FILM · 2004 · USA
Man on Fire
37 archived facts 4 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (37)
- #001
Screenwriter Brian Helgeland first saw the original Man on Fire (1987) while renting videos in the late '80s. He walked into the video store where Quentin Tarantino worked and asked what was good. Tarantino recommended Man on Fire.
- #002
Most of the scenes between Denzel Washington and Christopher Walken were entirely improvised.
- #003
Denzel Washington was so impressed by Dakota Fanning's acting that while watching her he would forget he was on set.
- #004
Christopher Walken was initially cast as Samuel Ramos's lawyer Jordan Kaufus, but Walken asked for the role of Rayburn instead in order to avoid playing villains.
- #005
Denzel Washington was brought onto the cast because of a doctor's visit. He ran into director Tony Scott in the waiting room of a medical office and the two struck up a conversation. Scott had not seen Washington in person since they worked together on Crimson Tide (1995). Scott had seen Dakota Fanning the previous night in I Am Sam (2001), and seeing her led Scott to consider using the two of them together.
- #006
The kitchen scene between Creasy and Pita, in which he asks her about her love life, was mostly ad-libbed. It began when they smiled at each other and did an "accused" bit.
- #007
The kidnappers' first names, Daniel and his brother Aurelio, are the real first names of real-life kidnappers living in Mexico City in the late '90s: Daniel and the notorious "Ear Loppers" Aurelio Arizmendi Lopez.
- #008
Dakota Fanning was missing her front teeth during filming. The producers debated whether they should give her false teeth and even had the teeth made for her. In the end they decided not to use them.
- #009
Mexico City police told Tony Scott that his crew was a target for kidnapping. Several crew members were robbed at gunpoint.
- #010
Denzel Washington spent ten days with advanced firearms training specialists to prepare for the role.
- #011
Mexico City Police Chief Marcelo Ebrard helped with the film and hoped it would shed light on the issue of kidnapping.
- #012
Mickey Rourke and Denzel Washington did not get along during filming.
- #013
Dakota Fanning took piano, swimming and Spanish lessons for the role.
- #014
Dakota Fanning wrote everything in the diary herself.
- #015
In the original ending, Creasy does not die in the car on the way to The Voice's house. The two meet and talk for a while about the price of a human life. Creasy keeps checking his watch. When the timer reaches zero, Creasy smiles. The whole house then explodes. This implies that Creasy used the rectal bomb he had used earlier in the film on Fuentes. Tony Scott cut the scene because he felt it did not fit the film's tone.
- #016
Radha Mitchell had three bodyguards protecting her while she was in Mexico for filming. She said they were hired after her driver's car was hijacked at gunpoint in Mexico City.
- #017
Denzel Washington worked with a voice coach for three months to learn Spanish with an American accent.
- #018
In the film, Pita survives the kidnapping and Creasy ultimately dies, while in the novel Pita is killed by the kidnappers and Creasy survives. Author A. J. Quinnell wrote four more novels featuring Creasy and was working on a sixth when he died in 2005.
- #019
In his commentary for The Taking of Pelham 123 (2009), screenwriter Brian Helgeland described footage shot of the fatally wounded Creasy swimming in a pool. The film was shot in 1968 at the Olympic Pool in Mexico City. The shooting day was very long, with director Tony Scott filming the scene from different angles and using different shooting techniques to achieve the desired effect. Eventually Denzel Washington expressed how tired he was and Tony asked for one more take. As Denzel swam underwater, Tony stripped naked and, in his own words, dived into the pool next to Denzel as he surfaced, which greatly amused Denzel and the crew.
- #020
Before taking on the role of Creasy, Denzel Washington had complained that he was bored with acting.
- #021
Dakota Fanning had a "stunt-belcher" because she was unable to do it herself.
- #022
The kidnappers are modeled on the notorious Arizmendi gang, which earned 40 million dollars in ransoms over six years.
- #023
The producers drew inspiration from City of God (2002) for the film's bold visual style.
- #024
Denzel Washington did not attract attention in Mexico. He was always surrounded by bodyguards.
- #025
20th Century-Fox wanted the film shot in Italy, and an early script was prepared in Naples. Tony Scott argued that if the setting were Italy, the film would have to be a period piece, because kidnappings were a rare occurrence in Italy in the 2000s. Mexico City became the setting because it had an extraordinarily high kidnapping rate. As a result, the character Rika Balletto was renamed Lisa Martin Ramos, Pinta Balletto became Lupita "Pita" Ramos, and Ettore Balletto became Samuel Ramos.
- #026
In a deleted scene, Samuel is seen cutting off his lawyer's head with a sword.
- #027
Although it is not mentioned in the film, John Creasy served in Force Recon Marines before working for the CIA. When Samuel Ramos (Marc Anthony) reads Creasy's "extensive" résumé in the car, it can be seen for a very brief moment that he was assigned to the 2nd Force Recon Company stationed at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, NC.
- #028
Tony Scott decided to make Pita a swimmer after watching his nieces meet.
- #029
Denzel Washington stayed in character while on the film set.
- #030
Two sex scenes were filmed but later cut: one between Creasy and Lisa, and the other between Lisa and her husband.
- #031
The production hired 70 local actors and 11,000 extras over more than three months of shooting.
- #032
Dakota Fanning's first day of shooting was the scene in which Creasy takes Pita to school for the first time.
- #033
The actor who played Aurelio (Gero Camilo) did not know any English.
- #034
Tony Scott had Marc Anthony look at a photo of his real daughter to make him more emotional.
- #035
Brian Helgeland was not very keen on writing a film he probably would not direct, so the producers told him Tony Scott was working on another project he could shoot instead of this one. That other project was dropped and Scott took over as director.
- #036
It is the second of five collaborations between Denzel Washington and director Tony Scott.
- #037
Several Mercedes S-Class cars were purchased during filming and completely destroyed.
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