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Cloud Atlas

FILM · 2012 · CHINA

Cloud Atlas

25 archived facts 3 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026

  • Cloud Atlas — production image

25 Interesting Facts About Cloud Atlas

Interesting Facts (21)

  1. #001

    The jewel Zachry (Tom Hanks) examines at the start of the Big Island storyline is actually a button from Adam Ewing's coat, stolen by Dr. Henry Goose (also Hanks). During the climactic struggle with the Kona tribe in which Zachry drowns, the button that breaks off his necklace actually saves his life.

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  2. #002

    In 2005, while on the London set of V for Vendetta (2005), Natalie Portman gave Lana Wachowski a copy of the original novel, and she became deeply interested in it. A year later both Wachowski siblings wrote the first draft of the screenplay. Tom Tykwer, a friend of the Wachowskis, was invited to co-write several drafts with them over the following two years while they sought international investors, constantly keeping in mind the observations of the book's author, David Mitchell. Throughout all those years Portman had been promised the role of Sonmi-451, but after becoming pregnant in 2010 she had to turn the role down at the last minute; she is nonetheless given a special thanks in the end credits.

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  3. #003

    The film had great difficulty finding a financial backer, including a decision by the studio Warner Brothers to pull out because they did not like the numbers. The executives had waived their fees and begun investing their own money to keep the project alive. Lana Wachowski relied on Tom Hanks to help get the film made, and he inspired many cast and crew members by being the first to fly to Berlin to begin shooting. According to Wachowski, Hanks was very excited about the project.

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  4. #004

    The entire film was shot with two parallel units, one under Tom Tykwer and the other under Lilly Wachowski and Lana Wachowski; apart from the actors and directors, no crew member worked on both.

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  5. #005

    The newly delivered manuscript Timothy Cavendish examines while boarding the train is The Luisa Rey Mystery, by the young boy Javier Gomez, who moves around Rey's apartment and tells her that her research assignments would make good mystery stories.

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  6. #006

    The Wachowskis contributed 7 million dollars of their own money to the film.

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  7. #007

    Because of the nature of the film's casting, the directors told the actors to think of their roles not as a series of separate parts in which actions in one storyline affect another, but as a "genetic strain."

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  8. #008

    When the night sky is shown at the end of the film, the bright galaxy displayed is shaped like the birthmark seen throughout the film.

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  9. #009

    During the escape from the prison in Neo-Seul, when the plumbing truck is forced to stop by police, a sign (in English) reading "Swannekke Atomic Power, Inc." is visible on the building, an obvious link to the company that operated the nuclear plant in 1973.

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  10. #010

    In Sonmi-451's storyline, she and Hae-Joo watch an adaptation of the 2012 storyline from a film titled 'Timothy Cavendish's Horrible Ordeal.' The film's title screen indicates that its premiere took place in MMLXII, or 2062.

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  11. #011

    Number 451 (Luisa Rey's apartment and Sonmi-451) comes from Ray Bradbury's classic science fiction novel "Fahrenheit 451," which refers to the temperature required to burn books.

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  12. #012

    Halle Berry's 1973 character, Luisa Rey, bears significant similarities to the real-life story of Karen Silkwood, who tried to expose health and safety violations at nuclear power plants when her car was forced off the road in 1974 while she was on her way to meet a New York Times reporter. Silkwood was killed and a large file of evidence she was said to have been delivering to the meeting disappeared; the murder was never solved.

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  13. #013

    In the 1936 storyline, Vyvyan Ayrs's mansion reappears as Aurora House, where Timothy Cavendish is imprisoned in the 2012 storyline. Jim Broadbent plays Vyvyan in 1936 and also Timothy Cavendish in 2012.

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  14. #014

    Hugh Grant said that after the box office failure of Did You Hear About the Morgans? (2009) he was "marooned" in Hollywood, but that "the Wachowskis offered me just a few small roles in Cloud Atlas and, to be honest, I was probably offered it because some of their international distributors said, 'We need more recognizable names. Shove someone recognizable in here.'" He praised the film for restoring his career and his love of acting.

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  15. #015

    The train Cavendish takes passes over the same rails Frobisher traveled when he talks about going the same way.

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  16. #016

    Bae Doona's emotional state was largely attributed to her being very lonely when she arrived in Germany, with contact only with the cast and crew.

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  17. #017

    In the 1973 segment, a heavily made-up Bae Doona (playing a Mexican worker) says, "We don't need a union!" In the 2144 segment, Bae's character Sonmi-451 is rescued and then recruited by a resistance group that calls itself Union.

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  18. #018

    The character Robert Frobisher commits suicide with a gunshot through the mouth and out the back of his neck. His lover, Rufus Sixsmith, is killed by a gunshot through the mouth and out the back of his head.

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  19. #019

    Luisa Rey's parents, Lester and Judith Rey, appear to be a nod to the great names of science fiction publishing, Lester del Rey and Judy-Lynn del Rey.

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  20. #020

    The photograph of Halle Berry's character's father originally came from the National Museum of the Korean War.

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  21. #021

    Tom Hanks reverses his characters, beginning by playing Dr. Henry Goose, a killer, and playing Zachry, a savior.

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Characters & Cast (3)

  1. #022

    The entire cast has various roles in the final film spanning different eras, races and even genders. This was achieved through prosthetics, wardrobes and tight production schedules that allowed actors to be swapped between units. For example, Halle Berry described the experience of filming as a Jewish woman one day in the 1930s under Tom Tykwer's direction, then switching to an elderly tribal woman under Lilly Wachowski and Lana Wachowski's direction, and then filming again as an environmentalist in the 1970s, all within the same week.

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  2. #023

    Every character played by Hugh Grant and Hugo Weaving in the film is a villain.

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  3. #024

    The character played by Amanda Walker is "Veronica Costello," a nursing home resident, adapted from the popular song "Veronica," sung by Elvis Costello and written by Elvis Costello and Sir Paul McCartney. The song tells the story of a similar Veronica.

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Deeper Meaning (1)

  1. #025

    The author of the source novel plays a freedom fighter in the Neo-Seul storyline.

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Sources & editorial notes

Reference databases

  • IMDb IMDb title page (trivia)

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