Trivia for
The Boondock Saints (1999) More at IMDbPro »

• Patrick Swayze, Stephen Dorff, and Robert De Niro each passed to act in the film.
  
  
• The writer and director, Troy Duffy, changed the name of his band (The Brood) to The Boondock Saints after the purchase of the script.
  
  
• Director Cameo: [Troy Duffy] The bar patron in the overalls and green bandanna in the scene where the McManus brothers get into the bar fight with the Russians. Duffy is actually seen standing in the background and doing nothing after the fight starts. In fact, his whole band (The Boondock Saints, formerly The Brood) have cameos in that scene, including Troy's brother, Taylor Duffy.
  
  
• The word "fuck" and its derivatives are used a total of 246 times.
  
  
• The character "David Della Rocco" is named after the actor who plays him, because the character was based on and written for him.
  
  
• The giant "wooden" crucifix in the opening scene is actually made from styrofoam and was painted to look like wood.
  
  
• Annabelle McManus (the twins' mother) was originally in the script. All of her scenes were deleted. She was originally intended to narrate certain parts of the film, but this was changed.
  
  
• Detective Dolly's last name is Alapopskalius.
  
  
• In the Sin Bin, Connor says, "I've been waiting for this one," referring to one of the two additional victims. The comment refers to an omitted scene in the emergency room, where the man is a pimp that was beating a prostitute, and Murphy holds Connor back from attacking the pimp. The other victim in the Sin Bin is a drug dealer from outside the Sin Bin (yet another omitted scene).
  
  
• Il Duce was originally named Darkman.
  
  
• The tattoo on the hand of Il Duce is a butterfly. It can clearly be seen during the court scene at the end of the movie.
  
  
• The maximum security prison that Il Duce is being held in is actually the old Suffolk County jail in Boston, next to Massachusetts General Hospital.
  
  
• The outside of the church at the beginning of the movie is "Old South Church". The pulpit is from "Trinity Church", they are steps away from each other.
  
  
• The tattoo that Connor has on his left hand/index finger says, "VERITAS," which is Latin for "Truth." Murphy also has a tattoo in the same place but on his right hand, that says, "AEQUITAS," which is Latin for "Justice/Equality."
  
  
• The line spoken by Il Duce as a narrator "When I whet my flashing sword and my hand takes hold in judgment, I shall take vengeance upon mine enemies and I will repay those who hate me" is in the Bible at Deuteronomy 32:41.
  
  
• The line "Whosoever shed man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God, made He man" is in the Bible's Book of Genesis, Chapter 9, Verse 6.
  
  
• Rosengurtle Baumgartener's neck is tattooed with the phrase "Untouched By Man".
  
  
• Kevin Spacey was the original choice for Paul Smecker.
  
  
• The church where Connor and Murphy attend Mass, Church of the Covenant, is not a Catholic church, but a Protestant one. No Catholic churches in the area would allow filming in their sanctuaries due to their objection to the plot of the film.
  
  
• Shot in 32 days.
  
  
• The aria played during Smecker's investigation of the two Russians is from Puccini's opera "La Boheme". The title of the aria is "Si, mi chiamano Mimi."
  
  
• Delayed release and heavily restricted by MPAA after the Columbine shootings because of the violent content.
  
  
• In the final scene at the courthouse, when Connor and Murphy begin saying, "Now you will receive us..." is actually a SWAT motto, with only "you will see my team" changed to "you will see we three".
  
  
• The woman that the priest refers to in the opening scene of the film, Kitty Genovese, was an actual person. She was raped and murdered by a serial rapist in 1964 outside her home in Queens while 13 eyewitnesses did nothing to save her. This apathetic bystander phenomenon is now referred to as Genovese Syndrome.
  
  
• Body count: 33
  
  
• Connor and Murphy both use suppressed Beretta 92f pistols throughout the movie, with Rocco's small revolver being a .38 caliber snub-nose. The .38 Snub-Nose is a Colt Python. The revolver is really a .357 magnum, but both the mag and .38 can be shot out of the handgun.
  
  
• Papa Joe uses a Colt Anaconda revolver at the end of the film.
  
  
• Gerard Parkes, who plays the Irish bartender Doc, also played the character Doc in the children's series "Fraggle Rock" (1983) (1983-1987). Coincidence, or perhaps an homage.
  
  
• The Desert Eagles the Russians use have the hammer and sickle symbol just below the bore of the gun.
  
  
• When first entering The Sin Bin the words "Abandon all hope, ye who enter," are painted on the Door. This is a reference to literary masterpiece "The Divine Comedy" by Dante Alighieri. When the character Dante enters hell in The Divine Comedy, the same words are carved at the entrance.
  
  
• The Kitty Genovese story told by the priest that inspires the brothers, also inspires Rorschach, a character from Watchmen (2009), to become a masked hero in the graphic novel.
  
  
• In the scene where Connor and Murphy acquire their ammunition, the wall reads, "While the wicked stand confounded, call me with thy saints surrounded". This is the English translation of the Latin words "Confutatis maledictis, voca me cum benedictis" from a Latin religious hymn by Franciscan monk Thomas de Celano.
  
  
• Was given a very limited release in the United States due to the Columbine Massacre. It was only shown in five theaters for only one week. However, it would later develop a large cult success from word of mouth following the success of DVD sales and would follow up with the sequel The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day (2009).
  
  
• Kenneth Branagh was considered for a role in the film.
  
  
• The script's initial sale garnered a considerable amount of publicity (including the cover of USA Today) as a "rags-to-riches" story; writer/director/composer Troy Duffy was a bartender at J. Sloan's in Los Angeles when Miramax head Harvey Weinstein not only bought the script, but signed Duffy to direct, his band to score the film and agreed to purchase the bar for Weinstein and Duffy to co-own. However, Duffy quickly managed to sour the deal, putting the script into turnaround where it was eventually produced for less than half of the budget offered by Miramax. After its limited theatrical release, the film gained popularity on home video as a Blockbuster Exclusive, unfortunately Duffy's contract did not give him any royalties from video sales. Duffy's initial success and consequent self-destruction are chronicled in the documentary Overnight (2003).
  
  
• Smecker derides Detective Dolly's use of the word 'symbology', correcting it to 'symbolism'. In fact, both are grammatically correct.
  
  

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