 50 First Dates, what is the title of the ukulele song Henry writes and sings to Lucy?

Forgetful Lucy: Adam Sandler co-wrote the ukulele number, which runs through everything she has forgotten about their romance and closes the soundtrack album.

Which British band's Lovesong did 311 cover for the end credits of 50 First Dates?

The Cure: 311's version of the 1989 hit was released as a single, and the band's singer Nick Hexum produced the whole soundtrack album.

Israel Kamakawiwoʻole's ukulele medley in 50 First Dates pairs What a Wonderful World with which other standard?

Over the Rainbow: the 1990 recording is heard in the film but, like the Beach Boys song at the heart of the plot, was left off the soundtrack album.

When Lucy breaks up with Henry in 50 First Dates, how does she try to erase him?

By destroying her diary pages: once every entry about him is gone she will wake with no trace of him, and a heartbroken Henry helps her tear them out.

In 50 First Dates, what erases Lucy's memory of the day she has just lived?

Falling asleep: she gets through each day normally, but since the crash her brain cannot turn the day's memories into lasting ones overnight, so she wakes believing it is still that morning.

In 50 First Dates, what does Lucy's father whitewash every night so she can make it again?

Her mural in his workshop: each morning he tells her the walls look too white, she spends the day painting them, and that night he rolls white paint back over her work.

Which Saturday Night Live alumna plays Lucy's pregnant friend Stacy in 50 First Dates?

Maya Rudolph: her Stacy is at the beach party where Lucy, told the truth at last, catches up on a lost year and can't believe her friend is pregnant.

In 50 First Dates, what is the name of Henry's androgynous assistant?

Alexa: Lusia Strus plays Henry's colleague, whom he tries to pair off with Noreen, the tax attorney he has just talked his way out of dating.

In 50 First Dates, what is Doug forever told to give up?

Steroids: 'Douglas, get off the juice,' the doctor tells him, and when the order comes again Doug insists it is only a protein shake.

In 50 First Dates, which nickname does cafe cook Nick give Henry?

Peanut Butter Cups: a Reese's and a Gatorade are what Henry admits he had for breakfast the first time he wanders into the cafe, and the cook never lets him forget it.

Which 2014 film reunited Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore for their third collaboration?

Blended: they play single parents whose families are thrown together at an African safari resort, a reunion Barrymore says she nudged Sandler into ten years after 50 First Dates.

The director of 50 First Dates took the job while finishing which other Adam Sandler film?

Anger Management: Sandler handed over the script during post-production, and the director later called starting a new shoot two days after finishing the last 'nearly the death of me'.

In 50 First Dates, who first explains Lucy's condition to Henry?

Sue from the cafe: she was best friends with Lucy's late mother and promised to look out for her, so she takes Henry aside and tells him about the crash.

In 50 First Dates, what is Lucy building a little house out of when Henry first sees her?

Waffles: Henry breaks the ice by showing her how to make a hinge for the door, and she goes on building waffle houses at the same table morning after morning.

At the start of 50 First Dates, why does Henry date only tourists?

To avoid commitment: every fling ends when her flight home leaves, which is what makes falling for a local who cannot remember him from one day to the next such a change of course.

Which King of Queens star makes a brief cameo as a factory worker in 50 First Dates?

Kevin James: he appears only briefly here, but three years later he and Adam Sandler were co-leads in I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry, with Grown Ups to follow.

In 2025, 50 First Dates reached the London stage as what kind of show?

A musical: its world premiere came not on Broadway but at London's The Other Palace, with Casey Nicholaw, the Tony-winning director of The Book of Mormon, in charge.

Which Latin American country remade 50 First Dates in 2019 as Como si fuera la primera vez?

Mexico: the remake kept the title the Adam Sandler original had carried in Latin American cinemas, and moved the story from Hawaii to the Dominican Republic, where it was filmed.