FILM · 1993 · USA
Coneheads
37 archived facts 6 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
37 Interesting Facts About Coneheads
Interesting Facts (29)
- #001
Dan Aykroyd took his daughter Danielle Aykroyd to see the film in production, and she was so taken with the Conehead costumes that she asked for one of her own. She was cast as three-year-old Connie so she could have her own cone.
- #002
UIP's French representatives made a major exception to the Coneheads hiding their extraterrestrial origins by passing themselves off as French, insisting that such lines be removed from the dialogue. The request was refused.
- #003
Near the end, when Beldar asks Ronnie whether he can talk for fifty-five words, Ronnie actually says fifty-five words.
- #004
Laraine Newman, who plays Laarta, was the original Connie Conehead on Saturday Night Live (1975).
- #005
The book Prymatt reads while lying laughing in the hotel bed is a Bible placed by Gideon. The passage she reads is the Book of Revelation, about the end of the world. Since Prymatt knows how it will really happen (a Conehead invasion), the strange creatures described in the Bible strike her as very funny.
- #006
Although it is never mentioned in the film, Connie's name is short for Constellation.
- #007
For Aykroyd, Curtin and Burke, who arrived before dawn every day, the prosthetic "coning" process took about two hours to turn them into "Coneheads." Because the foam latex structures were destroyed once removed, a new piece was needed for each day of shooting, resulting in roughly 1,000 "cones" created by David Miller Studio in North Hollywood, CA. After the cones were shaped to fit the actors' head molds, the material was baked for six hours to draw out moisture, then applied to the skull with an adhesive called Pax Paint and blended into the skin with makeup.
- #008
The elaborate homemade photo device Beldar uses at the end of the film is built around a Polaroid Model 95 Land Camera. Introduced in 1948, it was the first instant-film camera sold commercially.
- #009
Dan Aykroyd's cone lasted only about eight hours because he sweated so much that it began filling with water at the back.
- #010
The opening scenes and music were loosely modeled on the opening scenes and music of The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951).
- #011
Beldar's fake Social Security number is 934-24-7513. In the Social Security numbering system, numbers beginning with nine are issued to non-resident aliens for tax purposes only.
- #012
In the German version, Highmaster's voice was dubbed to caricature the voice of former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl.
- #013
As part of the film's marketing, Paramount ran an ad in several major magazines parodying the marketing campaigns of the clothing retailer The Gap. Gap obtained a court order against further use of the ad, and Paramount complied. Additional promotional efforts included the production of 50,000 Conehead prosthetics for people to wear in public settings such as on public transport.
- #014
David Spade's character is an INS agent named Eli Turnbull. In the second Coneheads sketch on Saturday Night Live (1975), Steve Martin played an IRS agent named Eli Turnbull.
- #015
One of the songs heard in the end-title sequence is "Conehead Love," co-written by star Dan Aykroyd's brother Peter Aykroyd. An official music video was shot for the song, featuring original footage of the Conehead family singing it with a chorus of other coneheads.
- #016
Dan Aykroyd reportedly made a fuss about people forced to park outside the lot being treated according to their makeup, hair and clothing. Paramount eventually created special "Conehead" parking permits for about half a dozen people. Aykroyd had pulled a similar stunt in the late '70s while shooting "The Blues Brothers" for Universal, when he tried to have a security guard fired for telling him he could not park in a parking space.
- #017
The film's French dub has the Coneheads still speaking French when Seedling tries to catch them on the claim that they are French, but instead of asking whether the Coneheads still speak French, Seedling asks whether they have contacts with other French people there. The rest of the dialogue is largely equivalent to the original English soundtrack, though it contains somewhat more natural French dialogue.
- #018
Farley and other cast members who were performing concurrently on Saturday Night Live (1975) had to travel back and forth between the set in New York City and the set in Los Angeles, CA.
- #019
In the first draft of Coneheads, Bill Murray played Connie's date Ronnie, who drives a tow truck. In the film Coneheads, Chris Farley plays Connie's boyfriend Ronnie, a mechanic.
- #020
The character of INS Agent Seedling (Michael McKean) is a clear example of the "Inspector Javert" archetype, obsessively pursuing the virtuous hero Beldar over minor violations. Inspector Javert originated as the villain in Hugo's "Les Miserables." In the film, a cut directly caused by Agent Seedling appears in the Times Square scene, which features a prominent billboard for the "Les Miserables" musical.
- #021
Coneheads had a three-month shooting schedule. To recreate the suburban cul-de-sac and the street with the houses, the producers researched New Jersey neighborhoods and took reference photographs.
- #022
The football game scene was shot at Paramus High School in New Jersey. In the animated The Coneheads (1983), the couple are ordered to move within twenty miles of the UN in New York City. Paramus is in fact twenty miles from the UN.
