A police officer joins a secret organization that polices and monitors extraterrestrial interactions on Earth.
Mehed mustas (1997) Online
Based off of the comic book. Unbeknownst to other people, there is a private agency code named MiB. This agency is some kind of extra terrestrial surveillance corporation. Then, one of the agency's finest men only going by the name "K" (Tommy Lee Jones) , is recruiting for a new addition to the agency. He has chosen James Edwards (Will Smith) of the N.Y.P.D. Then, one day, a flying saucer crashes into Earth. This was an alien a part of the "Bug" race. He takes the body of a farmer (Vincent D'Onofrio) and heads to New York. He is searching for a super energy source called "The Galaxy". Now, Agents J and K must stop the bug before it can escape with the galaxy.
| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
 | Tommy Lee Jones | - | Kay |
 | Will Smith | - | Jay |
 | Linda Fiorentino | - | Laurel |
 | Vincent D'Onofrio | - | Edgar |
 | Rip Torn | - | Zed |
 | Tony Shalhoub | - | Jeebs |
 | Siobhan Fallon Hogan | - | Beatrice (as Siobhan Fallon) |
 | Mike Nussbaum | - | Gentle Rosenburg |
 | Jon Gries | - | Van Driver |
 | Sergio Calderón | - | Jose |
 | Carel Struycken | - | Arquillian |
 | Fredric Lehne | - | INS Agent Janus (as Fredric Lane) |
 | Richard Hamilton | - | Dee |
 | Kent Faulcon | - | 1st Lt. Jake Jensen |
 | John Alexander | - | Mikey |
Vincent D'Onofrio researched his role as Edgar, by watching a lot of bug documentaries. In order to achieve his character's distinctive walk, he put on knee braces so he couldn't bend his legs, and taped up his ankles.
The "known aliens" visible on the screen include Al Roker, Isaac Mizrahi, Danny DeVito, Director Barry Sonnenfeld, Chloe Sonnenfeld (Barry's daughter), Sylvester Stallone, Dionne Warwick, Newt Gingrich, Anthony Robbins, George Lucas, and Executive Producer Steven Spielberg.
Will Smith didn't believe it was really Steven Spielberg on the other end of the line when the Executive Producer first called to talk to him about Men in Black (1997).
The site BadAstronomy, famed for bashing science fiction movies (such as Armageddon (1998)) about their science blunders, praised this movie for being comedic, yet surprisingly accurate, when it comes to astronomy facts.
Will Smith, after reading the script, did not want to accept the role, but his wife Jada Pinkett Smith convinced him to take the part.
Tommy Lee Jones only accepted the role of K after Steven Spielberg promised the script would improve. He had been disappointed with the first draft, which he felt did not capture the tone of the comic.
The little ball J accidentally sends smashing around MIB headquarters is said by K to be "a practical joke from the Great Attractor." The "Great Attractor" is a real thing, a gravitational anomaly about 250 million light-years from Earth which affects the motion of every galaxy within hundreds of millions of light-years. It was first detected by astronomers in 1973.
According to Tommy Lee Jones, he didn't mind being covered in slime, but Will Smith hated it.
The film was going to be set in underground bases and locations, including Kansas, Washington, D.C., and Nevada, but Barry Sonnenfeld made New York City the film's main Earth location. He thought it was more believable that aliens could hide out in a large city (safety in crowds), and thought New Yorkers would be more tolerant of people who behaved oddly (who were, in fact, aliens in disguise). He also felt that many of the city structures resembled flying saucers and rocket ships, which could be REAL spacecraft, and other hidden alien technology.
The sunglasses used by the Men in Black are the Ray-Ban "Predator 2" glasses. After the film's release, Ray-Ban reported that sales of these glasses tripled, from 1.6 million dollars to 5 million dollars.
Will Smith improvised the line "It just be raining black people in New York".
The American Humane Society made sure no animals were hurt during filming, including cockroaches. Will Smith was actually crushing mustard packets. At the end of the day, they had to count all the roaches and make sure none were missing.
When K is in the restaurant with James, the scene starts with K telling the punchline of a joke that's likely a variation of the following: A farmer went to town with his pet rooster to see a movie. Animals weren't allowed in the theater, so he put the rooster in his overalls' front pocket and smuggled it with him into the crowded theater. When the lights were dimmed, he let the bird peek out so it could see. The woman sitting next to him noticed, and she nudged her husband. "This man's a pervert, he's got his thing out." Her husband replied, "So? It's nothing you haven't seen before." To which his wife said, "But honey, this one's eating my popcorn!"
John Landis was offered the chance to direct, but declined, feeling it was basically just "Blues Brothers (1980) with aliens". He has since said that he was wrong, and he regrets turning down the film.
