FILM · 2008 · USA
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
- Directed by
- David Fincher
- Runtime
- 166 min
- Studio
- Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros. Pictures, The Kennedy/Marshall Company
53 archived facts 7 topics 1 source Last reviewed Sep 2026
Born under unusual circumstances, Benjamin Button springs into being as an elderly man in a New Orleans nursing home and ages in reverse. Twelve years after his birth, he meets Daisy, a child who flits in and out of his life as she grows up to be a dancer. Though he has all sorts of unusual adventures over the course of his life, it is his relationship with Daisy, and the hope that they will come together at the…
Summary: TMDB
38 Interesting Facts About The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
- #002
Roy Cleveland Sullivan (1912-1983) holds the Guinness World Record for being struck by lightning seven times. Mr. Daws recalls being struck while in his car, as happened to Sullivan in 1969: "Did I ever tell you I've been struck by lightning seven times? Once when I was just sitting in my truck, minding my own business."
- #003
Director Tarsem Singh was hired to shoot the brief montage of Benjamin backpacking through India and Cambodia after David Fincher learned that Tarsem and Brad Pitt were both planning to be in Southeast Asia at the same time.
- #004
Brad Pitt stated that completing the makeup the role required took five hours every day.
- #005
The hotel room numbers correspond to Benjamin's age; he was 57 in Murmansk, and later 25 when he met Daisy.
- #006
Contains a major spoiler — show
Julia Ormond shot her scenes two weeks before the end of the final filming. During this period, Cate Blanchett had to spend four hours a day in makeup to play the terminally ill Daisy. Because of the extreme heat created by the studio lights and blankets, she could lie in the hospital bed only for short stretches.
- #007
The film's initial development began in 1994.
- #008
The film takes place on November 11, 1918, and in the years 1925, 1936, 1941, 1945, 1954, 1962, 1964, 1968, 1970, 1981, 1991, 1997, 2002, 2003 and 2005.
- #009
In real life, a man was housed in a monkey house. Ota Benga was taken from the Congo in 1904 and exhibited in a monkey house at the Bronx Zoo. His teeth had been filed to sharp points, and he shot arrows at onlookers. Recognizing that they were "inhumane," the zoo released him in 1906, and he was placed in an orphanage until 1910, when he moved to Virginia. He received a formal education before starting work at a tobacco factory and began planning his return to the Congo. The outbreak of World War I made his plans impossible, and he killed himself in 1916.
- #010
Contains a major spoiler — show
David Fincher admitted that the reason Brad Pitt did not continue playing Benjamin in his final scenes as a child and a baby was that the special effects budget had run out. Fincher argues, however, that having Benjamin played by different actors from that point on worked well, because he is essentially a different character.
- #012
The short story is based on a remark by the author Mark Twain. Twain's famous line was "The best part of life was the beginning, and the worst part was the end."
- #014
The producers worked closely with Levi's to obtain clothing from the Levi's Vintage Clothing collection in order to authenticate the various time periods depicted throughout the film.
- #015
According to director David Fincher and writer Eric Roth, studio executives insisted on shifting F. Scott Fitzgerald's original story, which begins just before the Civil War and ends in the Jazz Age, to the 1960s in order to appeal to the Baby Boomer audience demographic. The assumption was that Boomer viewers would relate more to their own era.
- #017
Cate Blanchett looped dialogue for the younger versions of Daisy.
- #018
This is Brad Pitt's third collaboration with David Fincher; the first two were Seven (1995) and Fight Club (1999).
- #020
This is David Fincher's first PG-13-rated film in the United States (other countries use different rating systems).
- #021
When Benjamin is seen reading a novel at "The Chelsea," a picture from F. Scott Fitzgerald's short story "Winter Dreams" is clearly visible.
- #024
Daisy stated her age as 43 (in 1967). She was born in 1924.
- #026
When Daisy has grown up and meets Benjamin for the second time, she mentions "Kismet," an English word of Turkish origin meaning "predestined fate" and "fortune/destiny, as foretold by Providence." The word also has Hindi and Urdu roots, but is pronounced 'Kismat'.
- #027
Principal photography was planned to last a total of 150 days, excluding the time needed to create the visual effects required for the transformation of Brad Pitt's character into his infancy stage.
- #028
It was included in "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die," edited by Steven Schneider.
- #031
Shot in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, it was the second Hollywood feature film to be shot there, following Denzel Washington's Deja Vu (2006).
- #032
Benjamin's silver-blue motorcycle is a 1956 Triumph T110 with a 650cc engine.
- #033
Benjamin's sailboat is named Button Up.
- #034
Six of the seven "struck by lightning" stories are shown in sepia.
- #035
Danny Boyle withdrew from the Solomon Grundy project because he thought it was very similar to this story.
- #037
Contains a major spoiler — show
The warning sirens heard during the Hurricane Katrina sequence are the same sirens used in The Time Machine (2002), in which the Moon is destroyed.
- #038
Contains a major spoiler — show
Benjamin visits Daisy in the hospital after she is hit by a taxi. In Forrest Gump (1994), Forrest visits Lieutenant Dan in the same hospital.
- #040
The exterior of the house Benjamin's father sells is the same house at 547 Esplanade Ave, New Orleans, Louisiana — that is, the exterior of the Gallier House seen in Cat People (1982).
- #041
Brad Pitt had previously appeared with Cate Blanchett in Babel (2006), with Julia Ormond in Legends of the Fall (1994), and with Tilda Swinton in Burn After Reading (2008). Pitt also appeared alongside Jason Flemyng in Snatch (2000).
- #042
The motorcycle Button uses in India is a 350 cc Royal Enfield Bullet, a British-designed motorcycle that has been produced under licence in Chennai (Madras), India, since 1955.
- #043
It is David Fincher's second highest-grossing film after Gone Girl (2014).
- #044
The idea of "a man who starts aging backwards" was also used in the 1947 novel "Les Carnets du bon Dieu" ("Diary of God") by the French writer Pierre Daninos.
- #045
Spike Jonze was at one point in talks to direct the film.
- #046
Taraji P. Henson and Mahershala Ali later appeared together in Hidden Figures (2016).
- #047
In May 2004, rumours first emerged that David Fincher would direct the film. This was confirmed one year and one month later.
- #048
Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett and Elle Fanning appeared in Babel (2006).
- #052
It was initially scheduled for release in May 2008.
- #053
At one point in its development, it was discussed as a project for Phil Alden Robinson.
Sources & editorial notes
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