FILM · 1980
Alligator
28 archived facts 3 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (28)
- #001
Robert Forster improvised jokes about his receding hairline that John Sayles wrote into the script during the filming of the other characters' scenes.
- #002
The animatronic alligator used in the film, named "Ramon," frequently malfunctioned and was later donated as a team mascot to the Florida Gators of the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida. Ramon suited up several times before games and at halftime.
- #003
John Sayles read Frank Ray Perilli's screenplay once and then threw it out entirely. Sayles set the film in Milwaukee and explained that the alligator grew to enormous size because beer from a brewery was leaking into the sewers.
- #004
The SWAT team's exit from the sewers looked so realistic that people mistook them for real terrorists, and some even called the police.
- #005
According to director Lewis Teague, the film's score was supposed to be written in full by James Horner, but a strike prevented him from recording it and another composer took his place.
- #006
In the film's DVD commentary, Robert Forster says he became friends with the painter Ramon Santiago and suggested that his own painting be hung on the wall of his character's home.
- #007
The film was inspired by Jaws (1975) and, like that film, its mechanical "villain" frequently malfunctioned. Just as Steven Spielberg had to do on Jaws, director Lewis Teague either shot around the giant alligator to build tension or, in some shots, filmed a normal-sized alligator on miniature sets that are painfully obvious.
- #008
After Robert Forster's death, Breaking Bad star Bryan Cranston tweeted that he and Forster, who worked on Breaking Bad, first met on the set of this film, where Cranston was working as a production assistant in the special effects department.
- #009
Robert Forster was recovering from a case of spinal meningitis when principal photography began.
- #010
Joe Dante was offered the directing job on the film but turned it down, possibly because he had already made a Jaws-style film, Piranha (1978), whose screenplay was written by John Sayles.
- #011
In the prologue showing young Marisa and her pet baby alligator Ramon at home, radio news reports mention the riots at the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago to establish the time period. Robert Forster appeared in Medium Cool (1969), a film about those same riots.
- #012
When Bart Braverman is attacked, his flashing camera captures the giant alligator's mouth, as in Jaws 2 (1978). In both films this is a key plot point: the photographer dies right after taking the picture, and the police protagonist tries to use that photo as evidence to convince the authorities that a monstrous animal is behind the attacks.
- #013
This is the first of two films in which Robert Forster's character mentions his hair loss and how he compensates for it, the second being Jackie Brown (1997). In both films someone else points it out and Forster explains in more detail. The two characters are played by Sydney Lassick and Pam Grier, respectively.
- #014
This was the last film for both Dean Jagger and Sue Lyon.
- #015
Sue Lyon, in her final film role, is listed in the credits as an ABC news anchor, yet the letters NBC appear on her microphone along with the famous NBC Peacock logo. In her scene she interviews a much older Henry Silva, who flirts with her by imitating an alligator's mating call. Lyon began her career with Stanley Kubrick's Lolita (1962), about a young girl and older men who are insane.
- #016
In the scene where Officer Kelly sneaks up on Robert Forster in the sewers as a joke, the two look at a map, and at that exact moment one of their flashlights briefly illuminates the area behind them for only a second, showing the audience that the giant alligator is standing on a platform right behind them.
- #017
This is not just a Jaws (1975) clone featuring a larger-than-normal deadly creature; its three main characters are also similar: Robert Forster is a policeman and the film's hero, just like Roy Scheider's Chief Brody; Robin Riker is a scientific expert like Richard Dreyfuss's Hooper; and Henry Silva is a tough, experienced hunter like Robert Shaw's Quint. Perry Lang's naive rookie cop resembles Jeffrey Kramer's Hendricks, and the film's mayor, Jack Carter, is a mix of Murray Hamilton's Mayor and the villain/instigator Dean Jagger, who shares qualities with Joseph Mascolo in Jaws 2 (1978).
- #018
Both Micole Mercurio and Robin Riker appear in the film.
- #019
Although the film is set in Chicago, Illinois, most of the license plates are from Missouri. The family car returning from the alligator farm has a 1979 Missouri color design on its plate, even though the year is supposed to be between 1967 and 1969. The plate found in the sewer is from Missouri. David Madison's truck, like most of the vehicles seen in the film, has Missouri plates.
- #020
As a child, Marisa names her baby alligator Ramon. When David Madison is first shown in his apartment, the word Ramon appears on a Ramon Santiago poster on his shoulder.
- #021
In the film's final moments, the words HARRY LIME LIVES are written on a sewer wall, a joking reference to the 1949 film The Third Man, directed by Sir Carol Reed and starring Joseph Cotten as Holly Martin and Orson Welles as Harry Lime. Part of that film also takes place in the sewers.
- #022
Kelly, the young police officer who follows David Madison through the sewers, is played by Perry Lang and is always seen chewing tobacco.
- #023
John Sayles wrote Alligator and Piranha, two films inspired by Jaws. Of the two, Steven Spielberg is said to have preferred this film (and genuinely enjoyed it).
- #024
David Madison's gun is a snub-nosed Smith & Wesson .38 made of stainless steel.
- #025
As Colonel Brock approaches the pile of garbage where the alligator is hiding, the alligator's eye can be seen inside the trash, watching him approach. It then moves just before emerging and attacks him. It is worth adding that this is an ambush tactic used by alligators and crocodiles in the wild. They remain motionless until their prey comes close enough to strike, then attack.
- #026
The murdered sewer worker's name was Ed Norton.
- #027
The scene in which the baby alligator is accidentally flushed down the toilet has music. That music had been used in many episodes of The Twilight Zone before the film.
- #028
Japanese subtitles for the Japanese Blu-ray released in 2024 (main feature only): Toshikazu Ochiai.
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