Will Smith was cast because Barry Sonnenfeld's wife was a fan of Fresh Prince i Bel-Air (1990), and Sonnenfeld also liked his performance in Ett oväntat besök (1993).
Vincent D'Onofrio, who plays Edgar the Bug, went on to voice all the Bugs who appeared in Men in Black: The Series (1997).
Rick Baker claims his work on this film was his most complex to date, as he had to have approval on his alien designs from both Barry Sonnenfeld and Steven Spielberg: "It was like, 'Steven likes the head on this one and Barry really likes the body on this one, so why don't you do a mix and match?' And I'd say, because it wouldn't make any sense."
Lowell Cunningham's comic 'The Men in Black' was much darker and dryer than the family-oriented science fiction comedy this film adaptation was. In the comics, the MiB survey not only extraterrestrial activity, but paranormal and supernatural activity on Earth as well. They are allowed to maintain secrecy by any means necessary (including elimination); they also had a secret agenda: to manipulate and reshape the world in their own image by keeping the supernatural hidden.
When K reveals there are about 1,500 aliens on Earth, and most of them are in Manhattan just trying to make a living, James asks "Cab drivers?". This is a reference to writer Douglas Adams's 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' novels, particularly the fourth novel 'So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish', where archivist Ford Prefect's entry in the Guide hints that driving a cab is a good way to make a living for aliens visiting New York City.
Clint Eastwood was offered the role of K, but turned it down.
The photo of James, when K is erasing all his data records, is an old high school photo of Will Smith.
When James (Will Smith) jumps from the overpass onto the tour bus, he jumps from Pershing Square Bridge, the same location where Robert Neville (also Smith) is attacked by the demon dogs after the sun goes down in I Am Legend (2007).
When the monitors show J's old third grade teacher it says she teaches in Philadelphia, where Will Smith was "born and raised".
Linda Fiorentino "won" her role in Men in Black (1997) in a poker game with Barry Sonnenfeld. Afterwards, he warned her she would not be in any nude scenes.
Much of the MiB traits and characteristics are in keeping with established lore of Men in Black. For example, supposed encounters with MiBs, witnesses report they use outdated jokes and vernacular, and that their dress and vehicle seem to be dated as well. In the Chinese restaurant, Agent K tells James, "Be there or be square.", an expression that's out-of-place for a mid-1990s conversation.
To research his role, Will Smith visited an alien encounter convention in Las Vegas.
The driver smuggling illegal aliens along a road marked "375" claims to have been "fishing in Cuernavaca." 375 refers to Nevada State Road 375, known as the "Extraterrestrial Highway" for being near Area 51. Cuernavaca is the Mexican city which British ufologist Gordon Creighton claimed a flying saucer had crashed near in 1951 and the saucer's dead aliens thereupon whisked away by the U.S. Air Force with Mexico's alleged cooperation.
According to production designer Bo Welch, the MiB headquarters was designed to resemble a 1960's airport (the examination room of the MiB was particularly based on the TWA terminal at John F. Kennedy International Airport). He used the 1960s theme, because that was when MiB started up (as well as the decade of the space craze), and the airport design was because MiB's extraterrestrial affairs include their arrival and settlement to Earth, which airports assist in.
During pre-production, Barry Sonnenfeld changed a lot of the film's aesthetic: "I started out saying aliens shouldn't be what humans perceive them to be. Why do they need eyes? So Rick did these great designs, and I'd say, 'That's great - but how do we know where he's looking?' I ended up where everyone else did, only I took three months."
The success of the film inspired Marvel (who, by 1997, owned the property) to option other properties for development, later collaborating with Columbia Pictures to produce Spider-Man (2002), among other projects.
The MiB headquarters is located in the ventilation tower of the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, which connects Manhattan with Brooklyn.
After script rewrites, looking for a more action-oriented ending, the original animatronic Bug was discarded after eight months of development. The new sequence using a redesigned Bug containing 45 CGI shots, at a cost of 100,000 dollars each. According to Barry Sonnenfeld "It was the best 4.5 million dollars we spent".
Through an apparent lab error, at least portions of the release prints used in the U.S. were not hard matted for spherical widescreen projection. This meant that if the projectionist did not properly frame the projected image, the audience would be able to see lens shades, microphones and other things not normally visible in the frame area.
It took Rick Baker six hours each day to transform Vincent D'Onofrio into the Edgar Bug. Silk swatches were glued to D'Onofrio's cheeks and tied around the back of his head to stretch his face.
The high-pitched whine the neurolyzer makes when it flashes is the sound of a strobe flash's capacitor recharging.
The crew blew up a 25-gallon drum of blue goo for the scene in the beginning of the movie.
Chris O'Donnell was first offered the role of J, but he turned it down because he thought it was another "new recruit" role like his performance of Dick Grayson from Batman Forever (1995) and Batman & Robin (1997).
