FILM · 1999 · USA
Idle Hands
63 archived facts 5 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
63 Interesting Facts About Idle Hands
Interesting Facts (52)
- #001
Jack Noseworthy (Randy) and Katie Wright (Tanya) had no idea they were step-siblings until they met on this film's set.
- #002
The dish soap Anton (Devon Sawa) squirts into his mouth after trying to drink nutmeg and oregano is the real thing; Sawa came up with the gag on the spot.
- #003
In September 2007, Seth Green told The Onion AV Club about making Idle Hands: "The best thing about this movie was that everyone working on it had a different mission statement. We all thought we were making a different movie. Me and the guys, the other actors, Devon and Elden, were convinced we were making a high-level drama with some comedy in it, and we tried to make our relationship believable as best friends for life… Rodman [Flender], the director, was trying to make an old Italian horror film, like a Dario Argento movie. The writers were really listening to test marketing like Heathers and saying they wanted the zombies cuter, with quirkier quirks, and apparently all the kids in the test audiences thought there should be more pot smoking, that the pot should save the day, and that somehow Jessica Alba should lose her top. So her top gets torn off in the car lift, and the pot saves the day, with me making a giant bong out of a carburetor."
- #004
The guitarist of Blink-182 plays the drive-thru worker in the safari hat who says "Alright!"
- #005
The trailer has a shot of Mick and Pnub in football gear climbing a stairway to heaven, taken from the alternate ending on the DVD.
- #006
Mick and Pnub are watching Dawn of the Dead (1978) on TV.
- #007
Anton and his friends are watching the video for Rob Zombie's "Dragula."
- #008
A lot of the bowling alley's stars and decorations were left over from The Big Lebowski.
- #009
Anton doesn't change out of any of his clothes until he's taken to the hospital near the end.
- #010
The shirt Dexter Holland of The Offspring wears in the dance scene is for AFI, a California punk band formed in 1991 that went on to put out several albums through Dexter's label, Nitro Records.
- #011
Stripping Molly's costume down to lingerie was a test-audience request; those audiences called it "the boob part."
- #012
The release was pushed back because of the Columbine massacre, since the main character kills his parents and his two best friends (if unintentionally).
- #013
Anton's dog Duke also played Corky, the stoned talking dog that shares scenes with Paulo Costanzo in Road Trip.
- #014
In the original script, the villain was Anton's undead mother rather than the hand.
- #015
The stuff oozing from Pnub's neck is cinnamon applesauce.
- #016
Elden Henson knew Devon Sawa because his brother had been in Casper, and he knew Seth Green from various audition tapes.
- #017
Anton's parents are only ever called Mom and Dad, but the script names them Norma and Gary.
- #018
The bubbling face in the opening titles belongs to Seth Green.
- #019
The burrito song had to be redone again and again because Devon Sawa couldn't stop laughing.
- #020
Vivica A. Fox drove the trailer herself.
- #021
Randy (Jack Noseworthy) sports the same "weeping Jesus" tattoo that Mickey (Woody Harrelson) has in Natural Born Killers (1994).
- #022
Christopher Hart got the part because Rodman Flender loved the 1990s Addams Family films.
- #023
The pencil sharpener scene was done in one continuous take, in 5 minutes.
- #024
Costumes at the dance include Burger King, Miss Universe, Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky.
- #025
The film's theatrical poster can be spotted on Dawson's Creek, in the video store where Dawson and Pacey work in season 3.
- #026
Rodman Flender didn't want to deconstruct horror films and took his inspiration from John Waters and Dario Argento.
- #027
It was Devon Sawa's idea to use Joy dish soap on set to wash out Anton's mouth.
- #028
While shooting the original ending, the cast came across a Godzilla (1998) puppet and a Jeopardy set on the Sony lot and talked the security guard into taking pictures of them going in.
- #029
For the TV scenes, the producers bought VHS tapes of music videos that hadn't aired on MTV yet.
- #030
Rodman Flender became a Fred Willard fan through Fernwood 2 Night and was happy to give him a part in this film.
