FILM · 1999 · USA
The Thomas Crown Affair
27 archived facts 2 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
27 Interesting Facts About The Thomas Crown Affair
Interesting Facts (25)
- #001
In the scene where Thomas Crown dances at the party, his tuxedo's tie and top buttons are undone. This was because Pierce Brosnan was under contract to play James Bond at the time, and that contract reportedly stipulated he could not wear a tuxedo in non-James Bond films. Note also that the tie in this film is white, whereas as James Bond he generally wore a black or dark-colored bow tie.
- #002
The idea that the unusual heat in the museum would render thermal cameras useless came from director John McTiernan's experience on Predator (1987). On that film, McTiernan's thermal cameras began to malfunction when the forest temperature exceeded ninety degrees Fahrenheit (thirty-two degrees Celsius).
- #003
John McTiernan decided to change the heist from a bank robbery, as seen in the original 1968 version, to an art theft, as seen in this version. McTiernan felt that at the time of the film's release, audiences would be less forgiving of Thomas Crown staging two armed bank robberies for fun than of him staging an unarmed art theft.
- #004
The scene in which Crown races the catamaran replaced a similar scene set at a polo match in the original screenplay (and the original film). John McTiernan thought the polo match was too much of a cliché and wanted a scene that carried more action and excitement, not just wealth.
- #005
The Metropolitan Museum of Art did not allow its interiors to be used in the film, so the producers used the New York Public Library a few blocks away for many interior scenes and a soundstage for the rest. The Metropolitan's exterior was shown several times with the permission of New York City.
- #006
When Catherine sees Anna (Esther Cañadas) in Thomas's bedroom, Pierce Brosnan was instructed to physically hold on to Rene Russo so that she would have to struggle to get away from him. Russo did not know Brosnan was going to hold on to her.
- #007
Although the museum is never named, in one of the first scenes a supervisor is seen wearing a blazer clearly bearing the words "Metropolitan Museum." It is also indicated on the crate carrying the "Trojan horse."
- #008
When Catherine "lassos" her towel around Thomas's neck, getting the shot right took sixteen takes. Weights were added to the towel so it would work properly.
- #009
The film initially showed Crown breaking the back of Claude Monet's painting to fit it into his briefcase. John McTiernan later decided, however, that audiences might be put off if they saw him damage the painting in any way, and he reworked the scene to show only Crown placing the folded painting into the briefcase, thinking most people would not grasp the fact that the briefcase is half the size of the painting. (According to a fan theory, however, it is clear that Crown had a cutting device inside the case so that it could be folded in half inside the case.)
- #010
The dark green Shelby Mustang Crown uses in Martinique was originally intended to be used for Arnold Schwarzenegger's character in another John McTiernan film, Last Action Hero (1993), and was taken from McTiernan's garage for this film.
- #011
When Crown (Pierce Brosnan) sees Catherine (Rene Russo) off after meeting her at the museum (when he donates the painting), he taps the hood of the limousine twice to signal the driver. This was Brosnan's signature send-off to his driver Fred (Blake Clark) in his breakthrough role on Remington Steele (1982).
- #012
Crown's watch is a Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso, but the logo is not visible because Pierce Brosnan had an exclusive deal with Omega watches at the time.
- #013
The film's final line, in which Catherine leans against Thomas on the plane and whispers "Next time, I'll break both your arms," is a reference to Magritte's painting "Son of Man," which is hinted at and shown many times throughout the film and which Thomas poses as in the museum's final scene. A subtle feature of "Son of Man" is that the man's left arm appears bent back as if broken at the elbow. Since Thomas has modeled himself on "Son of Man," he is saying he will break his right arm as well as his already broken left arm.
- #014
The final conversation between Detective McCann and Banning, in which he exempts her from the investigation so she can pursue Thomas Crown, was not in the original script but was added about halfway through shooting.
- #015
Thomas Crown's offices were the corporate headquarters of Lucent Technologies, and one of the boats in the race was identified as Lucent.
- #016
In Thomas Crown's bedroom, a signed and personalized black-and-white photograph of supermodel Cindy Crawford can be briefly seen on the dresser.
- #017
Thomas Crown's key is a Medeco key, which uses advanced angled cuts to prevent duplication. Copying his key with the machine shown in the film would have been impossible.
- #018
The glider is a German high-performance two-seat Schempp-Hirth Duo Discus. However, reaching from the back seat to the front during flight is physically impossible, so this was staged in the studio. The glider was flown by the famous American glider pilot Thomas Knauff. The 1968 original film has similar scenes in another glider, the Schweizer 1-23, an American high-performance glider of that era.
- #019
The suit designer seen in Thomas Crown's office is Gino Campagna, who appeared in CNN's Richard Quest segment. He is also the designer responsible for the look of the costumes in this film.
- #020
The final heist featured men in bowler hats and trench coats carrying briefcases to confuse the surveillance team. This resembled another Pierce Brosnan film, The Heist (1989), in which multiple men in Hawaiian shirts and straw hats carried out a robbery at a racetrack.
- #021
When Crown first enters the museum, there is a banner advertising an exhibition titled "Japan." However, the Kanji (Chinese characters) in Japanese read "konbu," meaning seaweed.
- #022
This was the first of John McTiernan's two remakes of Norman Jewison films. The other is Rollerball (2002).
- #023
The butlers in the film are presumed to be Romanian. When they are instructed during the heist to speak only English, one butler speaks Polish rather than Romanian.
- #024
The teacher guiding the students states that the painting later stolen launched the Impressionist movement. In fact, Monet's is Impression, Soleil levant (Impression, Sunrise).
- #025
Catherine mentions search warrants and the possible damage to Thomas's carpets. In the original film, Catherine bluffs her way into his house by allowing a team to install wall-to-wall carpeting. Given the extremely expensive wood parquet floors, this was a dig. In this version, it is just a throwaway line.
Easter Eggs & References (2)
- #026
In the early 1980s, Pierce Brosnan starred in Remington Steele (1982), in which his title character often quoted classic films to solve crimes. In episode 15, Remington Steele mentions the original film The Thomas Crown Affair (1968).
- #027
The tractor seen in the background after the glider landings belonged to John McTiernan.
Related pages
- Candice Bergen — The Thomas Crown Affair comes up in the facts on that page
Sources & editorial notes
Reference databases
- IMDb
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