50 Fun Facts About Stripes

In what year was Stripes released?

Columbia Pictures put it out on June 26. Sony re-released it in cinemas for a few days in 2021 for the 40th anniversary.

Who directed Stripes?

He had just made a summer-camp comedy with Murray. He was born in Komárno, in the very country his platoon invades by mistake.

Reitman's original one-line pitch for the film was which comedy duo 'join the army'?

He thought of it on the way to a premiere. The duo's manager loved the script, but they wanted complete creative control, so the leads were rewritten for Murray and Ramis.

What is the name of Bill Murray's character in Stripes?

He is a cab driver who loses his job, apartment, car and girlfriend in a single day and decides the Army is his best remaining option.

Harold Ramis plays Russell Ziskey, Winger's best friend. What is Russell's job before he enlists?

Ramis had co-written Animal House and Caddyshack but was little known as an actor. Columbia disliked his audition; Reitman hired him anyway.

In which city does Murray's character drive a cab at the start of the film?

The city scenes were shot there for real, and the Army scenes at a nearby base. Filming began in November 1980.

Which veteran of Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch plays the drill sergeant, Sergeant Hulka?

Reitman wanted someone the misfit platoon would genuinely respect. Judge Reinhold recalled the cast sitting enthralled by Oates's Wild Bunch stories between takes.

What happened when Reitman secretly had the actors drag Warren Oates (Sgt. Hulka) into the mud?

Reitman wanted a genuine reaction from the veteran actor. He got one.

Which SCTV alumnus plays Dewey 'Ox' Oxberger, the recruit who joined up to lose weight?

Producer Dan Goldberg knew him from Toronto and he was cast without an audition. Candy invited the platoon actors over for homemade spaghetti during the shoot.

Which future Night Court star plays Captain Stillman, the incompetent company commander?

Stillman orders a mortar crew to fire without setting coordinates, wounding Hulka.

P. J. Soles, Stella in Stripes, was already famous for playing Lynda in which 1978 horror film?

She had also been in Carrie and Rock 'n' Roll High School. Soles reported that Dennis Quaid had read for the part of Russell.

According to Reitman, which star had agreed to play Stella before her agent asked for too much money?

Young herself was cast on her looks, with Reitman feeling her sweetness suited Ramis. Her next role was Rachael in Blade Runner.

Judge Reinhold plays which recruit, who inherited the best jokes from the abandoned first draft?

In the extended cut, Elmo's LSD figures in a restored AWOL subplot.

Which recruit, played by Conrad Dunn, is nicknamed 'Psycho' and warns others not to touch his stuff?

Dunn remembered that he and the actor playing Ox were the only cast members who knew the words to 'Do Wah Diddy' and taught the rest of the company.

John Diehl plays Howard J. Turkstra, better known in the platoon by what nickname?

Diehl, like Reinhold, Larroquette, Busfield and Paxton, was in one of the earliest roles of his career.

Which future Aliens and Titanic actor appears in Stripes as an unnamed soldier?

Timothy Busfield, later of Thirtysomething, is the mortar soldier who fires the shell that wounds Hulka.

Which two SCTV cast members play a border guard and the M.C. at the bar?

Along with Candy and Ramis, SCTV's original head writer, that gives Stripes four alumni of the Toronto sketch show.

After Hulka is hospitalised, the leaderless platoon sneaks off base to visit what kind of establishment?

Much of the mud-wrestling scene was improvised on the spot by Reitman, and the actor playing Ox was uncomfortable filming it until Reitman talked him through.

Why are John and Russell punished with garbage-can scrubbing and two weeks of KP for the whole platoon?

Hulka gives Russell 24 hours of scrubbing and the rest of the platoon two weeks of kitchen duty.

Why does the platoon arrive late to its own graduation ceremony?

Winger then leads an unorthodox but perfectly coordinated drill routine that impresses General Barnicke enough to hand them a secret overseas assignment.

What is the EM-50 Urban Assault Vehicle disguised as?

It was built on a 1970s GMC Motorhome and designed to look like a family Winnebago, but came with bulletproof shields and flamethrowers.

In which country is the platoon stationed when it is assigned to guard the EM-50?

John and Russell steal the vehicle to visit Stella and Louise, who are posted in West Germany, which sets the whole disaster in motion.

Chasing the missing EM-50, Captain Stillman leads the platoon into which country, where they are captured?

Those scenes were shot at the closed Chapeze Distillery in Clermont, owned by Jim Beam. Reitman himself was born there.

What decoration do John, Russell, Stella, Louise and Hulka receive on their return to the United States?

