Trivia for
The Outsiders (1983) More at IMDbPro »

• During filming, the actors playing the "soc"s were given leather-bound scripts and were put up in luxury accommodations, while the "greasers" were given battered paperback scripts and had to stay in the ground floor of the hotel, as director Francis Ford Coppola wanted to create tension between the two groups.
  
  
• The letter jacket that the "soc" is wearing as he challenges Darrel is the letter jacket from the High School that author S.E. Hinton attended.
  
  
• Over a half hour of the film was cut before release, due to movie executives fearing it to be too long and a chance of upsetting fans of the book, making the movie a mere 91 minutes. In 2005, a "director's cut" DVD of this film was released that restores much of this footage.
  
  
• Cameo: [S.E. Hinton] a nurse in the hospital.
  
  
• The actors pulled some pranks in the hotel in which they stayed while shooting this movie. Years later, Tom Cruise was introduced to someone who said he worked at the hotel Cruise and the rest of the cast stayed in while they shot this movie. The first thing Cruise said when he heard that was "I'm sorry."
  
  
• The film is based on a book that is very popular among junior high and high school students. A school class was actually responsible for Francis Ford Coppola making this film. A class voted Coppola the director they would most like to see direct a film of the book. The school sent a letter and a copy of the book to Coppola. Coppola read the book and the letter. He was so moved, he made both this film and Rumble Fish (1983).
  
  
• Francis Ford Coppola threw out Kathleen Rowell's script, wrote his own, and filmed the new screenplay. However, due to a decision by the Writers Guild, Coppola was unable to secure a credit for himself.
  
  
• When Dallas falls out of his chair at the drive-in, it was completely accidental, and Ponyboy (C. Thomas Howell) looks briefly at the camera while laughing.
  
  
• Ponyboy has a scab on his neck, that is visible in quite a few scenes, that was the result of being cut by a Soc in the original opening where Ponyboy is jumped by Socs after leaving a movie theater.
  
  
• Helen Slater auditioned for a part in the film.
  
  
• Rob Lowe had also auditioned for the role of Randy Anderson.
  
  
• In addition to the 22 minutes of restored footage in the 2005 "Complete Novel" DVD, there are additional scenes that are not included, such as: an extension of the "walking home" introduction where the Socs accost Sodapop and Steve at the DX station and Darry throws some debris from the roof of a house at their car as they drive past him (this extension also includes more narration by Ponyboy); an alternate introduction to Johnny where his mother chases him out of the house with a broom, only to be stopped by Two-Bit, who rushes to Johnny's aid; additional footage of Ponyboy and Johnny at the church where they hide from some people riding on a horse; additional footage where Ponyboy and Darry have a fight only to be walked out on by Sodapop; an extended morning scene following the church fire where Ponyboy awakes and urges Sodapop to wake up, echoing the words he heard Darry say in his dream at the church about "rise and shine."
  
  
• Tom Cruise had a cap in his tooth removed in order to further convey the damage he received in the rumble.
  
  
• During the restored dinner scene where Sodapop runs away, the character is seen with a piece of paper at the table. According to the novel by S.E. Hinton, it is a "Dear John" letter from Soda's girlfriend Sandy, whom he claimed he wished to marry.
  
  
• The hat that Two-Bit finds in Johnny's yard belonged to a crew member behind the camera who lost the hat when a large fan accidentally blew it off his head.
  
  
• Anthony Michael Hall read for the part of Ponyboy Curtis.
  
  
• The non-profit organization producer/performer Anthony Begonia volunteers with was used as a catering home base on several occasions for the film.
  
  
• Out of the main cast, all the kids were in their late teens, the exceptions being Patrick Swayze, who was 30, and Ralph Macchio, who was 20.
  
  
• Two-Bit's real name is Keith.
  
  
• After Matt Dillon auditioned for the part of Dally, Director Francis Ford Coppola went up to him and told him, "You can go home now." Dillon thought he didn't get the part and called his agent and told him he didn't get the part. Later on, it turned out Coppola sent him home early because he already knew he was going to cast him as Dally.
  
  
• The director wanted Matt Dillon to spend a night in jail to 'understand' Dally a bit better.
  
  
• During the scene with Cherry and Ponyboy talking before the rumble, Diane Lane said that C. Thomas Howell was making funny faces at her when the camera was only showing her face which made it hard for her to concentrate and not laugh. During the commentary almost 20 years later, she reminded him of that and he responded "Francis told me to do it."
  
  
• The reason for the actors laughing in the poster is because Leif Garrett was eating the food from the banquet and one of assistant directors yelled, "Hey, Leif. Don't dig in yet. Save that for the actors." Then Ralph Macchio chimed in, "Yeah Leif, save that for the actors." Then everyone broke out into laughter, and that was the poster.
  
  
• When Dallas (Matt Dillon) robs the store clerk, the clerk is played by character actor William Smith, who a few years earlier had portrayed Falconetti in "Rich Man, Poor Man" (1976). Years later, in the film Beautiful Girls (1996), Matt Dillon's character, Tommy, tells his roommate Paul (Michael Rapaport) that he will be skipping their high school reunion and staying home to watch "Rich Man, Poor Man". The two characters then gush that there was never a more terrifying on-screen villain than Falconetti.
  
  
• The knife that Two-Bit uses in the film is a Filipino Balisong. In many parts of the world, it is more commonly known as a "butterfly knife".
  
  
• Rob Lowe had never viewed his cut scenes until Francis Ford Coppola released "The Outsiders - The Complete Novel" in 2005, 23 years after filming them.
  
  
• In the scene where the young girl at the Dairy Queen asks Dallas for 15 cents, the young girl is played by Sofia Coppola, daughter of director Francis Ford Coppola. She is credited in the film under the stage name "Domino".
  
  
• Cameo: [Sofia Coppola] The little girl who asks Dally for spare change.
  
  
• During filming Tom Cruise had gotten his script for Risky Business (1983). In the DVD commentary, Diane Lane says (very quietly) to the other actors that he had asked her during filming to play Lana in ‘Risky Business’, and her father told him there's no way in hell she was going to be a hooker in his movie.
  
  
• During filming, Rob Lowe asked S.E. Hinton, the original author of 'The Outsiders', what happens to Sodapop Curtis. The author responded that Sodapop dies in Vietnam.
  
  
• Matt Dillon's character is shot and killed by police after pointing an unloaded gun at them. The same thing happened to his character in Over the Edge (1979).
  
  
• Rob Lowe's film debut.
  
  
• Sarah Jessica Parker turned down the offer to play Cherry.
  
  
• Brooke Shields turned down the role of Cherry, in order to play Dale in Sahara (1983).
  
  

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