FILM · 1985 · USA
Spies Like Us
44 archived facts 6 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (44)
- #001
The film originally ended with the destruction of the world. Test audiences disliked this, so a happier ending was shot on a soundstage in Burbank.
- #002
Appearing on The Chevy Chase Show (1993) on October 4, 1993, Dan Aykroyd told a story about how he and Chase were followed in Morocco by a truck full of paratroopers. Aykroyd had taken a snapshot of the military unit, and they were later chased at high speeds back to their hotel, where they escaped detection by abandoning their Jeep and hiding inside a van with curtained windows. The next day, as a joke, Aykroyd asked John Landis to tell Chase that he had been arrested and that he should expect them to come for him next.
- #003
In an interview about Today (1952), Dan Aykroyd said the film was intended to star Aykroyd and John Belushi.
- #004
The director appears as a security guard in a car.
- #005
The cast included directors Michael Apted, Martin Brest, Joel Coen, Larry Cohen, Costa-Gavras, Terry Gilliam, Frank Oz and Sam Raimi, filmmaker Ray Harryhausen, cinematographer Robert Paynter and visual effects artist Derek Meddings.
- #006
Sir Paul McCartney's title song for the film was his last solo song to reach the top ten in the US.
- #007
It was Vanessa Angel's first film role.
- #008
When the computer operator sets the deflectors to bounce mode a minute before the rocket launch, the computer plays tones that are the first notes of the theme song from "The Jetsons."
- #009
It was the first film collaboration between Chevy Chase and Dan Aykroyd.
- #010
It was Chevy Chase's most successful film in North American box office receipts in 1985. It grossed 60 million dollars domestically, while his other films Fletch (1985) and National Lampoon's European Vacation (1985) grossed 50 million dollars and 49 million dollars respectively. Ironically, the two less financially successful films inspired sequels, while this film never had one.
- #011
The title song playing over the end title sequence rose to number 13 on the UK pop charts. In the US it rose to number seven on the charts in early 1986.
- #012
In 2009, Family Guy (1999) presented a film titled Spies Reminiscent of Us (2009), a follow-up to the film in which Chevy Chase and Dan Aykroyd appear on another spy mission. After watching the film, they explain that President Reagan assigned them as real-life spies.
- #013
"Ace Tomato Company" is most likely a reference to United Fruit (now Chiquita Banana), which was widely known to have ties to the CIA in the 1950s. One of the American soldiers is General Miegs. The American businessman Henry Meiggs, who operated in South America, was the uncle of one of United Fruit's founders.
- #014
The FSB test director appears about 15 minutes into the film.
- #015
The missile at the end of the film targets Detroit (written in Cyrillic on the launch pad screen). However, when we see the missile descending toward its target in space, we see that it is heading toward New York.
- #016
Chevy Chase took on the role that was originally intended for John Belushi.
- #017
BRAND DIRECTOR (John Landis): (Looking directly at the camera): When Aykroyd's character realizes how the launched missile can be successfully stopped, he looks directly at the camera, in other words breaking the fourth wall.
- #018
During the horse escape, the score samples the main theme from Lawrence of Arabia (1962).
- #019
The Army Commander appears in the recruitment poster behind the training post desk.
- #020
General Sline states that he has assigned the "Schmectel Corporation" to investigate endgame scenarios. This is likely a reference to the real-life Bechtel Corporation, a giant American construction and contracting firm with many connections to the US government and military.
- #021
Donna Dixon and Dan Aykroyd married after working together on Doctor Detroit (1983). Aside from this film, both appeared in The Couch Trip (1988), which also starred Chevy Chase. Aykroyd and Dixon also appeared in Exit to Eden (1994) and in the fourth segment of Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983).
- #022
The answer to Emmett Fitz-Hume's question about who managed the American League in home runs in 1953 is Al Rosen of the Cleveland Indians.
- #023
The final scene featuring the chess pieces represents the overthrow of Eastern Europe. It was dated before the 1989 revolutions, in which Eastern European nations overthrew their communist regimes and which led to the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.
- #024
The Radical Vertical Impact Simulator from which Fitz-Hume and Millbarge are lowered was built from the fuselage of a decommissioned BAC Jet Provost trainer aircraft. The Jet Provost had previously been used as the primary jet trainer for the Royal Air Force.
