50 Fun Facts About Rushmore

When Disney refused to pay for a Rushmore helicopter shot, what did Bill Murray give Wes Anderson?

A personal check from Murray was meant to pay for a shot of Max and Blume riding in a helicopter, but the scene was never filmed and Anderson kept the check uncashed.

What does Max Fischer start building on Rushmore Academy's baseball field to impress Miss Cross?

An aquarium was Max's grand gesture, but he never sought the school's approval, and the ground-breaking ceremony got him expelled.

What does Max Fischer release into Herman Blume's hotel room during their feud in Rushmore?

Bees swarm the hotel where Blume has been living since Max told Blume's wife about her husband's affair.

Which son of Rocky actress Talia Shire made his film debut as Max Fischer in Rushmore?

Jason Schwartzman was 17 and had never acted on screen when the casting team found him, about a month before filming began.

Which singer-songwriter let Rushmore use his songs Here Comes My Baby and The Wind?

Cat Stevens wrote Here Comes My Baby as a sad song, then watched the Tremeloes turn it into an upbeat top-ten hit in 1967 before his own version came out.

Wes Anderson and his co-writer wanted Rushmore to feel like a children's book by which author?

Roald Dahl was the model for the slightly heightened reality the writers wanted, and Anderson later adapted Dahl's Fantastic Mr Fox.

Rushmore borrows a carol recording from which 1965 animated television special as a homage?

A Charlie Brown Christmas supplied the recording of Hark! The Herald Angels Sing heard in one scene, a nod to the Peanuts specials of Charles Schulz and Bill Melendez.

Which former child star says he was sent the Rushmore script for Max Fischer while retired from acting?

Macaulay Culkin, the Home Alone star, stepped away from films between 1994 and 2003, and has since called Rushmore a perfect movie.

Which Rushmore co-writer was, like Max Fischer, expelled from his own prep school as a teenager?

Owen Wilson shared more than the expulsion with Max: he had the same ambition, the same lack of academic motivation and a crush on an older woman.

Rushmore was shot in and around which Texas city where Wes Anderson himself grew up?

Houston won out after Anderson dropped an early idea of filming the private school in England and the public school in a distant American city.

Max Fischer petitions Rushmore Academy to keep teaching which language in a bid to impress Miss Cross?

Latin stays on the timetable thanks to Max's petition, an early sign of the tenacity that impresses Miss Cross and irritates his fellow students.

During their feud in Rushmore, Herman Blume retaliates against Max Fischer by driving his car over what?

Max's bicycle is flattened as the feud between the former friends escalates, and Max answers with sabotage that gets him arrested.

In Rushmore, what does Bert, the kind-hearted father of Max Fischer, do for a living?

Barber Bert Fischer runs the shop where a heartbroken Max skips school to work after giving up on Miss Cross.

Max Fischer's final stage production at the end of Rushmore is set during which war?

The Vietnam War play moves Herman Blume, himself a veteran of that conflict, and he and Miss Cross appear to reconcile afterwards.

Wes Anderson first planned to fill the whole Rushmore soundtrack with songs by which English band?

The Kinks suited Max's loud, angry nature, Anderson felt, but other British Invasion songs crept in until a single Kinks track remained.

Rushmore was Wes Anderson's second feature film, following which 1996 crime comedy, his debut?

Bottle Rocket was a commercial flop in its limited release, yet Martin Scorsese later named it one of his favorite films of the 1990s.

Rushmore was selected in 2016 for which list of culturally, historically or aesthetically significant American films?

National Film Registry titles are chosen by the Library of Congress for preservation, and only 25 films are added each year.

Which Scottish actor, later Logan Roy in Succession, plays the headmaster of Rushmore Academy?

Brian Cox had already been the screen's first Hannibal Lecter, in 1986's Manhunter, before he ran the school that keeps threatening to expel Max.

In Rushmore, a note in a library book by which ocean explorer leads Max Fischer to Miss Cross?

Jacques Cousteau's book carried a handwritten message that intrigued Max, who traced the previous borrower and promptly became obsessed with her.

Rushmore's score is by Mark Mothersbaugh, co-founder and lead singer of which new wave band?

Devo made Mothersbaugh famous with the 1980 hit Whip It, and he went on to score Wes Anderson's first four feature films.

After Rushmore Academy expels him, Max Fischer enrolls at a public high school named after which president?

Grover Cleveland High was filmed at Lamar High School, which stands across the street from the campus that played Rushmore Academy.

Max Fischer is arrested in Rushmore after doing what to Herman Blume's car?

Cutting the brake lines marks the low point of a feud that began when Max learned his older friend was secretly seeing Miss Cross.

Rosemary Cross, the widowed teacher Max Fischer falls for in Rushmore, teaches which class?

First grade is Miss Cross's class at Rushmore Academy, where she chose to teach after the death of her husband, a former student there.

Which filmmaker cousin of Rushmore's lead actor brought him to the casting team's notice at a party?

Sofia Coppola made the introduction in October 1997, only about a month before filming, after 1,800 teenagers had been considered for Max.

What sends the headmaster of Rushmore Academy to hospital, where Max Fischer and Herman Blume meet again?