- #023
An additional scene (added to the script at the last second) was later shot on Stage 14 at Paramount Studios in Hollywood, CA, depicting Beldar and Prymaat swearing the oath of US citizenship before a judge. However, the scene does not appear in the final film.
- #024
The house number of the farm where the family lives was "793." The film's release date was July 1993.
- #025
The cover model of the Cosmopolitan magazine Jane Curtin reads in bed is Meghan Douglas, from the August 1992 issue.
- #026
The comic book the motel clerk is reading at around 0:03:56 is Skin (1992).
- #027
Although he appears on screen for only about a minute, Michael Richards was reported to have hated his own performance at the time of the film's release and to have offered a refund to anyone who told him they had gone to the cinema to see the film. How many refunds Richards gave is unknown.
- #028
At the graduation game, the high school band plays Devil With a Blue Dress On, a 1964 hit for Mitch Ryder and The Detroit Wheels. Dan Aykroyd is a fan of early sixties R&B music.
- #029
During the fireworks scene on the football field, people in the stands suffered sunburns on their faces after the bright, intense explosion.
Production Story (4)
- #030
Aykroyd and Davis's first draft of the script focused too much on military action. They got stuck describing how the National Guard shoots down the Coneheads' spaceship over Lake Michigan and how the Air Force begins searching for them. But Michaels wanted the film to be about assimilation, their daughter Connie going to high school, and Beldar's fear of the Bluntskulls. So the script was reworked to reflect themes of immigration and suburban life, with the involvement of Wayne's World (1992) writers Bonnie and Terry Turner (whose greatest strength is writing about the suburbs).
- #031
Dan Aykroyd asked Paramount whether he could direct this film, but the studio immediately turned down the request because his first directing effort (Nothing But Trouble (1991), also his only film as director as of 2025) was a huge critical and financial fiasco. Steve Barron was hired on the strength of his success with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990).
- #032
Steve Barron had only a 10-week post-production period for "Coneheads"; four weeks for the director's cut.
- #033
Coneheads was scheduled to open nationwide in the United Kingdom on 13 July 1993, with accompanying trailers, posters and cinema stands. Tie-in toys were in stores and it even appeared on the cover of Time Out Magazine, which published a detailed multi-page article about the film for its opening weekend; the film's release was cancelled at the last minute. Billboards advertised a film that was not shown and newspapers ran ads for screenings that did not exist. It was the film with the biggest campaign behind it and its release was cancelled a week before it was due to open; popular theories were either that it would open the same day as Jurassic Park and would stand no chance against the year's most hyped film, or that Saturday Night Live had never really played in the United Kingdom, and the lack of established characters or a point of recognition for British audiences potentially doomed it at the box office. Decades later, the United Kingdom was considered the best place to find the newly released Coneheads toys on card, because many stores pulled them from display and threw them into storage when they heard the release had been cancelled.
Behind the Scenes (1)
- #034
During shooting on the Paramount lot, Dan Aykroyd lost him at one point. In full "Conehead" costume, the actor let out a huge scream at the studio's Melrose Boulevard gate after a security guard scolded him because his personal wardrobe exceeded the lot's 12 km/h speed limit. Aykroyd was so angry afterward that, upon hearing that one of the production assistants had been given a hard time for trying to enter the lot late at night, he stormed into the security booth and trashed it. He threw everything on the floor, ripped one of the phones out of the wall, flung papers around, knocked the computer to the ground, and held down the button on the wooden arm (that lets cars in) and began waving incoming cars through with "please come in… welcome to Paramount Pictures." A female security guard who witnessed the incident was so upset that she became short of breath and had to go to the lot's infirmary. At one point in his tirade, Aykroyd commandeered one of the studio's golf carts and drove around screaming and cursing.
Characters & Cast (1)
- #035
Chris Farley's "Ronnie Guestsetter" was written to replace the character played by Bill Murray, because Murray was also considered too old to play a teenager. Murray actually hated Farley in real life, and Farley reminded him too much of his SNL colleague John Belushi.
Easter Eggs & References (1)
- #036
When Ronnie and Connie are "honing," you can hear the song playing in the background: it is the Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Soul to Squeeze." A conehead appears in the music video, and Chris Farley can be seen driving a truck.
Deeper Meaning (1)
- #037
Connie is about 16 years old when the rescue ship arrives. This means seven zurls have passed since the last communication with Remulak and since Prymatt announced her pregnancy. Prymatt gives birth after a 2-zurl pregnancy, leaving 5 zurls, which means 1 zurl equals roughly 3.2 years.
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Sources & editorial notes
Reference databases
- IMDb
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