Midnight Special/Trivia

Category:Trivia facts
* Because he wanted final cut, Jeff Nichols originally considered making the film with an independent film studio, rather than at Warner Bros Pictures. It wasn't until his last meeting with Warner Bros that he informed them of this requirement. However, the producers at the company still agreed to make the film, due to its relatively small budget.
* According to director Jeff Nichols, Adam Driver's first day on set was the same day he got the news he would be in Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015).
* Jeff Nichols wrote the film as a reflection on becoming a father.
* Kirsten Dunst wore no make-up in the movie.
* The film was shot in 40 days.
* This is Jeff Nichols' fourth film to feature Michael Shannon.
* This movie's budget is 18 million dollars (USD).
* The yellow arrow road sign which the red truck crashes into is the same road sign used prominently in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. In both films the arrow is pointing knowingly upwards.
* Jeff Nichols's first studio production.
* There doesn't appear to be any obvious reason why this film is entitled "Midnight Special." But, since light, photosensitivity and a new world vision are basic elements in this film, perhaps the title relates to this repeated chorus line in the classic 1923 blues song: "Let the Midnight Special shine a ever lovin' light on me."
* This is the first of two movies directed by Jeff Nichols to come out 2016, the other being Loving, with Joel Edgerton, Ruth Negga and Michael Shannon.
* Michael Shannon and Jaeden Martell play father and son in Knives Out (2019).
* At one point in the movie, Jaeden Martell asks "What is Kryptonite?" His father in this film is played by Michael Shannon, who recently played General Zod in "Man Of Steel."
* The coordinates provided over the phone by Paul Sevier (Adam Driver) to Alton's parents - 29 degrees, 4 minutes, 31 seconds North, 82 degrees, 41 minutes, 48 seconds West - is just off County Road 325, in Levy County, Florida, about 5 miles north of Inglis, Florida.
* The title Midnight Special refers to an American folk song which talks about a Houston train by the same name. Legend has it that if it shines its light into your prison cell at midnight then you will receive salvation.
* Historic New Orleans area (Gretna) supermarket "Casey Jones", which was recently closed, makes a brief cameo late in the movie.
* The brother of director Jeff Nichols plays the role of a FBI agent during an interrogation. His name is Scott Everett Nichols.
* One of the comic books Alton is reading is New Teen Titans Annual #1 (1982 or reprint), where you can see Starfire & Blackfire fighting each other.
* The band Lucero played the title song. In Spanish Lucero means light, a key element in this movie.
* Joel Edgerton and Adam Driver have both appeared in the Star Wars films. Edgerton played Luke Skywalker's Uncle, Owen Lars, in Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002) and Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005), while Driver played Kylo Ren in Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015).
* Warner Bros set the film for November 25, 2015 release, but in July 2015 moved the movie back to March 18, 2016.
* This is the eighth collaboration between actors Michael Shannon and Paul Sparks. Their films together include Blackbird (2007), The Missing Person (2009), Return (2011), Mud (2012) and Midnight Special (2016). They also appeared in the HBO TV series Boardwalk Empire (2010-2014), and have appeared in two stage plays; including Lady (2008) and The Killer (2014).
* This film possibly drew inspiration from The Twilight Zone. In the prologue of Twilight Zone: The Movie, two men (played by Dan Aykroyd and Albert Brooks) are driving late at night with the song "Midnight Special" playing, as they sing along.
* The brown truck that the agents use to take Alton is the same model and color Ford F-150 as Ellis's dad drives in Mud (2012) (also directed by Jeff Nichols).
* Adam Driver uses the phrase "red sabre". Kylo Ren's lightsaber in Star Wars is red.
* Michael Shannon and Ann Mahoney also are in the film 99 Homes.
* Some of the structures which Alton reveals near the end of the film are extremely similar to those which were in a New York Times article about 15 years prior to the movie's date. This was an article about building extremely tall, self sustaining buildings -- 200 to 250 stories or more. In particular, the vertical square structures, which are shown near the start of this part of the film, are almost identical to several in the article. They were shaped exactly the same way, and had flat levels, each with grass and gardens, approximately every 40 to 50 floors, all the way to the top.
* At one point in the movie Alton is reading a Superman comic book. Like Superman, Alton gains his strength/powers from the sun.
* Director Jeff Nichols' brother Ben (and his band Lucero) play the title song during the closing credits. Some of the lyrics describe the hidden world ("Now where I'm going Lord only sees", "It was right there before me been there all along, there in the darkness then bright as the dawn, but I couldn't see it"). In the final scene where the father is shackled in jail and staring into the sunlight, the lyrics reflect that image ("There at my feet then I was shackled in irons yearned to be free").
* Body count Zero (0). Four men are shot; two of them, plus a woman are involved in car accidents, and a fifth man is violently clubbed in the head, but there are no confirmed, visible deaths in this film.