50 Fun Facts About Leverage

Which Oscar winner, honoured at age 20 for Ordinary People, played team leader Nate Ford on Leverage?

Timothy Hutton won that Oscar for his very first feature film performance, after starting out in television films.

Which cable network aired all five seasons of Leverage before cancelling the heist drama in December 2012?

TNT pulled the plug amid falling ratings, but the last episode had been made to work as a series finale in case that happened.

On Leverage, what is the crew's name for Eliot Spencer's role, which he himself calls retrieval specialist?

Hitter Eliot Spencer does the fighting, yet the former black ops soldier also proves to be a gifted cook and a talented singer.

On Leverage, grifter Sophie Devereaux is hopeless at which legitimate career unless she is running a con?

Acting is Sophie's dream, yet she is over-the-top on stage and convincing only when the role is part of a crime.

On Leverage, Nate Ford spent years recovering stolen property for IYS, which is what kind of business?

Insurance company IYS refused to pay for a procedure that might have saved Nate's young son, the loss that turns him against his old employer.

Most Leverage episodes end by revealing how the crew really outwitted the villain using which storytelling device?

A flashback shows what viewers were not told the first time, often turning an apparent setback into something the crew had planned for.

On Leverage, agents Taggert and McSweeten keep helping the crew, believing Parker and Hardison work for which agency?

The FBI pair believe they are aiding fellow agents, and the arrests they are credited with send them rapidly up the bureau's ranks.

Leverage's Eliot Spencer, a former black ops soldier, refuses to use which tools of his trade unless forced?

Guns are a last resort for Eliot even though he is a skilled marksman, which is why nearly all his fights are settled hand to hand.

On Leverage, Alec Hardison's first large-scale crime stuck which nation with his Nana's medical bills?

Iceland ended up paying for the care of the woman who raised Hardison, an early sign of the computer skills the crew comes to rely on.

Which star played hacker Alec Hardison on Leverage years before becoming Hawkman in the film Black Adam?

Aldis Hodge is also a self-taught watchmaker who designs his own line of luxury watches, a fitting hobby for the man behind TV's great gadget builder.

On Leverage, which personal battle does Nate Ford fight throughout the series after losing his son and his marriage?

Alcoholism shadows Nate for years, and together with his habit of changing the plan mid-job it sometimes puts both clients and crew at risk.

For seasons two to four, Leverage was set in Boston but was actually filmed in which other city?

Portland doubled for Boston for three seasons, then the fifth season dropped the pretence and moved the crew there outright.

After working a job with the Leverage crew, Nate Ford's old rival James Sterling is invited to join which agency?

Interpol hires Sterling on the strength of a job the crew helped him pull off, and he remains Nate's friendly adversary to the end.

Which Star Trek: Voyager star joined Leverage as grifter Tara Cole while Gina Bellman was on maternity leave?

Jeri Ryan, Voyager's Seven of Nine, played Tara in seven season-two episodes, as a grifter Sophie sends to fill in while she is away.

Which Stand by Me cast member played Chaos, the rival hacker who torments Alec Hardison on Leverage?

Wil Wheaton plays Colin Mason, alias Chaos, who is arrested twice after crossing the crew and is still hired to help them in a season finale.

Which Supernatural star, that drama's demon Crowley, played Nate Ford's rival James Sterling on Leverage?

Mark Sheppard also played the crime boss Badger on Firefly, and on Leverage the whole crew loathes his character, Eliot most of all.

Gina Bellman, Leverage's Sophie Devereaux, was already known in Britain as Jane in which BBC sitcom?

Coupling ran from 2000 to 2004, and Bellman, who was born in New Zealand, met her future husband just after shooting the Leverage pilot.

Christian Kane, Leverage's Eliot Spencer, earlier played lawyer Lindsey McDonald on which cult television series?

Angel fans knew Kane as a villain; on Leverage he performed all of his own fight scenes and helped choreograph them.

Which My Name Is Earl performer played the thief Parker on Leverage and later directed episodes of its revival?

Beth Riesgraf appeared on that sitcom as Natalie Duckworth, and went on to direct episodes of Leverage: Redemption while still starring in it.

Leverage's Nate Ford, the son of a Boston numbers runner, originally intended to become what?

A Catholic priest was Nate's first calling, a path taken in reaction to his father Jimmy, a legendary figure in Boston crime circles.

Which Star Trek: The Next Generation star directed over a dozen Leverage episodes, including The Wedding Job?

Jonathan Frakes, Commander Riker himself, began directing on his own Star Trek series and later worked on Castle and Burn Notice as well.

Which producer of the film Independence Day pitched Leverage and directed its pilot episode?

Dean Devlin sold the series as a throwback to the lighter caper shows he grew up with, and made it through his own studio, Electric Entertainment.

Leverage's executive producer said he made the caper drama because he missed The Rockford Files and which spy series?

Mission: Impossible was the model he named, calling Leverage a throwback to fun television at a time when most drama had turned dark and edgy.

Weeks after its cancellation, Leverage was named Favorite Cable TV Drama at which annual ceremony?

People's Choice Awards voters handed the series its prize on January 9, 2013, less than three weeks after the network dropped it.

Which Leverage episode is the pilot, in which Victor Dubenich hires the crew and then double-crosses them?

The Nigerian Job ends with the thieves ruining Dubenich instead of fleeing, then asking Nate to stay on as their leader.