- #025
Gordon McGill's novelization reveals that the scene in which Emmett Fitz-Hume hosts a brief press conference was actually placed immediately after his entrance scene in the office and before his "lunch date" with Alice. His colleague Walter Jurgens, sitting at the opposite desk, was supposed to host the conference, but Fitz-Hume took over the task to do him a favor. This explains why She's Working Her Way Through College (1952), which Fitz-Hume watched in the previous scene, can be seen playing on one of the monitors during the press conference. It also mentions that he has a lunch date and notes that this scene takes place before the scene with Alice.
- #026
The film was sold to Warner Bros. The project, developed at Universal Pictures, had been in development for several years with Dan Aykroyd as the star and John Belushi as co-star until his untimely death in early 1982. After several attempts to get the project made (with Richard Pryor at one point attached to star, which went nowhere), Chevy Chase took a serious interest because he and Aykroyd were part of a project about the ABSCAM scandal to be directed by Louis Malle. Chase was unhappy with the direction of the film and demanded Warner Bros. They took the film from Universal, and Aykroyd (along with Chase, SCTV star Dave Thomas, Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel) began completely reworking the script for the Warner version of the film.
- #027
The theme music samples a portion of the theme song from True Grit (1969). The music for both films was composed by Elmer Bernstein.
- #028
The film was initially set up at Universal Pictures for several years, and the project was conceived before Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi's untimely deaths in early 1982. The project was in development for about a year with Aykroyd starring alongside Richard Pryor, as the studio wanted. Universal was to sell the film to Warner Bros. around late 1983.
- #029
James Daughton plays the jeep driver pursuing the Russian agent. He also played the main villain, the fraternity brother, in Animal House, also directed by John Landis.
- #030
It was filmed in Washington DC, Norway and Morocco.
- #031
Despite being a moderate singles-chart success, Sir Paul McCartney's title track 'Spies Like Us' was not included on any studio album until the 1993 CD reissue of his 1986 album 'Press to Play'. Before that it was available only as a vinyl single release. The B-side of this single (titled "My Carnival") was a 1975 recording by McCartney's previous group, Wings.
- #032
It is one of two 1985 films directed by John Landis. The other is Into the Night. Both films featured numerous cameo appearances. Both films also starred Dan Aykroyd and B. B. King.
- #033
Spies Like Us is the film that created the "Doctor" greeting, well known to everyone Cody Sheflett has met.
- #034
Spies Like Us is one of the films John Landis and Chevy Chase made together; the other is ¡Three Amigos! (1986).
- #035
John Landis was not a fan of the "Spies Like Us" theme song Paul McCartney recorded for the film.
- #036
Spies Like Us is one of six films in which both Terry Gilliam and Charles McKeown appeared. The others are Life of Brian (1979), Time Bandits (1981), Brazil (1985), The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988) and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009).
- #037
Photographs of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King sit on the windowsill in Colonel Rhombus's office.
- #038
The house where the agent with the briefcase appears at the beginning of the film is at 3320 N Street NW, Washington, D.C.
- #039
A year later Chevy Chase would appear alongside Steve Martin and Martin Short in The Three Amigos, again directed by John Landis and their last collaboration together.
- #040
Dan Aykroyd and Bruce Davison were nominated for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar in 1990 and 1991 respectively. Aykroyd was nominated for Driving Miss Daisy (1989) and Davison for Longtime Companion (1989).
- #041
When Dan Ackroyd and Chevy Chase treat the Soviet soldiers like aliens, the score becomes more eerie and resembles the Ghostbusters (1984) score. Elmer Bernstein composed the music for both Spies Like Us and Ghostbusters (1984).
- #042
Principal photography began in February 1985.
- #043
The intelligence agencies featured in the film included the CIA, the K.G.B., the Pentagon and the Defense Intelligence Agency (D.I.A.).
- #044
At the 30th minute of the film, Chevy Chase asks the Afghan rebels who led the American League in home runs in 1953. No one answers. The answer is Al Rosen of the Cleveland Indians with 43.
Continue through the archive
Sources & editorial notes
Reference databases
Sources for the entries on this page
- IMDb IMDb kaydı
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