ArkaEvren

FILM · 2014 · CANADA

Tusk

38 archived facts 7 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026

38 Interesting Facts About Tusk

Interesting Facts (28)

  1. #001

    Tusk was shot in fifteen days.

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  2. #002

    Tusk is the first film in Kevin Smith's Canada-based trilogy. The second is Yoga Hosers (2016), based on the 288th episode of Smodcast. The final installment will be Moose Jaws (2025).

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  3. #003

    The film was inspired by an advertisement in which a man with a large house offered a person who wanted to wear a realistic walrus costume a room rent-free for 2 hours a day; he had once been friends with a walrus and wanted to recreate that feeling this way. Kevin Smith later discussed on his podcast the idea of an exploitation film about a man who turns another man into a walrus, and told his Twitter followers to tweet "#WalrusYes" if they wanted it made into a film and "#WalrusNo" if they did not. The vast majority of Smith's followers agreed the film should be made. He later said that films like Tusk happen when you smoke too much weed.

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  4. #004

    The Gumtree post (in which a landlord offered a free living situation if the tenant agreed to dress like a walrus) was in fact a joke post made by the well-known Brighton poet and prankster Chris Parkinson, a Smith fan who hoped to get in touch with him. Kevin Smith eventually hired Parkinson as a producer.

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  5. #005

    Justin Long's visit to the toilet and his holding the baby away from himself while urinating is based on a story from Kevin Smith's childhood that he told on his podcast.

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  6. #006

    The story of the Duplessis Orphans is historically accurate, including the statement that the period of Duplessis's tenure as Premier of Quebec was called "la grande noirceur" (the Great Darkness).

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  7. #007

    In the room where Teddy and Ally miss Wallace's phone calls, there is a framed picture of Kevin Smith's dog Shecky on the wall.

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  8. #008

    At no point in the film — including the entire end credits — is the name of the person who plays Guy Lapointe revealed.

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  9. #009

    The walrus suit was made of foam and polyester and designed to resemble human flesh. In some scenes the faces of the people inside the suit can be made out.

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  10. #010

    The name of the Gimli Slider restaurant comes from the Gimli Glider, an Air Canada plane that took off without its planned full fuel load on 23 July 1983. For the emergency landing at Gimli Industrial Park Airport, the two pilots had to glide it down without power.

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  11. #011

    Halfway through the credits, a portion of Smodcast is played in which Kevin Smith discusses the film's third act.

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  12. #012

    Lily-Rose Depp's debut.

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  13. #013

    The letter Howard Howe posts on the bulletin board reads: "Adventure-Filled Life with Stories to Tell! Hello, I am an old man who has lived a long and storied life at sea. I am a proud Canadian who has traveled a strange road all these years. And after a voyage full of ocean adventures, I find myself a land thief whose final port is Manitoba. I know I do not want to spend my remaining years alone in a giant house. Not when I have such stories to tell. So, with that, I offer a room for rent in my glorious house in the woods, provided you do the simple chores I can no longer manage from the confines of this damned wheelchair. But though I am old, I will tell you many of the adventures I have lived in vivid detail. Sincerely, Howard Howe."

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  14. #014

    The film features a character named "Kill Bill Kid." Howard Howe is played by Michael Parks, who appeared in both of Tarantino's "Kill Bill" films.

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  15. #015

    Depp improvised most of his lines for this film.

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  16. #016

    When Guy, Teddy and Ally talk to the young women in the store, they flash back to a scene in which Wallace asks the clerks how Degrassi is going for them. Kevin Smith is in fact a huge Degrassi fan and appeared in several episodes of seasons 4 and 5 of Degrassi: The Next Generation. He also appeared in the Degrassi TV movie Degrassi Goes Hollywood.

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  17. #017

    One of the main shooting locations, The Cramer Mountain Country Club near Charlotte, North Carolina, was where the perpetrators of the 1997 Loomis Fargo robbery bought a mansion after the heist. Much of the film was shot at the adjacent golf club.

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  18. #018

    The woman Wallace trusts in the store is Ashley Greene, also known as Secret Stashley, host of the Top 5 Comic Book Countdown on the SModco YouTube channel.

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  19. #019

    Wallace's over-the-top podcast resembles Kevin Smith's weekly podcast SModcast.

