FILM · 1982 · CANADA
Split Image
46 archived facts 7 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (46)
- #001
Michael O'Keefe performed some of his own high bar moves (huge swings and a backflip dismount), but the more difficult high bar skills and the full-twisting double back dismount were performed by gymnast Frank Thompson, who would later compete for Houston Baptist University.
- #002
According to Peter Fonda's autobiography, Tatum O'Neal was originally cast in Karen Allen's role. When the producers realized that the young O'Neal was too young to work unsupervised, the film went into release.
- #003
James Woods and Brian Dennehy would work together again five years after this film's release, in the thriller Best Seller (1987).
- #004
This was the first of two films director Ted Kotcheff and production designer Wolf Kroeger worked on together in 1982. The other was the box-office hit "First Blood," starring Sylvester Stallone.
- #005
The gymnastics teams competing at the start of the film were Drayton University (Danny's team) and Bradford University (both fictional). After Danny's winning high bar routine, the victory chant was: "Who owns this town, who owns this town, people say we own this town, we own this town, especially today, Hooray!"
- #006
This was the first of two films directed by Ted Kotcheff and released in 1982 in the same month (October). The other was "First Blood," starring Sylvester Stallone, which was released about two weeks after this film.
- #007
This was the first theatrical film of actor and comedian Bill Engvall, who played a student.
- #008
The film's original poster carried the tagline: "The country drove Danny crazy. Only this man can bring him back… for $10,000 in cash… no questions asked." It was not used on any of the home video cover releases, nor on the new Kino Lorber Blu-ray edition.
- #009
This was the second film directed by Ted Kotcheff, released in 1982 and shot in anamorphic widescreen 2:35.1. The other would be First Blood.
- #010
The entire film was shot in the U.S. state of Texas.
- #011
The film's end title sequence reads: "The producers wish to thank Rabbi Maurice Davis for his advice regarding the production of their film."
- #012
The film features three Oscar nominees: Michael O'Keefe, James Woods and Peter Fonda.
- #013
This film was also released on VHS under the title Eksik Parçalar.
- #014
The film was actually shot in Mesquite, Texas, a suburb of Dallas, Texas. It was shot on land that was formerly The World of Animals and resembled Lion Country Safari.
- #015
This was the first theatrical film of actress Jeanne Evans, who played the newspaper boy's mother.
- #016
Karen Allen replaced Tatum O'Neal in the role of Amy / Rebecca.
- #017
The Homeland commune set was a massive single build designed by Wolf Kroeger on 400 acres of a disused former wildlife park in Mesquite, Texas, consisting of a six-story pyramid building with five dormitories, nine windmills (built specifically for the film), two geodesic domes, two fountains, a wind generator, a lake, a ditch, a children's room, solar panels, a vegetable garden, a 15-meter flagpole, two dozen trees, a radio antenna and 400 bushes.
- #018
Thom Noble was director Ted Kotcheff's favorite editor, but he could not hire him because of the Union's rules and had to hire Jay Kamen. Because Noble in fact had a great deal of editorial input in post-production, he took a "Visual Consultant" credit to get around the Union.
- #019
The only way the Stetsons could get Danny back was to have him, with Pratt's help, abduct him in broad daylight from Rebecca and the Homelanders, which in reality is a federal crime.
- #020
Split Image was first announced on February 6, 1980, in Variety under its original title "Captured," the name used when the film was released in Spain and other Latin American countries in late 1982 and early 1983.
- #021
Among the things Danny burned at his rebirth ceremony as Joshua were his Drayton University ID and a photograph of him and his family, which fell outside Kirklander's ideology of caring only for Kirklander and the Homeland above everything else in the world.
- #022
Split Image is one of two theatrical films directed by Ted Kotcheff that were released in 1982, the two being Split Image (1982) and First Blood (1982). Fewer than a dozen actors and crew members worked on both films, among them actor Brian Dennehy.
- #023
Split Image was the first of two films released in 1982 that were directed by Ted Kotcheff and released and distributed by the same company, Orion Pictures. First Blood was the other film, released in October 1982, the same month. Split Image was produced by Polygram Pictures, while First Blood was made by Carolco Pictures but credited to producers Mario Kassar and Andrew G. Vajna.
- #024
The food the cult members ate was non-nutritious fare that made it easier to brainwash and keep everyone in the commune under control, leaving them both easy to manipulate and receptive to any thought or idea Kirklander shared with them.
- #025
Split Image was the second film directed by Ted Kotcheff that Thom Noble edited or supervised during the editing process. On this film, as on First Blood, Noble received a "Visual Consultant" credit and was billed as the sole film editor.
- #026
Danny Stetson's (Michael O'Keefe) assumed name was "Joshua."
- #027
The religious retreat located in a nature commune was called "Homeland."
