50 Fun Facts About Apocalypse Now

Which author's novella Heart of Darkness, set in the 19th-century Congo, inspired Apocalypse Now?

Joseph Conrad drew the story from his own time as a steamboat captain in Africa; the film moves the river journey to the Vietnam War.

Which star plays Colonel Kurtz in Apocalypse Now, having arrived on set overweight and unprepared?

Marlon Brando was paid $2 million for a month's work, and Coppola hid his size by dressing him in black and filming only his face.

Which classical piece blares from Kilgore's helicopters as they attack a village in Apocalypse Now?

Ride of the Valkyries, from Wagner's opera Die Walküre, plays from loudspeakers mounted on the helicopters throughout the air assault on the village.

In which country was Apocalypse Now shot, standing in for Vietnam?

The Philippines offered cheap labour and American military hardware, but the planned five-month shoot there dragged on for more than a year.

Which medical emergency nearly killed Martin Sheen, then 36, during the Apocalypse Now shoot?

A heart attack left Sheen struggling a quarter of a mile to reach help, and he passed it off as heat stroke so the film's backers would not pull the money.

Which actor lied about his age and was only 14 when he began playing Mr. Clean in Apocalypse Now?

Laurence Fishburne, billed as Larry, was 14 when shooting began, and the production ran so long that he was 18 by the time the film came out.

What did the Apocalypse Now production buy from a man who turned out to be a grave robber?

Real human corpses were bought for the set until police questioned the crew and held their passports, and soldiers took the bodies away. Extras played the dead instead.

Which weapon's smell does Kilgore praise in the most quoted speech of Apocalypse Now?

Napalm earns a short eulogy from Kilgore that UK film fans voted the best movie speech of all time in a 2004 Blockbuster poll.

Which 1960s rock band recorded The End, the brooding song heard on the Apocalypse Now soundtrack?

The Doors' track was remixed specially for the film, and a 289-minute early assembly swapped the composed score for several more of the band's songs.

Which sport obsesses Lieutenant Colonel Kilgore in Apocalypse Now, even as his men attack a village?

Surfing shapes the whole beach assault, and the film is credited with starting a wave-riding culture around Baler, the town where the scenes were shot.

Which actor earned an Oscar nomination as the helicopter commander Kilgore in Apocalypse Now?

Robert Duvall thought the part too over-the-top as written and got Coppola's permission to rework it, asking military men how a tough, unflinching officer would behave.

Which actor plays the manic photojournalist who greets Willard at Kurtz's base in Apocalypse Now?

Dennis Hopper got the scene after Coppola heard him talking nonstop on location, and the character is said to be modelled on Sean Flynn, a correspondent who vanished in 1970.

Which actor plays the intelligence colonel who hands Willard his mission early in Apocalypse Now?

Harrison Ford took the minor part after James Caan asked for too much money, and the film reached cinemas two years after his breakthrough in Star Wars.

Which animal surprises Chef and Willard as they search the jungle for mangoes in Apocalypse Now?

A tiger sends Chef into a brief mental breakdown, the moment when Willard starts to see cracks forming in the boat's crew.

In which country does Colonel Kurtz rule his remote jungle outpost in Apocalypse Now?

Cambodia is where Kurtz commands American and local troops who worship him, from a Khmer temple strewn with the remains of his victims.

Which natural disaster wrecked the Apocalypse Now sets and shut the production down for weeks?

A typhoon named Olga wrecked between 40 and 80 per cent of the sets at Iba, and most of the cast and crew flew home for six to eight weeks.

Which actor began Apocalypse Now as Captain Willard before Martin Sheen replaced him weeks later?

Harvey Keitel was cast on the strength of Mean Streets, but Coppola felt he struggled to play Willard as a passive onlooker. Reportedly only four days of reshoots were needed.

Which filmmaker was first lined up to direct Apocalypse Now, before Francis Ford Coppola took over?

George Lucas planned a cheap 16 mm shoot in documentary style while the war was still being fought, then put it aside for American Graffiti and Star Wars.

What does a drunk Martin Sheen really punch and break in the hotel-room opening of Apocalypse Now?

A mirror that was no prop cut his hand badly, yet Sheen insisted on finishing the scene and later called it an exorcism of his drinking.

At which festival did Apocalypse Now screen as a work in progress and still share the top prize?

Cannes had never shown a work in progress in competition before, and the jury's decision to split the Palme d'Or was met with some boos and jeers.

Which film beat Apocalypse Now to Best Picture at the 1980 Oscars, winning five awards in all?

Kramer vs. Kramer swept the main prizes, while Coppola's epic converted only two of its eight nominations, for cinematography and sound.

Which Italian cinematographer won his first Oscar for the jungle imagery of Apocalypse Now?

Vittorio Storaro was making his American film debut, and even critics who were cool on the story acclaimed the way the film looked.

Which writer drafted the first Apocalypse Now script after asthma kept him out of the Vietnam War?

John Milius was paid $15,000 by Coppola to write it and went on to produce ten drafts running to more than a thousand pages.

Which US military branch crews the boat carrying Army Captain Willard upriver in Apocalypse Now?

The Navy boat is run by Chief Petty Officer Phillips, who keeps a tight ship and clashes with Willard over whose orders come first.

Which weapon kills the boat's commander, Chief Phillips, as Apocalypse Now nears Kurtz's outpost?

A spear thrown from the riverbank impales the Chief, who tries to pull Willard onto its point with his last strength before Willard suffocates him.