At the end of Leverage's second season, what does Nate Ford do so the rest of the crew can go free?

Nate turns himself in to Sterling, admitting to his rival and to himself that he is now a thief, and begins the next season behind bars.

By what name is the mysterious woman who blackmails the Leverage crew into hunting Damien Moreau known?

The Italian gives the crew six months to bring Moreau down, promising prison for Nate and far worse for the others if they fail.

Leverage's third season ends with crime boss Damien Moreau jailed in which fictional nation he once controlled?

San Lorenzo slips from Moreau's grip when the crew poses as election consultants and unseats the president he had bought.

Which ER star played Damien Moreau, the untouchable crime financier the Leverage crew hunts in season three?

Goran Visnjic, ER's Dr. Luka Kovac, appears in the two-part finale, in which Eliot reveals that he once worked for Moreau.

In Leverage's fifth season, the crew moves west and sets up its headquarters in what kind of business?

A microbrewery gives the crew its final base, bought by Hardison as cover, and Eliot takes over the design of the pub's menu.

In Leverage's first-season finale, the crew cons Ian Blackpoole with a small model of which Michelangelo sculpture?

David, in miniature, is the bait: the crew steals Blackpoole's own maquette of the statue and then tries to sell it back to him.

In Leverage's The Two-Horse Job, the crew travels to which state to help a heartbroken racehorse trainer?

Kentucky is where a Wall Street broker burned down his own stable to be rid of slow horses, and where Sterling nearly wrecks the crew's plan.

The Leverage episode in which each thief recalls trying to steal the same artifact borrows its title from which film?

Rashomon, Akira Kurosawa's 1950 film, retells one incident through contradictory accounts; the episode replays one night as each thief remembers it.

In Leverage's The Studio Job, a con on a record label boss accidentally makes Eliot Spencer a star of which genre?

Country music suits the man who plays him: Christian Kane fronts a band of his own, and a song he co-wrote is heard in the episode.

A fourth-season Leverage episode sends the crew after a lost masterpiece by which painter, reenacting a love affair?

Van Gogh's lost canvas can be traced only through two star-crossed lovers, so the episode has the regulars reenact their romance.

In one Leverage episode, Sophie Devereaux leads a rushed con to recover which stolen genetically engineered crop?

Potato rescue drives the plot: the crew must get into a highly secure agribusiness headquarters with a plan improvised on the spot.

In Leverage's The Office Job, a documentary crew is filming at a small firm that makes which product?

Greeting cards are the firm's trade, and the crew turns up posing as efficiency experts while the documentary cameras keep rolling.

In Leverage's fifth-season premiere, Cary Elwes plays an airline boss obsessed with which museum-piece aircraft?

Spruce Goose builder Howard Hughes is the executive's idol, and the same episode reveals that Hardison and Parker have become a couple.

A fifth-season Leverage episode has the crew dig into which real unsolved case for a friendly agent's dying father?

The D. B. Cooper hijacking of 1971 obsesses the father of Agent McSweeten, who still believes Parker and Hardison are undercover colleagues.

In Leverage's The 10 Li'l Grifters Job, Nate Ford dresses as which detective, once played by the star's father?

Ellery Queen was the star's tribute to his father Jim, who played the sleuth on television, in an episode that makes Nate the prime suspect in a killing.

Which veteran Muppets performer directed the Leverage episode The Carnival Job, about a kidnapping at a fair?

Frank Oz, who performed Miss Piggy and Yoda, had already directed the films Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and The Score before his single Leverage episode.

Leverage's The Frame-Up Job, a murder mystery for Nate and Sophie alone, was modelled on which classic detective film?

The Thin Man inspired co-creator John Rogers, who set out to build a classic Nick and Nora mystery around the couple and a lighter-than-usual Sterling.

Leverage's The Frame-Up Job unfolds while the other three regulars are busy in Washington in which companion episode?

The Rundown Job sends Eliot, Hardison and Parker after a terror plot in the capital, a split designed so that each half would feel like a different show.

By Leverage's The Frame-Up Job, James Sterling heads a special detail he organized himself to investigate what?

Art theft and forgery is Sterling's new beat, which is why he is on hand to accuse Nate and Sophie when a painting vanishes from a late collector's mansion.

In Leverage's The Frame-Up Job, Sophie and Sterling pose as agents Tennant and Smith, a nod to which British series?

Doctor Who's previous and then-current stars were named Tennant and Smith, and the episode slips in a second nod to the series later on.

In Leverage's finale, The Long Goodbye Job, the crew steals a ledger of illegal deals behind which real event?

The 2008 financial crisis gives the series its last target: the stolen Black Book of bankers' dealings becomes the seed of Leverage International.

Which star of The Librarian films joined Leverage: Redemption as Harry Wilson, a corporate lawyer making amends?

Noah Wyle also directed several episodes of the revival and joined its writers' room in the second season.

In which city does the crew of Leverage: Redemption open its new office, the same city where the revival was filmed?

New Orleans hosted the shoot from August 2020, and the first sixteen episodes reached viewers in two batches the following year.

At the start of Leverage: Redemption, what has happened to Nate Ford a year before the crew reunites?

He has died, leaving Sophie to grieve and then to find new purpose as the one who leads the crew in his place.

Which nation remade Leverage as a 2019 drama, with an ex-investigator again leading a crew of thieves?

South Korea's version ran on TV Chosun and kept the premise, down to a leader whose crew is formed to avenge the loss of his son.