The four young heroes land on magazine covers.

Where were the Army training scenes filmed?

The base sits next to the US Bullion Depository that shares its name. The Department of Defense supplied free labour, locations and equipment in exchange for a recruitment-friendly script.

Roughly what was the film's production budget?

It was shot on a 42-day schedule and went on to become the fifth most popular film of 1981 in North America.

Which studio did Reitman first pitch Stripes to, and which greenlit it immediately?

It was Columbia that eventually released it. The two Toronto-based writers read the script to Reitman in Los Angeles over the phone.

Which two writers wrote the screenplay with Harold Ramis?

Goldberg also produced alongside Reitman. Ramis was brought in to tailor the leads for himself and Murray.

Who composed the score for Stripes, including the well-known 'March from Stripes'?

Best known for The Magnificent Seven, he had become the go-to composer for the era's comedies: Animal House, Airplane! and Trading Places among them.

Which sequence, in which Winger comforts Stella, did Murray improvise?

Every scene had some improvisation thanks to Murray and Ramis. Their first kiss was meant to be shot outdoors until it rained.

Why was the serious Hulka-Winger argument Reitman added to the film notable for Bill Murray?

Reitman insisted it not be played for laughs. Murray later said he was still 'a little queasy' about having made a movie in which he carries a machine gun.

Roughly how much did Stripes gross in North America?

It opened fifth for the weekend with about $6.2 million and finished as the fifth most popular film of 1981 in the US and Canada.

Roger Ebert praised Stripes as what, 'a celebration of all that is irreverent, reckless, foolhardy, undisciplined'?

Janet Maslin called it 'a lazy but amiable comedy'; the Washington Post's Gary Arnold thought it squandered an hour on situations Murray's personality contradicted.

The extended cut released on DVD in 2005 runs about how much longer than the theatrical version?

It restores a subplot in which Winger and a chemically confused Ziskey go AWOL by stowing away on a special-forces paratrooper mission. It reached Blu-ray in 2012.

In the extended cut, Ziskey takes six hits of Elmo's LSD believing it to be what?

He and Winger then stow away on a paratrooper mission. The sequence was cut from the 1981 theatrical release.

Bill Murray's first film in a starring role, also directed by Reitman, was which 1979 summer-camp comedy?

It launched Reitman's directing career and was the first of six Murray-Ramis collaborations, of which Stripes was the second.

Reitman, Murray and Ramis reunited three years after Stripes for which 1984 blockbuster?

Ramis played Egon Spengler and Murray Peter Venkman.

Bill Murray had become a national name on which TV show between 1977 and 1980, just before Stripes?

He won a writing Emmy there. Reitman noted Ramis's own best-known acting before Stripes was on SCTV, which he had quit a few years earlier.

The actor who plays Sergeant Hulka was born in which state, where Stripes was also filmed?

He came from Depoy in Muhlenberg County and went to high school in the very city where Winger drives his cab. He died in 1982, a year after the film.

The actor who plays Ox died in 1994 at what age, while filming Wagons East?

He co-owned the CFL's Toronto Argonauts, who won the 1991 Grey Cup, and had risen through Toronto's Second City and SCTV before Stripes made him an international name.

Where is Captain Stillman reassigned at the end of the film?

His unauthorised rescue mission is what got the platoon captured in the first place.

What does Sergeant Hulka do after retiring from the Army at the end of the film?

Winger, Ziskey, Stella and Louise, meanwhile, end up on magazine covers.

Which studio released Stripes on June 26, 1981?

The same studio disliked Harold Ramis's audition, but Reitman hired him anyway.

Which actor read for the role of Russell Ziskey before Ramis was cast, according to P. J. Soles?

Murray told the reluctant Ramis he would quit the film unless Ramis played the other lead.

Who plays Louise Cooper, the MP who becomes romantically involved with Russell?

Reitman cast her for her looks, feeling her 'sweetness' would pair well with Ramis.

The Czechoslovakia scenes were shot at a closed Kentucky distillery owned by which company?

The base scenes were at Fort Knox and the city scenes in Louisville, all on a 42-day schedule.

In return for free labour, locations and equipment, who was granted script rewrites?

The deal was meant to make the film conducive to military recruitment.

Which 1960s hit did John Candy and one castmate teach the rest of the company to sing?

Only two of the cast knew the words before the marching scene.

In which month and year did filming of Stripes begin in Kentucky?

The production moved to California in December before the June 1981 release.

At what hour was the 'spatula scene' in the general's kitchen filmed?

The cast and crew had been awake the entire day, and every scene had some improvisation from Murray and Ramis.