- #031
On the last day of filming, Sony producer Lauren Lloyd offered Devon Sawa a Ford truck, but the truck had been bought by Chrysler.
- #032
The bowling scene had to be reshot several times because Jack kept rolling strikes instead of gutter balls.
- #033
Seth Green tried to get hold of the Druid clock, not knowing it had already been donated.
- #034
Vivica A. Fox shot a scene with a wall made of hands, one of which pulls out a belly button piercing.
- #035
Seth Green slipped a Die Hard homage into the air vent scene, but nobody except the director noticed.
- #036
Early on, Anton tells his friend his ideal life would be lying in bed watching TV while a beautiful girl brings him food. He ends up getting just that, though not the way he wanted: he's in a full-body cast.
- #037
Seth Green and Elden Henson had just one week of shooting before the zombie makeup went on.
- #038
The production used the Party of Five set for the school scenes.
- #039
Jack Noseworthy (Randy), who is openly gay, calls a character in the film by the slur "faggot."
- #040
The scene where the hand turns out the lights on the teenagers was shot the day Frank Sinatra died, and Rodman Flender dedicated it to him.
- #041
Originally, Debi was killed by Randy's Ford.
- #042
Rodman Flender wanted the violence to look real rather than played for laughs.
- #043
During production, Seth Green and Elden Henson danced Michael Jackson's Thriller routine to a blaring sound system, which brought Pasadena police officers over.
- #044
Ricky Martin turned up on set as an extra in his blue jacket; he was supposed to have a line, but it was cut.
- #045
The original ending was the most expensive scene to shoot, with Devon Sawa strapped into a harness.
- #046
The scene of Anton and his friends leaving the house was shot early in the morning, and Elden Henson took one really hard fall.
- #047
For the smoky woods, the crew burned leaves.
- #048
The hand twitching as it dies is a tribute to Jacob's Ladder.
- #049
Sean Whalen didn't realize Idle Hands had made an impact until people started sending him friend requests on Facebook.
- #050
Randy is a metalhead whose license plate reads BIGTRCK; two years before Idle Hands came out, the metal band Coal Chamber released a song called Big Truck.
- #051
Seth Green and Elden Henson watched Cannibal Ferox to prepare for their roles.
- #052
The shot of Anton standing on the porch was filmed on a rainy day in April 1998.
Behind the Scenes (7)
- #053
When Anton drives the truck into the dance, it's actually a stunt double at the wheel, since Devon Sawa didn't have a driver's license then; the switch happens as the camera moves left.
- #054
Elden Henson brought his mother to the set, and she laughed her head off during the decapitation scene.
- #055
Sean Whalen and Nick Sadler made up their own dialogue as they went.
- #056
Pnub's severed head was animatronic; Elden Henson gave it to a friend, and it fell apart over time.
- #057
Dexter Holland's prosthetic took hours of complicated work, and the scene was done in one continuous take.
- #058
In the editing room, Rodman Flender wrote a poem called "Ode to Harem Girl" for the extra who played the harem girl: "Once an extra, put to the test by a director, like all the rest, to be cut from the film; though extras work hard, she worked hard enough to be in every shot, East and West." She was either a friend or a cousin of Jessica Alba.
- #059
Seth Green and Elden Henson improvised the cheese-ball-throwing scene.
Characters & Cast (2)
- #060
The hand is played by magician Christopher Hart, the same performer who played Thing in The Addams Family (1991).
- #061
Seth Green auditioned for Anton but was cast as Mick.
Easter Eggs & References (1)
- #062
When Pnub and Mick show up while Anton is throwing up in the bushes, Molly (Jessica Alba) can be seen in the background playing bass on her balcony, footage left over from a deleted scene.
Deeper Meaning (1)
- #063
The sequence of the hand attacking the party was shot in split screen as a tribute to Brian De Palma's Phantom of the Paradise, which inspired this film.
Continue through the archive
Sources & editorial notes
Reference databases
- IMDb
Information from external sources is independently selected, consolidated and edited by Arka Evren. Sources are listed for verification and further reading. Encyclopedia text is used under its licence (CC BY-SA). How we work