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  20. #020

    In the scene where Guy Lapointe (Johnny Depp) interrogates the two young store clerks, Depp directs his real-life daughter Lily-Rose Depp while Kevin Smith directs his real-life daughter Harley Quinn Smith.

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  21. #021

    The flashback pinball scene foreshadows Wallace's death: a man with flippers instead of feet.

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  22. #022

    One of the film's jokes is that all Canadians pronounce the word "about" as "aboot." The joke was popularized by South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999) and is really aimed at Americans who believe Canadians say it that way. Most linguists agree that "about" is pronounced differently in Canada than in the US, but it actually sounds closer to "a-boat."

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  23. #023

    The name of Ralph Garman's character, Frank Garmin, is a callback to an episode of the Hollywood Babble-On podcast in which a listener email referred to Ralph by the wrong name.

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  24. #024

    "Kill Bill Kid" is based on the "Star Wars Kid," a then-teenager from Quebec whose video of himself wielding a golf ball retriever like Darth Maul in Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) spread online and became a subject of mockery. "Kill Bill Kid's" suicide is probably based on Amanda Todd, a Canadian teenager who killed herself after being bullied at school and in online chats.

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  25. #025

    The pinball machine seen in the podcast booth is Stern's High Roller Casino, released in 2001.

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  26. #026

    Bifrost is also the Rural Municipality (R.M., or county) adjacent to Gimli, with its own R.M.

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  27. #027

    Justin Long plays a podcast host. Five years later, he began hosting a real-life podcast called Life Is Short.

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  28. #028

    Howard refers to the imaginary spider he says bit Wallace as a "toxic little insect." A spider is not an insect.

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Production Story (1)

  1. #029

    According to Kevin Smith, most of the budget went toward securing the rights to use Fleetwood Mac's song "Tusk."

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Behind the Scenes (1)

  1. #030

    Greg Nicotero was the first choice to create the special effects, particularly the walrus costume. On Smodcast Episode 259, Smith noted that he knew how much Nicotero loved Jaws (1975), even that Nicotero had built a real 25-foot replica of the shark "Bruce" for fun, and that he had missed the chance to create something similar. Nicotero turned the job down due to his commitments to The Walking Dead (2010) and recommended his friend and former partner Robert Kurtzman.

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Characters & Cast (2)

  1. #031

    The role of Howard Howe was written for Michael Parks. Writer-director Kevin Smith said that if Parks had turned the role down, the film would not have been made, as with their first collaboration, Red State (2011).

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  2. #032

    The main character's name, "Wallace," resembles the word "walrus."

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Easter Eggs & References (4)

  1. #033

    Cameo: Kevin Smith's real-life wife, Jennifer Schwalbach, plays the diner waitress.

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  2. #034

    The word "chuffa," which Michael Parks's character uses in his dialogue with Justin Long's character, was used by Bruce Willis to refer to scenes he considered unnecessary during the shooting of Kevin Smith's earlier film Cop Out (2010). Smith has been very open about the general unpleasantness of directing the uncooperative Willis on that film. Long and Smith appeared with Willis in Live Free or Die Hard (2007), with Haley Joel Osment in The Sixth Sense (1999), and with Parks in Planet Terror (2007) and Grindhouse (2007).

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  3. #035

    As in Kevin Smith's earlier film Red State, Michael Parks plays a villainous psychopath, and the main character becomes his victim after drinking a sedative-laced beverage.

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  4. #036

    There are references to the "New Nordiques" and the "Old Nordiques." The Quebec Nordiques moved to Colorado in 1995. Although Quebec City built a new arena capable of hosting a hockey team, professional hockey did not return there.

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Deeper Meaning (1)

  1. #037

    Bifrost, meaning "shimmering path," is the rainbow bridge to the realm of the gods in Norse mythology.

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Career & Awards (1)

  1. #038

    Kevin Smith's and Johnny Depp's daughters, Harley Quinn and Lily-Rose, play the two unhelpful clerks at the convenience store. Clerks (1994), a film about unhelpful, useless store clerks, launched Kevin Smith's career as a director and screenwriter.

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Sources & editorial notes

Reference databases

  • IMDb IMDb title page (trivia)

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