Crazy Royale/Trivia

The ending for the film was re-shot, due to poor test audience reception.
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This film was made after Beijos que Matam (1997), but the book was set before the prior film.
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The film takes place over the course of a few days, but in the novel the story takes place over approximately two years. Also, in the book Alex Cross is 38 years old with two kids, whereas in the film he is in his mid to late fifties.
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Morgan Freeman's second and final appearance as Dr. Alex Cross. Tyler Perry would later take over the role in Alex Cross (2012).
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Soneji's address is stated as being 1435 Granville street, which is an actual address in Vancouver, B.C., where the movie was filmed.
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In the novel, Alex Cross and Jezzie Flanagan are lovers.
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In the book, the Secret Service is protecting the young boy, and Alex Cross is forced onto the case, not drawn in. Also, he doesn't have a female partner as in the beginning of the movie.
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Jay O. Sanders also reprises his role from the previous film, but it is much smaller.
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Historical reference - When Alex is admiring the rifle at Jezzie's house, she tells him that her father won it in a poker game. The hand was aces and eights, which Alex refers to as the "Dead Man's Hand." The legend is that Wild Bill Hickok was holding this hand (specifically black aces, black eights) when he was murdered in 1876.
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The director of Beijos que Matam (1997), Gary Fleder, turned down the chance to direct this film, opting to make Impostor (2001) instead.
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Lee Tamahori had never read a James Patterson novel when he took on the directing gig.
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The film bears very little resemblance to the novel on which it's supposedly based, aside from the main characters Alex Cross, Soneji, and Jezzie. And even there, for the most part these characters resemble their novel counterparts in name only. It is almost an entirely different story.
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The film's title comes from its source novel by James Patterson. The title is taken from a nursery rhyme "Little Miss Muffet". The early Cross novels were all named after nursery rhymes (Jack and Jill, Pop Goes the Weasel, etc.), while the later ones used Cross' name in the title, either in a punning context (Cross Fire, Double Cross, etc.) or a matter-of-fact one (The Trial of Alex Cross, The People vs. Alex Cross, etc.)
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The sexually explicit details of James Patterson's novel are toned down considerably in Beijos que Matam (1997), as are the scenes of violence in Along Came A Spider.
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Shot over a period of two months.
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This sequel to Beijos que Matam (1997) was greenlit when the first film was still in the theaters.
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Mika Boorem (Megan) and Anton Yelchin (Dimitri) also appear in Hearts in Atlantis (2001), as Carol and Bobby.
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As Dimitri is decoding the message Soneji sent to him supposedly from Megan, just to the right of the monitor is a quick poll question. It asks "Are mp3s going to destroy profits for recording companies?" The possible responses are "Yes", "No" and "Who Cares?"
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Morgan Freeman and Michael Wincott appeared together in Robin Hood Prince Of Thieves 10 years earlier.
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With this film, director Lee Tamahori opted not to make a typical serial killer movie, choosing instead to attempt something akin to a Don Siegel movie.
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Alex Cross's handgun is a nickel-plated Sig-Sauer P226. Morgan Freeman also used this gun in his role as Alex Cross in Kiss The Girls. As compared to the novel, Cross has a Glock 17 for his sidearm.
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Jezzie's handgun is a Smith and Wesson 3913.
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Gary Soneji's prosthetic makeup and affected British accent make him look and sound like actor David Thewlis.
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Michael Wincott played a character name Adrian Cross in 24 Horas: Viva um Novo Dia (2014) and battled Alex Cross in this movie.
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Dylan Baker and Jay O. Sanders both co-stared in Revolutionary Road 2008
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Wincotts handgun is a Waler P99, 9mm with the factory suppressor. At the time of filming, it was one of the first handgun/suppressor combinations offered by the same company.
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==== Spoilers ====
The trivia items below may give away important plot points.
Substantial changes were made from the book. For example, the Gary Soneji story arc continues for four books, and he dies under entirely different circumstances. Also, there are two kids kidnapped in the book, one of which dies in the process, which results in Jezzie Flannigan's execution via lethal injection.
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There is a scene where Alex Cross pays the kidnapper by throwing a thermos containing the ransom from the window of a transit train. This is actually taken from James Patterson's novel "Roses Are Red" (6th in Cross series), in which Alex Cross investigates another of his "best enemies", the man known as "The Mastermind".
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Body Count: 10. Corvette driver, Alex's partner Tracie, school teacher, fisherman, 2 cops, civilian, Soneji, DeVine, and Jezzie.
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In the previous film, Beijos que Matam (1997), Cary Elwes plays a Durham police detective working the case with Cross, but is ultimately found to be the killer. In this film, Monica Potter plays a secret service agent working the case with Cross, but is ultimately discovered to be one of the kidnappers as well as a killer. Elwes and Potter would later co-star as husband and wife in Saw (2004).
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When Gary Soneji's classroom is first shown in the film, the first clue of his "mind-game"...THE MISSING PICTURE...is not among the photo array of historical figures on the bulletin board, but is in fact, repeatedly displayed on all of the student's computer monitors as the scene opens.
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The shotgun, with which Alex Cross kills Gary Soneji, is a CZ "redhead" shotgun.
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At about 1:03:25, while Alex cross and Jezzie are looking at clues, there's a book next to the one picked called "Cross" - named after Alex Cross, the detective investigating the kidnapping
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The film's titular 'spider', Gary Soneji, gets killed with roughly 20 minutes left of the film.
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Billy Burke is complicit in the kidnapping of a girl named Megan. In 24 (2001), he plays a father who tries to kidnap his daughter, also named Megan.
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Category:Trivia
Category:Crazy Royale