10 Things You Didn’t Know About Red Heat

It’s never a guarantee that a movie will be successful. Even when it stars an up and coming action phenom like Arnold Schwarzenegger. Sure, I could see a Jim Belushi movie not immediately blowing up the box office but Arnold looks like a freaking superstar and we all know the 80’s were all about the Soviet fish out of water tale. Putting them together in 1988’s Red Heat may not have burned up the summertime box office but watching it now I have to say that it’s a great flick worthy of the praise that many others have gotten.

A recent finding of the DVD at a local library inspired me for a re-watch and I was lucky enough to watch some fun behind the scenes features which is where I got these 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Red Heat.

1. Red Heat was an idea from Walter Hill and was summed up with a single line from him about a Russian and a Chicago cop and the fish out of water story. Hill had just directed 48 hours and he believed that Arnold Schwarzenegger was about to blow up, Carolco approved it in about 2 minutes.

2. Getting Jim Belushi was also Walter Hill’s idea, he loved Jim’s sense of humor. Ed O’Ross and Gina Gershon (despite not having done much film work up to the that point) were also selected by Walter Hill.

3. Red Heat was filmed at the same time as Rambo III. Both were Carolco films.

4. They filmed in a real prison with real prisoners there. There were somewhere in the neighborhood of 200 actual prisoners in the building during filming.

5. They wanted to film in Russia but were turned down. They filmed many of the scenes in Hungary instead. They did steal away with just a few members and a camera to film the shots of Arnold in the Red Square and outside the Kremlin.

6). They were essentially filming outside the Kremlin in secret but two days later as they were leaving a couple of thousand kids had gathered outside of the hotel to get autographs from Arnold.

7. Stunt coordinator Bennie Dobbins had a heart attack during filming and passed away. He was very close with Arnold and would travel around with him for shows. He may have also been the one to start him on cigars. Bennie had died during the final week of filming. The film is dedicated to him.

8. Ed O’Ross really enjoyed doing the Russian accent for his character Viktor Rostavilli and would later act as a Russian in other films.

9. Jim Belushi spent two weeks with cops from his home neighborhood in Chicago in preparation for his role as Detective Art Ridzik in the film.

10. Arnold Schwarzenegger was 40 years old when Red Heat was made.