End of Watch

As part of their training, Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña spent five months riding along with on-duty LAPD officers on 12-hour shifts. During Gyllenhaal's first ride-along, he witnessed a murder.

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Most of the crude jokes between Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña were improvised by the two of them.

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In the scene near the end of the film where Mike and Brian pursue a silver minivan and then hit it, the crash was not in the script. Michael Peña, who was driving the patrol car at the time, actually struck the back of the minivan by accident. The director had the patrol car's anti-lock brakes removed because they would have caused the camera to shake. The actors also did not know that the road where they shot the scene had recently been repaved. When Michael Peña hit the brakes, the patrol car slid for about 150 meters along the road and swung into the back of the minivan, and the airbags deployed.

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The film's main characters were generally based on real-life LAPD officers Charles Wunder and Jamie McBride. They were partners in the Newton Division from the mid-to-late '90s.

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The Spanish graffiti on the wall of the house where the dismembered bodies are found reads "Hey fags! Keep sending people, HA HA HA!"

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The word "fuck" is used 326 times, making the film fourteenth on the all-time profanity list.

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In the original draft, both Taylor and Zavala die at the end. However, David Ayer felt this was more than audiences could handle.

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When Brian and Mike stop the truck and the cowboy tries to shoot Mike, the helicopter that Brian signals Code 4 to was actually working a real interview scene not far from where they were shooting.

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To capture the footage shot with the main characters' body cameras, Michael Mansouri of the rental company Radiant Images reduced a Silicon Imaging SI-2K Mini camera to about one third of its original size so it could be mounted on special vests worn by Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña. The camera was called "Nano" and was later made available for rental to other productions.

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Preparation took six months and shooting took twenty-two days.

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When Brian and Mike stop at a liquor store and stick their heads in the refrigerators to cool off, this is a very common tactic used by many police officers in hot and humid regions. In fact, the bulletproof vest will stick and cause the "burns" to touch the skin because of the amount of moisture that gets between the vest and the skin. Many police officers now have a small "duct" or "hose" that they attach to one of the air conditioning vents inside their police vehicles, and they tuck their shirts down while driving between calls to cool off.

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As part of their research, Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña were given a taser, as is required in police training. Contrary to rumors that the entire cast was watched, Anna Kendrick claimed she abstained and said she did not think the other actors should have to accept it either.

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Michael Peña initially did not connect very well with Jake Gyllenhaal, but as the training and shooting progressed they got along much better and eventually became good friends.

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The film takes place over four months, between April and August 2011 (as can be seen from the dates on the LAPD vehicle cameras).

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Statues of Santa Muerte are seen in the house full of kidnapped people. Santa Muerte is a sacred figure widely revered primarily by people involved in various drug cartels and other criminal organizations in Mexico and the United States.

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David Ayer wrote the script in only six days.

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Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña trained with police departments over a five-month period. This included ride-alongs of up to three times a week lasting 12 hours.

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Jake Gyllenhaal was the first actor cast. The script was sent to him, he read it in only an hour, and he immediately contacted David Ayer to say he wanted to be in the film.

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In the briefing scene at the beginning, as the officers get into their cars, everyone keeps shouting "Faster, boot!" at Officer Sook. In law enforcement slang, a boot is a rookie or new officer.

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The scene in which the two officers enter a burning building could not be staged with real fire for insurance reasons. Instead, the entire scene was shot using fake smoke and lighting. If you look closely, no open flames are visible.

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Working for the LAPD looks terrifyingly dangerous at first glance, but if you actually spend all 30 years on active duty, the average life expectancy is still over 99%. Old age, illness and other accidents are more likely to kill you than criminals are.

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When Zavala tells Taylor about "Badge Bunnies," he means women who love police officers because they are police officers, for reasons that can include the uniform, the badge or everything the job brings with it. It is a real phenomenon, and every station has its local badge bunnies… along with a warning to stay away from them.

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Officers Brian Taylor and Mike Zavala are referred to as "13X13." The first 13 is the division number, Newton Division at 3400 South Central Avenue 90011. The "X" is the unit type, meaning "extra patrol." The second 13 is the division's division. This format is explained in Log 15: Exactly 100 Yards (1969). In fact, the full list is as follows: 01 Central, 251 East 6th Street 90014; 02 Rampart, 1401 W 6th Street 90017; 03 Southwest Police Station, 1546 West Martin Luther King Jr Boulevard 90062; 04 Boyle Heights Police Station, renamed Hollenbeck Police Station; 05 San Pedro Police Station, merged with Wilmington Substation in 1962 and renamed Harbor Division; 06 Hollywood Police Station; 07 Wilshire Police Station; 08 Sawtelle Police Station, renamed West Los Angeles Police Station; 09 Valley Police Station, renamed Van Nuys Police Station; 10 Wilmington Substation, decommissioned and its number later reassigned to West Valley Police Station; 11 Eagle Rock Division, renamed Highland Park (around the 1920s) and then again when it moved to today's Northeast Police Station; 12 77th Street Police Station; 13 Newton Street Police Station, 3400 South Central Ave 90011; 14 Venice Police Station, renamed Pacific Police Station; 15 Georgia Street Police Station, decommissioned and its number later reassigned to North Hollywood Police Station; 16 Foothill Police Station; 17 Devonshire Police Station; 18 Southeast Police Station; 19 Mission Police Station; 20 Olympic Police Station; 21 Topanga Police Station. "X" is the unit type. These are as follows: A: two-officer patrol unit ("Adam"); D: SWAT ("David"); E: ticket-writing car; L: one-officer patrol unit ("Lincoln") ("X" or "T" units will use the letter "L" after the normal service letter where applicable): traffic supervisor, TL units usually hold the rank of Sergeant; M: motorcycle unit ("Mary") (MQ: special assignment motorcycle, MQ: DUI enforcement); C or "cycle": bicycle unit; CP: Command Post; FB: Foot Beat (walking patrol); T: traffic investigator ("Tom"); TL: traffic one-officer car or field supervisor (Sergeant in the Traffic Division); SLO: Senior Lead Officer; G: gang enforcement unit ("George"); H: Detective ("Henry"); J: Juvenile Investigator; N: Narcotics; R: Metro Unit; W: Detective ("William"); U: Report-Taking Unit ("Union"); V: Vice ("Victor"); OP: Observation Point (normally a small bus operating as a mobile command unit for major events); Q: Special Detail (should not be assigned to radio calls; works a specific crime assignment); X: Extra Patrol ("X-ray"); Z: Special Detail ("Zebra") (not assigned to radio calls; works a specific crime assignment).

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The film performed especially well among Hispanic audiences, who made up 32% of moviegoers on its opening weekend.

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David Ayer grew up in South Central Los Angeles and knows many of the police officers who work that area.

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Before making this film, Michael Peña had met Jake Gyllenhaal only once by chance, when the two ran into each other at the SAG Awards. However, Peña had worked with Jake's sister Maggie Gyllenhaal while playing her husband in World Trade Center (2006).

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When shown in the patrol car, the two main officers are never shown wearing their seatbelts.

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In this film, Officer Brian Taylor (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a former Marine. In 2005, Gyllenhaal played a US Marine during the Gulf War in the biographical drama war film Jarhead (2005).

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The film was shot in a "documentary-style," but most of the seemingly non-professional footage was clearly not shot from one of the characters' cameras.

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It premiered at the 2012 Toronto Film Festival.

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Jake Gyllenhaal and David Harbour also shared the screen in Brokeback Mountain (2005).

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Nine years later, David Castañeda would work again with Jake Gyllenhaal on another police-themed film, The Guilty (2021).

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