The Fly

The Fly (1986)

Timing: 1:36 (96 min)

7.429/10
4908

7.342/10
60885

7.6/10
223000

All about film

Video 4

Photo 146

Actors and characters

Release date

1986-08-15

Country

Canada, United Kingdom, United States

Production

SLM Production Group, Brooksfilms

Genre

Horror, Science Fiction

Budget

$15 000 000

Revenue

$60 629 159

Website

Director

David Cronenberg

Actors

Jeff Goldblum, Geena Davis, John Getz, Joy Boushel, Leslie Carlson, George Chuvalo, Michael Copeman, David Cronenberg, Carol Lazare, Shawn Hewitt
All actors and roles (10)

Scenario

Producer

Mel Brooks, Stuart Cornfeld

Operator

Mark Irwin

Composer

Howard Shore

Artist

Audition

Deirdre Bowen

Editing

Ronald Sanders
All team (105)

• Brandlfly’s stomach acid was made from honey, eggs, and milk.
• Tim Burton was originally slated to direct the film, and Michael Keaton was considered for the role of Brandl.
• Director Robert Bierman began working on the film because David Cronenberg had been hired to work on the action film “Total Recall” (1990). However, Bierman left the project after the tragic death of a family member. The director felt unable to work on such a dark film. As a result, Cronenberg amicably terminated his contract with producer Dino De Laurentiis and took on “The Fly”.
• Mel Brooks was one of the film’s producers, but he did not want his name to appear in the credits of such a gruesome film.
• The infamous scene with the monkey and the cat was cut after a screening in Toronto. In this scene, Brundle tests a system of three telepods on a monkey from a previous experiment and a stray cat. The creature resulting from the teleportation attacks Brundle, who throws it into a corner and finishes it off with a metal pipe. Brundle is in an intermediate stage of transformation, not shown in other scenes. The scene continues with the scientist climbing onto the roof via the wall and ceiling, and observing the night city. Suddenly, he feels a sharp pain just below his left chest, falls from the roof onto a small awning, and witnesses an additional fly's claw emerging from his chest. Brundle bites off the new limb.
• One of the deleted scenes is a dream featuring a butterfly-child. The film had an alternate ending. Pregnant Veronica lies in bed with Stathis. She wakes up from a nightmare. Stathis comforts her, and Veronica falls back asleep, dreaming of a butterfly-child hatching from a cocoon. There were several variations of this scene.
• At the beginning of the film, when Veronica decides to turn on the tape recorder and record Seth's words without his permission, the tape in the recorder runs out on Seth’s words: “Not ready yet.” Then we see a cassette inserted into the player, the tape begins to rewind to the beginning, with the same dialogue where the cassette ended.
• Director Robert Bierman began working on the film because David Cronenberg had been hired to work on the action film “Total Recall” (1990). But Bierman dropped out of the project after the tragic death of a family member. The director felt he could not work on such a dark film. Therefore, Cronenberg amicably terminated his contract with producer Dino De Laurentiis and took on “The Fly.”
• Jeff Goldblum, during the scenes where he transformed into a fly, spent five hours in makeup before filming. The makeup artists from “Chris Walas, Inc.” studied numerous illustrated books on various diseases before the start of filming.
• At the beginning of the film, when Veronica decides to turn on a tape recorder and record Seth's words without his permission, the tape runs out mid-sentence as Seth says, “Not ready yet.” Then we see a cassette inserted into the player, and the tape begins to rewind and play from the beginning, with the same dialogue where the tape previously ended.