40 Fun Facts About Spare Parts (2015 Movie)

In Spare Parts, which supermarket item do the students use to soak up a leak inside their robot?

Tampons kept the water away from the circuits the night before the contest. In real life the idea was Lorenzo Santillan's, and he had to ask a stranger in the store which box to buy.

In Spare Parts, what name do the students give their robot after its glue fills the room with fumes?

Stinky got its name from the pungent glue that held it together. The real students assembled the whole frame in a single night, then painted it blue, red and yellow.

Which famous university's well-funded team do the Carl Hayden students beat in Spare Parts?

MIT sent a dozen students with corporate sponsorship behind them. The high schoolers had expected to finish somewhere in the middle and were privately hoping for third.

Which comedian, also a producer of the film, plays reluctant mentor Fredi Cameron in Spare Parts?

George Lopez made the film as the first project of a new film and television deal. Variety praised his mix of sincerity and self-deprecating humour in the role.

Which Halloween star plays Karen Lowry, the principal who hires Fredi Cameron in Spare Parts?

Jamie Lee Curtis plays the overworked head of Carl Hayden with a dry sense of humour. Variety's critic wrote that she steals every scene she appears in.

Carl Hayden Community High School, the real school at the centre of Spare Parts, is in which city?

Phoenix is home to the school, which opened in 1957 just west of downtown. Reaching the contest meant a long drive across the desert to the California coast in a school van.

In Spare Parts, which branch of the military turns Oscar Vazquez away because he is undocumented?

The Army was Oscar's plan after years as a standout cadet at school. While waiting at the recruiting office he notices a brochure for a robotics contest, which sends him down another path.

Roughly how much money did the Carl Hayden team have to build the robot that wins in Spare Parts?

About $800 was all the students raised from local businesses. That is why the robot was built from scavenged odds and ends while rival teams machined and welded metal frames.

Spare Parts is based on a 2005 article about the Carl Hayden team published in which magazine?

Wired ran the story in April 2005, after the win had gone largely unnoticed for months. Its readers responded by sending the four students more than $90,000 in scholarship money.

Carlos PenaVega, who plays Oscar Vazquez in Spare Parts, found fame in which Nickelodeon boy band?

Big Time Rush was both a Nickelodeon series and a real touring group. He was studying musical theatre in Boston when his manager pushed him to audition, and he won the part almost two years later.

What job does out-of-work engineer Fredi Cameron take at Carl Hayden High School in Spare Parts?

Substitute teacher is the post he lands thanks to his doctorate, though the principal doubts he will stay. Overseeing the engineering club comes with the job.

Which My Cousin Vinny Oscar winner plays teacher Gwen Kolinsky in Spare Parts?

Marisa Tomei plays the colleague who helps Cameron learn the programming language the robot runs on. Variety felt she made the absolute most of an underwritten part.

Alexa PenaVega, Karla in Spare Parts, played Carmen Cortez in which family film series?

Spy Kids made her known worldwide in 2001. She married her co-star Carlos, who plays Oscar, a year before this film reached cinemas.

Which cheap hardware-store material forms the frame of the Carl Hayden robot in Spare Parts?

PVC pipe was all the team could afford, but it brought a bonus. The air trapped inside gave the robot buoyancy and a waterproof run for its wiring.

Why is Luis Aranda recruited to the Carl Hayden robotics team in Spare Parts?

His strength made him the one who lifted the heavy robot in and out of the pool. The real Luis stood 5 feet 10, weighed 250 pounds and also managed the tether cable.

In Spare Parts, Oscar Vazquez is told to stay away from government offices for fear of which agency?

ICE, the immigration enforcement agency, could deport him if an official reported his status. The same fear hangs over the team's road trip out of state to the contest.

Which university's pool hosts the robotics contest in Spare Parts, as it did the real 2004 event?

UC Santa Barbara hosted the 2004 championship in its Olympic-size pool. Organisers hid the water under a black tarp beforehand so no team could study the course.

Which La Bamba actor plays Lorenzo Santillan's disapproving father in Spare Parts?

Esai Morales plays Pablo Santillan, whose respect his son slowly earns. Years later he turned villain opposite Tom Cruise in two Mission: Impossible films.

Which director of Soul Surfer and Disney's Even Stevens made Spare Parts?

Sean McNamara came up through children's television, producing The Secret World of Alex Mack before he turned to true-story dramas for the cinema.

Although Spare Parts is set in Arizona and California, where was much of it actually filmed?

