FILM · 1973 · USA
Sleeper
- Directed by
- Woody Allen
- Runtime
- 87 min
- Studio
- United Artists, Jack Rollins & Charles H. Joffe Productions
25 archived facts 3 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
Miles Monroe, a clarinet-playing health food store proprietor, is revived out of cryostasis 200 years into a future world in order to help rebels fight an oppressive government regime.
Summary: TMDB
All facts (25)
- #001
Woody Allen initially planned for the film to be three hours long and divided into two parts. The first part would have shown his present-day self coping with life up to his illness, and the second half would have been the futuristic section. United Artists rejected the concept.
- #002
Woody Allen initially hoped to shoot most of the film in Brasilia, Brazil's futuristic capital complex designed by city planner Lucio Costa and architect Oscar Niemeyer. Budget restrictions limited him to using locations within the continental United States.
- #003
The omnipresent official portrait of the Leader is actually a photograph of 1960s counterculture guru Timothy Leary.
- #004
The bowl of "instant pudding" that explodes in Luna's kitchen was created live on set by mixing two liquids that react to form polyurethane foam. The technique is commonly used to spray insulation inside buildings.
- #005
Woody Allen originally conceived the story — in which people in the future are forbidden to speak — as a reasonable way to make a modern silent film.
- #006
Woody Allen plays clarinet on the film's soundtrack. Jim Robinson, trombonist of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, compared him to George Lewis, one of Allen's heroes.
- #007
Woody Allen verified the scientific feasibility of his script ideas during his only lunch meeting with Isaac Asimov. Allen also consulted leading science fiction author Ben Bova to make sure some of his futuristic predictions were plausible.
- #008
Character comedian George Furth makes an uncredited appearance as one of the guests at Luna's party. Furth, who was Jewish, wears an inverted Nazi swastika on his chest and contrasts it by wearing a Tallit, the fringed traditional Jewish prayer shawl.
- #009
The final edit, which condensed 35 hours of footage into a 90-minute film, was completed two days before the film's premiere.
- #010
Miles is told that his world ended when a madman named Albert Shanker seized a nuclear device. Shanker was the president of the American Federation of Teachers, who led numerous teacher strikes over school decentralization in the 1960s.
- #011
The voices of the two robot tailors were provided by Jewish stand-up comedy icons Jackie Mason and Myron Cohen.
- #012
According to editor Ralph Rosenblum, Woody Allen filmed and then deleted a fantasy scene in which Miles plays chess with life-sized chess pieces and, after losing the game, is sentenced to death by the chess pieces. In another deleted scene, Miles impressed Luna with magic tricks.
- #013
The Preservation Hall Jazz Band was paid $12,000. Despite the expensive collaboration, no soundtrack was released for the film.
- #014
All the buildings in the film are real and were not built for the film; they were chosen for their futuristic appearance. The only addition was McDonald's Golden Arches on the 'Mile Hi Church of Religious Science' in Colorado.
- #015
The device used to administer injections is simply a "desoldering vacuum" painted white, a tool used for removing electronic components.
- #016
The idea for a science fiction comedy came to Woody Allen while he was shooting the 'sperm' sequence of Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex * But Were Afraid to Ask (1972).
- #017
Miles is shown a clip of Howard Cosell doing sports commentary and is asked to identify him. It is suggested that being forced to watch such footage is used as a form of punitive punishment, which Miles confirms is true. Howard Cosell had previously appeared in Woody Allen's Bananas (1971), interviewing the Dictator at the start of the film and Allen and Lasser's characters at the end.
- #018
The scene in which Miles shaves in front of a mirror while changing the channels appears to be a clear homage to the pajama-and-mirror routine in Duck Soup (1933).
- #019
Gene Wilder voiced Janus, the robot that serves Woody Allen his meals.
- #020
It was included on the American Film Institute's 2000 list of the 100 Funniest American Films.
- #021
"Cugat," a futuristic alternative to the slang word "cool," is most likely a nod to jazz master Xavier Cugat.
- #022
Lobby cards showed two scenes that do not appear in the finished film: in one, Miles floats through the air in a tuxedo, and in the other he is chased down the road by a giant chicken.
- #023
This is Woody Allen's only science fiction film.
- #024
As in many science fiction films of the 1970s, the sets were furnished with iconic pieces of Modernist furniture. Examples in Dr. Melik's home include tables by Eero Saarinen, the Eames Lounge Chair by Charles Eames and Ray Eames, and Verner Panton's Vitra "S" Chair.
- #025
The British band Sleeper named themselves after this film.
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