ArkaEvren

FILM · 1990 · USA

Bird on a Wire

27 archived facts 4 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026

27 Interesting Facts About Bird on a Wire

Interesting Facts (19)

  1. #001

    According to the production notes on the DVD, the baboon was the only male of its kind in the world trained to work on camera.

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  2. #002

    Kurt Russell was originally meant to star opposite his real-life partner Goldie Hawn, but he was already committed to Tango & Cash (1989) with Sylvester Stallone, which was shooting at the same time and came out a few months earlier. Russell suggested director John Badham ask his Tequila Sunrise (1988) co-star Mel Gibson, and Badham was pleasantly surprised when Gibson said yes.

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  3. #003

    Throughout the zoo shoot, two full-time crews did nothing but water the rainforest plants.

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  4. #004

    What finally sealed the deal with Mel Gibson was a producer's offer of his house for the summer, letting Gibson shoot the film while giving his large family a great summer vacation home.

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  5. #005

    Three kinds of sand were brought in for the zoo set, including 16 truckloads from Oregon, mixed together and sifted three times to remove any glass shards that could hurt the big cats' paws, then spread ten inches deep over the concrete cage floors to protect them.

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  6. #006

    Director John Badham on working with wild animals: "No animal is easy to direct. They don't read the script. It's kind of controlled chaos; you really have to be ready to capture something exciting that might happen, and you have to be ready to deal with dangerous things because they are wild animals and they will hurt you."

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  7. #007

    Producer Rob Cohen said: "There were other films with car chases, helicopters, motorcycle rides through unbelievably narrow streets, escapes over rooftops and so on. But what set this film apart was the zoo climax and the difficulty of shooting it."

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  8. #008

    The cage walls on the zoo set were just plaster, so the crew had to take special care that animals like the tigers never put a foot on them.

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  9. #009

    On the Kino Lorber commentary, director John Badham says he decided to direct the film because of the scene where Mel Gibson's character pranks the gas station owner with fake legs sticking out from under a car, calling it "the most interesting introduction to a main character he had ever read."

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  10. #010

    Two big bridges spanned a 60-metre gap in the middle of the rainforest set, both more than three storeys high, and the main suspension bridge had to be designed and reinforced to carry 1,200 pounds of crew and equipment.

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  11. #011

    It's the last film to use the 1963 Universal Pictures logo as standard, though some later films, like Inglourious Basterds (2009), brought it back for a "retro" feel.

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  12. #012

    For the scene where Rick and Marianne escape the attic and edge across a ledge, a platform was built beneath them to keep them safe and create the illusion they were high up on a tall building.

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  13. #013

    Giant leaves were made for the background of the zoo set, with real plants in the foreground for close shots.

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  14. #014

    In the shopping mall scene, the Saskatchewan flag is visible as Mel Gibson and Goldie Hawn head for the stairs, and as they go down, the flags of Ontario, British Columbia and Prince Edward Island appear behind them.

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  15. #015

    Three waterfalls were built on the rainforest set, the biggest about three stories high; according to the production notes, they were the first waterfalls ever built on a Canadian soundstage.

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  16. #016

    Director John Badham has suggested the film was first meant to be set in New York City, but it actually moves through the Midwest, where Mel Gibson's character is in Witness Protection, to Detroit, then Wisconsin and finally St. Louis. Even so, it was mostly shot in Vancouver, British Columbia.

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  17. #017

    Mel Gibson's character gets shot in the backside, something his co-star Goldie Hawn also went through in Protocol (1984).

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  18. #018

    A computer screen in the film lists the alias of criminal Richard Jarmin (Mel Gibson) as "David Puttnam, Columbia Pictures."

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  19. #019

    The thrilling zoo sequence was shot seven days a week, with director John Badham running the main unit and producer Rob Cohen directing a second unit to back him up.

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Production Story (2)

  1. #020

    Director John Badham and Rob Cohen sent Mel Gibson and Goldie Hawn just the first 30 pages of the script to hook them, and were very surprised when both signed on.

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  2. #021

    When David Carradine's Sorensen is killed, a vulture swoops in on his corpse, a nod to his Kung Fu (1972) character, who had to eat a vulture to survive in the pilot.

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Behind the Scenes (4)

  1. #022

    Once Mel Gibson talked her into it, Goldie Hawn did most of her own stunts. She was reluctant at first, fearing how tough and grueling they'd be, but in the end she was so proud of her stunt work that she kept the stunt jacket after filming, and as of 2017 she still displays it next to her Oscar.

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  2. #023

    Animal stunt coordinator Monty Cox brought two of his own male tigers and scouted across Canada for other big cats.

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  3. #024

    Wes Tritter, who plays Scottie, improvised a jump over the sandwich board.

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  4. #025

    It took cinematographer Robert Primes two weeks to light the massive zoo set while he was shooting the main scenes with John Badham.

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Easter Eggs & References (2)

  1. #026

    When Joe Weyburn checks Rick's last workplace, the names David Puttnam and Columbia Pictures flash up briefly, a clear dig at Puttnam's short, stormy stint running Columbia Pictures in the 1980s.

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  2. #027

    The crop duster is a Piper J-3C-65 Cub and the black helicopter chasing it a Hughes 369D; both fly upside down and even do a 360-degree loop, as in John Badham's earlier Blue Thunder (1983).

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Sources & editorial notes

Reference databases

  • IMDb IMDb title page (trivia)

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