50 Fun Facts About A Few Good Men

Who directed the 1992 film A Few Good Men?

Reiner also produced it, and it became the most commercially successful film of his career.

Who wrote the screenplay, adapting his own 1989 stage play?

It was Sorkin's first produced screenplay; The American President and The West Wing followed.

Who plays Navy lawyer Lieutenant Daniel Kaffee?

He was cast on March 22, 1991, six years after playing another cocky Navy officer in Top Gun.

Who plays Colonel Nathan Jessep, the base commander at the center of the case?

The role earned him his tenth Oscar nomination despite only about ten days on set.

Which actress plays Lieutenant Commander Joanne Galloway?

The part came between Ghost and Indecent Proposal in her hottest run of box-office years.

Who plays the prosecutor, Marine Captain Jack Ross?

He made the film the year after playing Willie O'Keefe in Oliver Stone's JFK.

Who plays Santiago's hard-line platoon commander, the lieutenant accused of relaying the order?

He had already worked with Reiner as the bully Ace in Stand by Me.

Which actor and impressionist plays Kaffee's co-counsel Sam Weinberg?

Weinberg is one of many best-friend-of-the-lead roles in his career, alongside Grumpy Old Men and The Usual Suspects.

Which Seinfeld actor was originally cast as Weinberg but had to withdraw?

Seinfeld's second-season renewal pulled him out, and a stand-up comic best known for his impressions took over the part.

Who plays Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Markinson, the officer who secretly meets Kaffee?

Walsh and Nicholson also appeared together in Hoffa that same year; Nicholson later dedicated his As Good as It Gets Oscar to him.

At which military base does Private Santiago die?

The base is on Cuba's south shore, and Santiago's request to be transferred off it is what sets the plot in motion.

What term do the defendants use for the unofficial punishment they were ordered to inflict?

The phrase was reportedly real Marine slang for hazing at the time but has since dropped out of use.

What does Kaffee realize about Santiago's wall locker that exposes the transfer story as a lie?

The epiphany hits Kaffee while staring into his own closet, and it is what convinces him to put Jessep on the stand.

Of what are the two defendants ultimately convicted?

They are cleared of murder and conspiracy but still face dishonorable discharge, which Downey cannot understand.

The film's title comes from what?

The Marines were 'looking for a few good men' in a recruiting campaign that ran from 1971 to 1984.

A phone call from which relative gave Sorkin the idea for the story?

Deborah Sorkin was heading to Guantanamo to defend Marines accused in a hazing ordered by a superior officer.

Sorkin famously drafted much of the story on cocktail napkins while doing what job?

He typed the napkins into a computer each night when he got home, building up many drafts.

Sorkin was tending bar during the first act of which musical when he scribbled those napkins?

The show was running at the Palace Theatre, where he worked the bar.

On which computer did Sorkin type up his napkin notes?

He and his roommates had bought it together, and he would empty his pockets of napkins into it each night.

Which producer bought the film rights in 1988, before the play had even premiered?

Brown had read about Sorkin's one-act play Hidden in This Picture in The New York Times, and the deal was reportedly well into six figures.

Which veteran screenwriter's uncredited rewrite did Sorkin like so much he folded it back into A Few Good Men?

Goldman later became a mentor to Sorkin.

What 'smoking gun' from the stage version was removed for the film?

Without it, the film's climax rests entirely on Kaffee provoking Jessep into confessing on the stand.

Which production company, co-founded by the director in 1987, made the film?

Alan Horn at the company called the producer after TriStar had passed on the project for lacking stars.

Roughly how much did the film gross worldwide?

The budget was between $33 and $40 million, and it held the number one spot at the US box office for three straight weeks.

What was the film's lead reportedly paid for playing Kaffee?

Demi Moore later matched that figure with her then-record $12.5 million for Striptease.

Nicholson earned $500,000 a day for how many days of shooting?

That works out to $500,000 a day, which he called one of the few times the money was well spent.

Which actor auditioned for Jessep before the role went to Nicholson?

Nicholson later grumbled that Columbia moved the release date to compete directly with his other 1992 film.

Nicholson complained that Columbia moved the release to clash with which of his other 1992 films?

Hoffa opened on Christmas Day 1992, and Nicholson blamed its weak performance on the scheduling.

The film was up for how many Academy Awards?

Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor for Nicholson, Best Film Editing and Best Sound; it went home empty-handed.

Which film beat A Few Good Men to the Best Picture Oscar that year?

A Few Good Men was actually the highest-grossing of the five Best Picture nominees.

Wolfgang Bodison, who plays Lance Corporal Dawson, held what job on the production before he was cast?

Reiner, who had trouble casting Dawson, asked his own crew member to screen test and gave him the part.

James Marshall, who plays Private Downey, is best known for which TV series?

He played biker James Hurley in the original run, the 1992 prequel film and the 2017 revival.

Which future West Wing regular made his screen debut in a five-word role as Jessep's clerk?

He had already been in the Broadway production, and he praised Nicholson for reading his own off-screen lines in their scene.

The Department of Defense refused permission to film at which Marine base?

The production still got 200 off-duty Marines as extras.

The silent drill in the opening was performed by cadets from which university?

The Corps of Cadets Fish Drill Team stood in for the Marine Corps Silent Drill Platoon.

The film's lead said he modeled his performance as Kaffee on which friend?

He also insisted on using the Church of Scientology's Clearsound recording technology on set.

Which composer, a frequent collaborator of the director, wrote the score?

He also scored When Harry Met Sally..., Misery and The American President for Reiner.

The real 1986 hazing at the Cuba base that inspired the story targeted which Marine?

He had written to a Texas congressman complaining about conditions on the base, including Marines firing shots across the fence into Cuba.

Unlike Santiago in the film, what happened to the real victim of the hazing?

He began choking and turning purple, possibly because the gag had been soaked in gasoline, but survived after treatment in Miami.

Which real Marine from the 1986 hazing incident behind A Few Good Men was found murdered in Massachusetts in 1994?

He had been honorably discharged in 1989 and was reportedly upset that the film's Marines were dishonorably discharged.

At which Broadway house did the play open in November 1989?

Don Scardino directed, and the production ran for 497 performances.

Which Amadeus star played Kaffee in the original Broadway production and earned a Tony nomination for it?

He lost the 1990 Best Actor Tony but the show also brought Megan Gallagher a Theatre World Award.

Who was the first actor to play Colonel Jessep on stage, in 1989?

Twenty years later he became another hard-nosed colonel, Miles Quaritch, in Avatar.

Where did the play have its world premiere before Broadway?

It opened at the Heritage Repertory Theatre on September 19, 1989, then moved to the Kennedy Center.

Which West Wing star played Kaffee in the 2005 London revival at the Theatre Royal Haymarket?

Suranne Jones played Galloway and John Barrowman played Ross; it was Lowe's first Sorkin project since leaving The West Wing.

In 2016 NBC announced a live television production of the play with which actor as Jessep?

It was patterned on NBC's live musicals and slated for 2018, but the network never announced an airdate.

The Spanish-language production staged in Puerto Rico in 1991 went by what title?

It opened at the Ferre Performing Arts Center; a German-language version, Eine Frage der Ehre, followed in Vienna in 1993.

On AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes list, where does Jessep's most famous line rank?

Jessep was also a nominee on AFI's list of the greatest screen villains.

Which cast member plays Corporal Hammaker, the year after his breakout as Tre in Boyz n the Hood?

He would win a Best Supporting Actor Oscar four years later opposite Cruise again in Jerry Maguire.

Which future ER star has a small role as Corporal Barnes?

It was his most notable casting before Dr. John Carter made him famous in 1994.