Bringing Out the Dead

Martin Scorsese admitted that he never enjoyed making the film. Much of it was shot at night in mid-December, so the conditions were constantly difficult.

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According to Tom Sizemore, he and Marc Anthony did not get along and nearly came to a physical altercation on set.

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While preparing for the shoot, Martin Scorsese and Nicolas Cage rode along with real paramedics in New York.

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In the scene where Frank tries to save Rose, the actors performed their movements in reverse. The sequence itself was then played backwards, which heightens the dreamlike effect of the scene in which the snow rises.

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Nicolas Cage and Patricia Arquette were husband and wife during filming. They would divorce two years later.

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Screenwriter Paul Schrader's first choice for the role of Frank Pierce was Edward Norton.

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Before writing the screenplay, Paul Schrader went on several ambulance runs to get a real sense of what crews have to endure on a normal night. On his first night riding along with them, he had to grapple with the chilling sight of a homeless man cut in two by a subway train.

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During filming, Nicolas Cage went through an average of ten shirts a night, soaked with blood, sweat and dirt.

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It is one of several collaborations between director Martin Scorsese and writer Paul Schrader. They worked together on Taxi Driver (1976), Raging Bull (1980) and The Last Temptation of Christ (1988).

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Along with Sleepy Hollow (1999), it was the last film released on the LaserDisc format in North America.

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In the novel, Frank notes that one of the jobs he dreamed of after becoming a paramedic was working as a medical technical adviser on films. Author Joe Connelly does exactly that for this film, both providing the source material and serving as technical adviser.

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Nicolas Cage said that what actually drew him to this film was the chance to work with Martin Scorsese.

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It was Martin Scorsese's first film for Paramount. The studio had previously turned down The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) because of protests from religious groups. Scorsese later signed a long-term deal with the studio, which ended over a budget dispute on The Irishman (2019).

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It was shot over a period of 65 days.

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Producer Scott Rudin acquired the rights to the novel Bringing Out the Dead and immediately considered Martin Scorsese to direct the film adaptation.

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While promoting the film on Charlie Rose, Scorsese said that a third of it was shot in ambulances and mostly at night.

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The book Griss reads is Black Robes, White Justice, written by Bruce M. Wright, a New York State Supreme Court justice and a Black man. Wright argues that our legal system is fundamentally unjust toward African Americans, documenting the claim with many cases drawn from his long experience as a lawyer and judge.

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The ten-code system is not universal; codes vary by department and region. This was demonstrated most clearly during 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, when response teams from across the country came to help but could not communicate effectively because of differences in radio technology and ten-code terminology. It is therefore more likely that the "10-22" mentioned above is either a code used by the service the writer worked for or a fictitious code used by the director/producer for authenticity and realism.

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The film's cast includes three Oscar winners: Nicolas Cage, Martin Scorsese and Patricia Arquette, and one Oscar nominee: Queen Latifah.

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Judy Reyes plays the small role of an intensive care nurse. She is best known for playing the nurse Carla Espinoza on the series Scrubs (2001).

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Nicolas Cage and John Goodman had previously appeared together in Raising Arizona (1987).

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In some departments, 10-22 is the radio code for cancel and return.

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Nicolas Cage and Ving Rhames had previously appeared together in Con Air (1997).

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Martin Scorsese also directed After Hours (1985), which starred Patricia's sister Rosanna Arquette.

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Cliff Curtis, who plays Cy Coates, was to play the flight paramedic Rabbit on the series Trauma (2009).

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The baseball players Frank and Noel mention are Don Mattingly and Reggie Jackson (aka "Mr October"). Both players had retired by the time the film was made: Mattingly in 1995 and Jackson in 1987.

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It is the last Martin Scorsese film released in the 20th century.

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In this film, both Sonja Sohn and Michael K. Williams shoot victims. They would later appear on the HBO series The Wire, where they would themselves be the victims of shootings.

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It is the eighth of twelve films to be released jointly by Paramount and Disney; the others are Popeye (1980), Dragonslayer (1981), Alive (1993), Face/Off (1997), Snake Eyes (1998), A Civil Action (1998), Runaway Bride (1999), The Avengers (2012), Iron Man 3 (2013), Terminator: Dark Fate (2019) and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023).

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