Albuquerque hosted much of the shoot, hundreds of miles from the story's real settings. The film itself was a co-production between the United States and Mexico.

Which restaurant chain did the real Lorenzo Santillan ask to be taken to if Carl Hayden won?

Hooters was his cheeky request before the awards dinner. His coach laughed and agreed, joking that he would retire as well if the team actually won.

Which oil giant sponsors the favoured college team that Carl Hayden faces in Spare Parts?

ExxonMobil backed the favourites, whose compact robot wore a large company sticker on its side. Beside it, one Carl Hayden student thought his own machine looked like an economy car among luxury models.

What is the title of the Joshua Davis magazine article that inspired Spare Parts?

La Vida Robot later grew into a bestselling book, also called Spare Parts, which Davis published a few weeks before the film opened.

In Spare Parts, which surprise award convinces the Carl Hayden team it has missed the top prize?

Special Achievement sounded like a consolation prize, so the students assumed it was all they would get. Later that night they were announced as overall champions.

In Spare Parts, what is Lorenzo Santillan caught doing before Fredi Cameron makes him join the team?

Robbing the principal's car lands him in the robotics club rather than in trouble. Cameron wants his mechanical talent, first seen when the boy bypasses a sensor on Cameron's own car for $20.

Which 2014 Mary Mazzio documentary tells the same true story as Spare Parts?

Underwater Dreams chronicles how the sons of undocumented immigrants learned to build robots and take on elite colleges. It reached audiences before the drama did.

Which change did Spare Parts make to the coaching staff of the real Carl Hayden team?

Two teachers became one on screen. The real club was run by Fredi Lajvardi and Allan Cameron, and the film splices their names into a single character, Fredi Cameron.

Which proposed law, raised in the article behind Spare Parts, would help undocumented students afford college?

The DREAM Act was first introduced in the Senate in 2001 and has been reintroduced several times since. The film ends with a coda that argues openly for immigration reform.

Which future star of the Predator film Prey plays Nikki in Spare Parts?

Amber Midthunder was still a teenager taking supporting parts when she played Nikki. Seven years later Prey made her an action lead as a young Comanche hunter.

The real 2004 contest behind Spare Parts asked robots to explore a sunken mock-up of what?

A submarine built from plastic framing sat at the bottom of the pool. A gap in that frame stopped the favourites' robot from reaching one of its targets.

Which dime-store item did the real Carl Hayden robot fill to collect its water sample?

A balloon, filled by a bilge pump for exactly 20 seconds, held the sample. The same task defeated the best-funded team, whose robot could not get close enough to the container.

Which software did the real Cristian Arcega call a distraction when a contest judge asked why he skipped it?

PowerPoint, he told a gruff Navy engineer, only gets in the way of explaining a design. The team presented from a simple flip chart and still won over the panel.

Besides the overall title and a design prize, which award did the real Carl Hayden team of English learners win?

Technical writing was the prize that stunned the students most. They had learned English as a second language, yet their report beat those from some of the country's top engineering schools.

With nowhere to swim at Carl Hayden, where did the real team first test the robot seen in Spare Parts?

A scuba training facility hosted the first trial, where the robot promptly smashed into a wall. The team's leader cheerfully took the crash as proof of how much power it had.

Variety compared Spare Parts to which 1988 classroom drama starring Edward James Olmos?

Stand and Deliver also tells a true story of Latino students defying expectations. In that film maths teacher Jaime Escalante coaches 18 students through AP Calculus.

The real Carl Hayden team was entered in which expert-level class, where it was expected to lose to colleges?

Explorer was the top division. It was chosen because there seemed more honour in losing to college students than to other high schoolers in the beginner class.

Which studio, a venture between Lionsgate and Mexico's Televisa, released Spare Parts for Latino audiences?

Pantelion Films was created in 2010 to win wider cinema releases for films aimed at Latino audiences. It billed itself as the first major Latino Hollywood studio.

Which hardware chain sold the real Carl Hayden team its building supplies and later employed Cristian Arcega?

Home Depot is where the team sent Luis to shop for its frame. A decade later Cristian, the group's gifted designer, was working there while raising money to return to college.

Which programming language does Gwen Kolinsky help Fredi Cameron learn for the robot in Spare Parts?

PBASIC drives the robot's intelligence module, the electronics sealed inside its waterproof case. That case is the part that later springs the leak.

Which federal agency co-sponsors the contest in Spare Parts alongside the United States Armed Forces?

NASA lent more than its name. At the real 2004 event one of its lab operations managers supervised the contest from the control tent.