Which weapon does Captain Willard use to kill Colonel Kurtz at the climax of Apocalypse Now?

A machete attack comes while villagers carry out a ritual sacrifice outside, and Kurtz's followers bow to Willard as he leaves with the colonel's writings.

Which animal was really slaughtered on camera by an Ifugao tribe for the ending of Apocalypse Now?

A water buffalo died in a genuine ritual that Coppola and his wife had watched earlier, and the American Humane Association rated the film unacceptable.

Which drug does the boat's gunner Lance say he has taken during the bridge scene in Apocalypse Now?

LSD is still working on Lance when he sets off a smoke grenade further upriver, drawing the enemy fire that kills Mr. Clean.

Which poet's The Hollow Men does Colonel Kurtz recite shortly before his death in Apocalypse Now?

T. S. Eliot had prefaced that poem with an epigraph about a dead Kurtz, taken from the very novella the film is based on.

Which star was Coppola's first choice to play Willard in Apocalypse Now but would not leave America?

Steve McQueen also wanted a $3 million fee, and when he dropped out Coppola had to hand back $5 million of the money he had raised.

Which entertainers perform for the troops in Apocalypse Now, with Bill Graham as their announcer?

Playboy Playmates are played partly by the real thing: cast member Cynthia Wood was the magazine's 1974 Playmate of the Year.

Which relative of Martin Sheen stood in for him on Apocalypse Now and recorded Willard's narration?

Joe Estevez, Sheen's younger brother, sounded almost identical to him, and Coppola later admitted he could no longer tell which scenes featured which man.

How was Carmine Coppola, who wrote music for Apocalypse Now, related to Francis Ford Coppola?

His father, a flautist and composer, also contributed original music to all three Godfather films.

Which role does Francis Ford Coppola play in an uncredited cameo in Apocalypse Now's beach battle?

A TV news director is his part, urging passing soldiers to carry on as if they were fighting, while the film's own cinematographer plays the cameraman beside him.

Which Full Metal Jacket drill instructor plays an uncredited helicopter pilot in Apocalypse Now?

R. Lee Ermey was a real former Marine drill instructor and Vietnam War veteran, eight years before he found fame as Gunnery Sergeant Hartman.

Which sound designer built the pioneering surround mix for Apocalypse Now, later known as 5.1?

Walter Murch was the first person ever credited as Sound Designer, and he had to fabricate the mood of the jungle because the location recordings were inadequate.

Which studio lent Coppola millions to finish Apocalypse Now and released the film in 1979?

United Artists also took out a $15 million life insurance policy on Coppola, who had offered his car, his house and his Godfather profits as security.

Which company, co-founded by Francis Ford Coppola in 1969, raised the money to make Apocalypse Now?

American Zoetrope sold the distribution rights in advance for more than $15 million, on the promise of a cast full of major stars.

Which watch brand's 6105 diver is nicknamed the Captain Willard after its role in Apocalypse Now?

Seiko has reissued the watch since, and collectors carry the film character's name over to each new version.

In which Charlie Sheen comedy does Martin Sheen return as Willard, passing his son on a river?

Hot Shots! Part Deux has the two Sheens shout praise for each other's work in Wall Street as their boats pass. Its HBO promo spoofed the making-of documentary too.

Which elite US Army force did Colonel Kurtz give up a Pentagon career to join in Apocalypse Now?

The Green Berets were an odd move for a third-generation West Point graduate tipped for a top post, and the switch all but ended his chances of promotion.

Which word did Coppola add to the title of his 2001 extended version of Apocalypse Now?

Redux restored 49 minutes that had been dropped in 1979, some of it digitally enhanced to look the way Coppola had wanted on set.

Which setting hosts the longest sequence restored to Apocalypse Now in its 2001 extended version?

A French plantation shelters a colonial family who argue about colonialism in Indochina, with Coppola's own two sons among the children.

Which name did Coppola give his preferred version of Apocalypse Now, first shown at Tribeca in 2019?

Final Cut runs just over three hours, trimming 20 minutes from the 2001 edition, and was the first version restored in 4K from the original camera negative.

Which Werner Herzog film about a doomed river expedition shaped Coppola's work on Apocalypse Now?

Aguirre, the Wrath of God sends conquistadors down the Amazon in search of El Dorado, with Klaus Kinski as the soldier leading them into madness and folly.

Which Pulitzer-winning Viet Thanh Nguyen novel has a subplot written to critique Apocalypse Now?

The Sympathizer argues with a film its author called an important work of art, one that centres American views of the war over Vietnamese experience.

Which country's 1981 martial law lives on in a photo of troops at a cinema showing Apocalypse Now?

Poland knew the film as Czas apokalipsy, and Chris Niedenthal's picture of an armoured carrier beneath that banner became a symbol of the crackdown.

Which director planned Heart of Darkness as his first RKO film in 1939, long before Apocalypse Now?

Orson Welles meant to play both Marlow and Kurtz himself, and decades later he turned down the role of the colonel in Coppola's version.

Which river does Captain Willard's patrol boat travel up to reach Colonel Kurtz in Apocalypse Now?

The Nung has a Viet Cong-held mouth, which is why Kilgore's helicopters are needed to get the boat safely into the river.

Which city is home to Chef, the tightly wound aspiring saucier on the patrol boat in Apocalypse Now?

New Orleans is where Chef was training in the kitchen until a draft notice interrupted him, leaving him horrified by his new surroundings.