- #028
Split Image was the first of two films director Ted Kotcheff made in 1982 with an Academy Award-winning composer or lyricist. On First Blood, Kotcheff worked with Jerry Goldsmith, who won for "The Omen" in 1976, and on this film he worked with Bill Conti, who the following year beat Goldsmith to win the Best Original Score award for "The Right Stuff." Conti worked with lyricist Will Jennings, who fifteen years later won the Oscar alongside the late James Horner for "Titanic."
- #029
Split Image was the first of the two films Ted Kotcheff directed in 1982; each film had a different cinematographer, but both were shot in 2:35.1 scope and in very different locations. Andrew Laszlo shot "First Blood" in British Columbia, Canada, in the winter of 1981 and early 1982. Robert C. Jessup shot this film in Dallas, Texas, immediately afterward in late winter and spring of 1982.
- #030
According to an article published in the July 2, 1981, issue of the show business trade paper The Hollywood Reporter, John Caroll Perry was in the film's cast, but he ultimately did not appear in the film's credits.
- #031
The institution of higher education was called Drayton University. The campus name is fictional and does not exist in real life. In the film it was portrayed by North Texas State University, also known as the University of North Texas, located in the city of Denton, Texas.
- #032
The deprogramming scenes were shot using fisheye lenses and handheld cameras on a studio sound stage in Dallas and in two houses in the same city.
- #033
To prepare for the required performances, the film's star, Michael O'Keefe, trained for ten weeks with gymnastics instructors in both the US state of Texas and the US state of New York.
- #034
James Woods and Michael O'Keefe later appeared in Ghosts of Mississippi (1996).
- #035
The film finally made its debut on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber, and, apart from the digital streaming version, was seen for the first time in its original 2:35.1 aspect ratio. The film had previously been available only in a dreadful pan-and-scan transfer on videocassette, first released in 1983 by Embassy Home Entertainment. This release premiered with Universal, unlike Lionsgate's streaming release and the original Embassy videocassette, which was presented with Polygram Pictures, now part of the Universal Pictures library.
- #036
After Joshua's Homeland team, including Rebecca, tries to remove him from his home and he is caught and beaten by Pratt and his friends, Pratt gives him a reassuring talk about how Rebecca and his "urges" have been shut down, and Joshua finally says, "my head my head my head" and "it hurts." This meant Pratt had finally broken him, and he was slowly beginning to return to his normal self as Danny Stetson.
- #037
Screenwriter Larry Gross rewrote much of the original screenplays written by Robert Mark Kamen, Robert Kaufman and Scott Spencer, acting as an uncredited co-writer, to make them flashier. He is nevertheless listed in the film's end title sequence as "script consultant," confirming that he did in fact rework the script.
- #038
The film was made as part of a deal with Polygram Pictures and Filmways Pictures, because Filmways was suffering serious financial problems caused by a string of unsuccessful recent films, including Brian DePalma's Blow Out in 1981.
- #039
Danny was drawn to the cult by Rebecca because she was sexually in love with him, and this subtext surfaces when Rebecca tells Danny (as Joshua) her real name and how much she loves him. It also emerges in the scene where they are all together in Kirklander's room and, from his point of view, discuss feelings and the impurities of sex, as well as in the scene where Pratt reminds him of his sexual urges as a normal person and Joshua calls him a pervert (which is really Kirklander's voice).
- #040
Rebecca's real name is Amy. Just as she confesses how much she loves him, she confesses her real name to Danny (under Joshua's influence) before being abducted by Pratt and Danny's father.
- #041
The deprogramming scenes were shot on a set built on a sound stage at Bill Stokes Associates, 5642 Dyer St in Dallas.
- #042
Actress Karen Allen played the dual roles of Amy and Rebecca in this film.
- #043
Each of the deprogramming scenes was shot differently, with distorted lenses, black screens, fisheye lenses and warped red imagery, giving the audience Danny's point of view as the brainwashed Joshua under Kirklander's mind control and showing how he initially saw James Woods as his enemy as he passed through the stages of the reprogramming process.
- #044
When Danny is formally recaptured after nearly drowning in the lake while trying to escape, he is formally brainwashed as Joshua during the ceremony and, along with the other two brainwashed novices, strips off all his clothes and burns them together with his jewelry, watch and wallet. In Danny's hand was a burning family photograph, a symbol of his transformation into Joshua at the end of the scene.
- #045
Most of the cult members are not wealthy or from a family lineage like Danny's. His family is privileged because they have money. He was easily drawn into the cult because he felt something was missing in his life: the love of a real family unit that openly shows affection, which is what Kirklander preaches to all his followers. In the end he managed to stay free and was able to show that he truly cared about Rebecca, whom he wanted to save as atonement for what he had put his family through.
- #046
Danny finally breaks the programming after Pratt beats Danny's father in front of him, spits on him while Kevin is in tears, and Danny defends him by telling Pratt to stop. This was the last obstacle to freeing himself from the thoughts in Kirklander's head, and it also completed his return to his family as he apologized to his mother and father.
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