FILM · 1996 · CANADA
Crash
24 archived facts 3 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (24)
- #001
The sex scenes between James Ballard and his secretary were filmed, but director David Cronenberg cut them because he felt the actors' chemistry was too good and was at odds with the nature of every other relationship in the film.
- #002
In a 2020 interview, David Cronenberg said he believed that Francis Ford Coppola, who chaired the jury at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival, was so strongly opposed to Crash that the other jurors who favored the film banded together to present Cronenberg with a rare Special Jury Prize. Coppola's dislike of the film was so great that, according to Cronenberg, he refused to hand the award to the director himself.
- #003
In the United Kingdom, The Daily Mail led calls to ban the film with a front-page headline reading "Ban This Car Crash Sex Film." To protect themselves against possible investigations, the BBFC consulted a quality control expert to determine whether the film violated the Obscene Publications Act, a psychologist to see whether it might encourage imitative behavior, and a group of disabled people to see whether the character played by Rosanna Arquette would be considered offensive to them. After all three consultations failed, the BBFC managed to pass the fully uncut, unrated version.
- #004
In J. G. Ballard's novel, the source of this film, Vaughan's goal is to reach sexual climax by crashing his car into Elizabeth Taylor's limousine and killing her horribly, a plot point that was (obviously) not kept for the film.
- #005
In his introduction to Crash (1996), J. G. Ballard describes his book as follows: "Throughout Crash I have used the car not only as a sexual image but as a total metaphor for man's life in today's society. As such the novel has a political role quite apart from its sexual content, but I would still like to think that Crash is the first pornographic novel based on technology. In a sense, pornography is the most political form of fiction, dealing with how we use and exploit each other in the most urgent and ruthless way. Needless to say, the ultimate role of Crash is cautionary, a warning against that brutal, erotic and overlit realm that beckons more and more persuasively to us from the margins of the technological landscape."
- #006
David Cronenberg's agent thought directing this film would ruin his career and begged him instead to direct The Juror (1996), which had recently been offered to him. Cronenberg refused, made this film and found a new agent.
- #007
Because Vaughan's car gets progressively more battered throughout the film, the production needed six vintage Lincolns: three for driving, one to be wrecked, one cut in half for studio shots, and one converted into a truck on which the camera could be mounted at the rear to capture the driver's and passenger's points of view.
- #008
Holly Hunter took a role in the film because she had been lobbying for years for the chance to work with director David Cronenberg.
- #009
Despite the film's highly controversial subject matter and the subsequent banning of cinemas in London's Westminster area, the full NC-17 version was accepted by the BBFC completely uncut.
- #010
J. G. Ballard, the author of the novel the film adapts, was reported to have said: "The film is actually better than the book. It goes beyond the book and is much more powerful and dynamic. It's great."
- #011
Someone once wrote somewhere that "a series of sex scenes is not a plot," and David Cronenberg's response was: Why not, why not? He points to the first sexual encounter between James and Helen (Hunter) as a perfect example. The two connect physically after literally crashing into each other, and this drives James to seek the same orgasmic connection with his wife, but it doesn't work because he hasn't yet had "every crash." "So you have to pay attention to what's going on there. It's not just to turn that scene on and watch it as an exciting scene. Whether a person has an orgasm or not means something in this film, and it has consequences and repercussions."
- #012
After making this film, many people's driving habits changed. After watching crash test footage, Holly Hunter got rid of her truck and bought a BMW 850.
- #013
Director David Cronenberg claimed that the entire film was shot within half an hour of his home in Toronto, Canada.
- #014
The dog that dies in the car crash was a stuffed puppy.
- #015
According to David Cronenberg, Crash is about Thanatos and Eros, Death and Sex.
- #016
According to David Cronenberg, the film's subject is this: "What if you don't have that moral stance? Are all moral stances wrong? Or at least they're of the past and no longer valid; a truly existential view of modern life. We have no values. We can create whatever values we want."
- #017
David Cronenberg set up monitors during the sex scenes so the actors could see what the camera was seeing and make adjustments if they felt they were needed.
- #018
At the time of its original theatrical release, the film was not allowed to be shown in London's City of Westminster by the council officials of the day. It could be seen in all of London's other 31 boroughs, including those bordering Westminster. Despite claims online, this "ban" never covered physical media releases, which are not governed by councils, and it was always possible to buy and rent the VHS, DVD, Blu-ray and 4K versions in Westminster. Similar theatrical bans were imposed in other parts of UK cities (including Chester and Cardiff), but all of them have long since ended.
- #019
AMC Entertainment Inc., then the second-largest theater chain in the United States, said it placed security guards outside roughly 30 screens showing the film to keep minors from getting in. At AMC's Century City location in Los Angeles, two security guards were present, one inside the auditorium and one outside.
- #020
According to Australian critic Adrian Martin, it is as if all the characters in the film move along the outer limits of sexual experiences and possibilities, happily losing their strictly gendered, biologically or culturally determined body identities in the process.
- #021
The close-ups at the end of James Spader's "chase" were reshot because he had initially performed them as written in David Cronenberg's script, "he was kind of predatory and vicious." They then realized this was the wrong approach and that it should instead be "playful, excited, and exuberant."
- #022
The main character's name is James Ballard, the same as the character in the book and the real name of author J. G. Ballard.
- #023
At a 2019 screening of Crash (1996), in which he starred alongside Viggo Mortensen, David Cronenberg admitted that he had Rosanna Arquette's canes from the film in his bedroom. He later explained that he had been using a cane because his back had gone out earlier that week and that he had not been sure he would be able to attend the screening.
- #024
Asked why it is so difficult to decide where to put the camera during driving scenes and sex scenes, David Cronenberg said: "There's probably nothing more photographed in movies than sex and cars, you know, so you can't find a completely unique point of view in a single shot that hasn't been done before by somebody, so it's a matter of accumulation."
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