A stroke puts him in a hospital bed, and Max's young friend urges a visit, knowing that Blume will be there too.

Which prize did Wes Anderson win for Rushmore at the 1999 Independent Spirit Awards?

Best Director went to Anderson on a night when Bill Murray also won the supporting actor prize for playing Herman Blume.

On the first day of filming Rushmore, how did Wes Anderson give his directions to Bill Murray?

In a whisper, so that nobody would see him embarrassed if the star shot him down; instead Murray publicly deferred to him and hauled equipment.

Bill Murray liked the Rushmore script so much that he agreed to act in it for what?

Union scale pay, which Anderson put at about $9,000, was all Murray asked for after his agent urged him to read the script.

Which English actress plays Rosemary Cross in Rushmore, a year before co-starring in The Sixth Sense?

Olivia Williams had made her film debut only a year earlier, in The Postman, after a screen test for Kevin Costner.

Rushmore's Max Fischer was played by the teenage drummer of which Los Angeles rock band?

Phantom Planet later recorded California, the theme song of The O.C., and their drummer stayed until 2003 before leaving to act full time.

Which detail, dropped from a Rushmore character, did Wes Anderson later give Margot in The Royal Tenenbaums?

A wooden finger was first written for a girl in Rushmore who had blown off the real one in a science experiment.

Wes Anderson first pictured Rushmore's Max Fischer as a pale, skinny 15-year-old version of which rock singer?

Mick Jagger at 15 was the look Anderson had in mind back when Max was still written as a British exchange student.

Meeting Rushmore's teenage lead made Wes Anderson rethink Max Fischer as a young version of which actor?

Dustin Hoffman, star of The Graduate, came to mind once Anderson met his lead, and the pair spent weeks working on Max's hand gestures and body language.

Which classmate at Max Fischer's new public school becomes his girlfriend by the end of Rushmore?

Margaret Yang shows interest as soon as Max arrives and is ignored, yet at the closing party he introduces her as his girlfriend.

Which younger Rushmore student is Max Fischer's loyal friend until a rumor about his mother divides them?

Dirk Calloway takes his revenge by telling Max about the secret romance, then later turns up with a gift to make peace.

Which Rushmore Academy headmaster puts Max Fischer on academic probation at the start of the story?

Dr. Guggenheim warns Max that one more failed class means expulsion, then throws him out anyway over an unapproved building project.

Max Fischer fakes injuries from what in a last attempt to win over Miss Cross in Rushmore?

A car accident is the story Max tells, but Miss Cross sees through the ruse at once and turns him down again.

Which real prep school, Wes Anderson's own alma mater, played Rushmore Academy on screen?

St. John's won the part after Anderson toyed with shooting the prep-school scenes in England for the most extreme contrast.

Which Disney label released Rushmore after studio chief Joe Roth won the film rights at auction?

Touchstone Pictures was Disney's label for more mature films, and Roth offered a $10 million budget once talks with another studio broke down.

Which label's 2000 special-edition Rushmore DVD added a commentary and a behind-the-scenes documentary?

Criterion remastered the picture and sound after the first DVD had shipped with no extras at all, and has since reissued the film on Blu-ray.

Rushmore's Max Fischer Players staged a tiny version of Armageddon for which network's 1999 movie awards?

MTV viewers also saw Max's troupe take on The Truman Show and Out of Sight, and all three skits later appeared on a special-edition DVD.

Which future star of The Handmaid's Tale appears in Rushmore as an uncredited student extra?

Alexis Bledel was a teenage extra two years before Gilmore Girls made her famous as Rory, and four years before her first feature film role.

Which band's mini-opera A Quick One, While He's Away features on the Rushmore soundtrack?

The Who appear on the album in their Live at Leeds recording, because the version heard in the film proved too expensive to license.

Rushmore's widescreen, slightly theatrical look was influenced by which Roman Polanski film?

Chinatown shaped the wide frames, and Variety's critic went on to praise the deep-focus widescreen compositions for their exceptional vividness.

A Time Out New York critic likened Rushmore to which 1971 comedy that Wes Anderson cites as an influence?

Harold and Maude sits beside The Graduate among Anderson's stated influences, though the same reviewer felt Rushmore's audacity put it in a league of its own.

The montage sequence near the beginning of Rushmore borrows its rapid transitions from which film movement?

French New Wave editing inspired the sequence, which Disney executives nearly cancelled, so it was shot in snatches whenever the crew reached a suitable location.

Which star of the 1993 film Dennis the Menace plays Max Fischer's young friend and accomplice in Rushmore?

Mason Gamble beat more than 20,000 children to the part of Dennis, and after leaving acting he became a marine biologist.

What is the name of Rosemary Cross's late husband, a former Rushmore student she still loves?

Edward Appleby died the year before the story begins, and his death is the reason Miss Cross came to teach at his old school.

Wes Anderson, a lifelong fan, arranged a private Rushmore screening for which retired film critic?

Pauline Kael told him afterwards that she did not know what to make of the film, yet she liked it and urged others to see it.

Which brash Scottish student at Rushmore Academy resents Max Fischer's knack for manipulating authority?

Magnus Buchan is Max's chief rival among the students, and the part went to Stephen McCole, an actor who really is from Scotland.