The Fugitive (film)/Trivia

• Actor Allusion: Jeroen Krabbé! Would you please stop playing someone who is the protagonist's most trustful ally before it turns out that he was the Big Bad the whole time, trying to manipulate his own agency as well as the hero('s) for some personal monetary gain, all while risking widespread deaths among the population in one way or another?!
  • Late in the film Gerard cracks, when looking at a medical magazine, "I should've been a doctor". Tommy Lee Jones, who plays Gerard, played a doctor on One Life to Live back in the early '70s.
  • To say nothing of the several Indy Ploys that Kimble pulls off during the film. Doesn't the scene where Kimble is "chased" by the derailing train remind you of that movie where he is chased by a big boulder?
• Billing Displacement:
  • Julianne Moore is billed fourth in the film, although she wasn't a well-known star at the time of its release and her character only has about a few minutes of total screen time and zero relevance to the plot. This initially wasn't the case--Moore's character was originally written to have a much larger role as an ally and a love interest for Kimble.
  • Sela Ward, as the doomed Helen Kimble, doesn't get much more screen time, and she's billed third - however, her character is also an example of Small Role, Big Impact.
• Enforced Method Acting:
  • Done by Harrison Ford to himself. He deliberately did not study the script for the scene where Kimble is being questioned by the police, since he wanted his responses and reactions to be as realistic as possible.
  • Then, he injured his knee during filming, but postponed surgery until the movie was complete. The result? A limp, which turned out to work perfectly because it emphasized Kimble's vulnerability, added even more tension to the chase scenes, and seemed completely realistic in light of all the physical things Kimble was doing.
• Hey, It's That Guy!:
  • Helen Kimble is Jo Danville.
  • The One-Armed Man was played by the late Andreas Katsulas, who was known in sci-fi circles as Ambassador G'Kar and Commander Tomalak.
  • The Marshals include Agent K, Ralph Cifaretto (or Cypher), and Rose Nadler.
  • Sue Sylvester is Dr. Wahland.
  • General Koskov is Dr. Charles Nichols.
  • The Janitor appears as a Chicago Transit cop.
    • Neil Flynn's appearance even became a subplot in an episode of the show, in which it's implied that either the Janitor was in The Fugitive or that the Janitor is, in fact, Neil Flynn.
• The Other Marty: Richard Jordan was originally cast as Dr. Charles Nichols, but he was extremely ill (he ended up passing away a few weeks after the film was released), thus being replaced with Jeroen Krabbe.
• Serendipity Writes the Plot: The chase through the St. Patrick's Day parade only happened because the parade was occurring at the same time as filming.
• Throw It In: Jones ad-libbed his famous "I don't care!" line as well as many other comments his character makes.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Micheal Douglas, Kevin Costner, Andy Garcia, and Alec Baldwin were considered for the role of Richard Kimble. In fact, Baldwin was cast, but dropped out over a salary dispute. Meanwhile, Jon Voight and Gene Hackman were considered for the part of Samuel Gerard.
  • There were plans to make either Dr. Kathy Wahlund or Dr. Anne Eastman (Julianne Moore's character) a love interest for Kimble. This was nixed as (a) it would have been distasteful for Kimble to take a new lover while trying to solve the murder of his wife (whom he was clearly still grieving for), and (b) such a story would have distracted from the "chase" aspects of the film.