According to Vincent D'Onofrio, he based his voice as Edgar on George C. Scott and John Huston.
Yasushi Nirasawa worked on some designs for the Edgar Bug, which ultimately went unused. One of his takes on the Edgar Bug was a creature more humanoid in form, with two heads and very long arms which resembled the forelegs of a praying mantis.
Steven Spielberg also considered directing this, but chose to be just the Executive Producer.
David Schwimmer was asked to play the role of J before Will Smith, but turned it down.
Will Smith admitted that prior to this film the last time he wore a suit and tie was when he graduated from the eighth grade.
Originally, the idea for the Arquillians was meant for a minor character, a bartender named Chuckie. To prove that he was an alien, he was to shoot a beam of light from his head. Rick Baker suggested that he was a tiny alien living inside the head of a robot body. Ultimately the character was cut, but the producers liked Baker's idea so much, they decided to use it for characters that were more important to the plot.
The crew built a 96-foot replica of the Queens Midtown Tunnel, exactly 1/8th the size of the real one. It was completely authentic, down to the graffiti, and took four months to build.
For the iconic suits, costume designer Mary E. Vogt made an effort to avoid looking too much like Blues Brothers (1980). She said she was inspired by Cary Grant's classic grey suit in I sista minuten (1959).
The neuralyzer couldn't open up and flash in the same take, creating some problems during filming.
The explanation that K originally puts in Beatrice's head is an Easter Egg for UFO geeks. It nonsensically mixes 4 of the most infamous cases of scientific explanations of UFO sightings by the US government. Those include 'swamp gas' (Dr. J. Allen Hynek's explanation of a Michigan sighting that had haunted him for years), 'weather balloon' (the original explanation for the Roswell incident), 'thermal pocket' (mass Washington D.C. UFO sighting of 1952) and 'light from Venus' (arguably the most frequently used explanation).
Kay tells Edgar the Bug that he is in violation of section 4153 of the Tycho Treaty. This is a reference to Barry Sonnenfeld's birthday, April 1, 1953 (4-1-53).
Quentin Tarantino was originally offered the chance to direct, but turned it down.
The crew had to shoot fifteen takes of Edgar drinking the sugar water. According to Barry Sonnenfeld, by the end of the day Vincent D'Onofrio was "high on sugar."
WILHELM SCREAM: When Edgar is pulled into the hole by the bug.
The film titles were designed by legendary artist Pablo Ferro, sharing the style of one of his most famous works: the opening sequence of Dr. Strangelove eller: Hur jag slutade ängslas och lärde mig älska bomben (1964)
Producers Walter F. Parkes and Laurie MacDonald originally wanted Barry Sonnenfeld to direct, because he had helmed the darkly humorous Addams Family movies. However, Sonnenfeld was making Get Shorty (1995) at the time, so Les Mayfield was going to replace him, because of the positive reception to his film Miraklet i New York (1994). The producers saw that film later, and decided he was inappropriate for a science fiction comedy, so they decided to wait until Sonnenfeld was available.
This is the highest-grossing action buddy comedy in the U.S. box-office.
Rick Baker constructed an animatronic of the giant Bug to use in the film, but to his annoyance, changes to the script's climax required that the Bug be rendered in computer graphics imagery.
K mentions to J about the Zeronian migration in 1968, and that he probably wasn't even alive in 1968. Will Smith was born in 1968.
The automobile Agents K and J drive (which J describes as a "Ford P.O.S."), is a 1987 Ford LTD Crown Victoria.
Steven Spielberg hired Jurassic Park (1993) and The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) collaborator David Koepp to do an uncredited rewrite.
Barry Sonnenfeld considered playing the morgue attendant himself, but decided that David Cross had the "same sensibility".
The designer who built the modified Ford LTD, bought it from the studio, after the movie.
Originally, the plot centered around a battle between the Arquillians and the Baltians, another alien race. They decided they didn't need the Baltian subplot, so they changed the subtitles in the diner scene.
The stadium the ship flies over during the baseball game is Shea Stadium in Flushing, Queens, New York. The player that gets hit on the head with the fly ball was NY Mets outfielder Bernard Gilkey.
Originally, the Bug was going to be a puppet, but it wouldn't have been able to move around and fight. To have a more exciting final showdown, they spent 4.5 million dollars creating a CGI Bug.
James Edwards jokes about a possible candidate from the Army, calling him Captain America. Tommy Lee Jones would later go on to star in Captain America: The First Avenger (2011).
The scene where James chases a disguised alien was to occur at the Lincoln Center. But once the New York Philharmonic decided to charge the filmmakers for using their buildings, Barry Sonnenfeld and Bo Welch went for the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.
Tony Shalhoub played Jack Jeebs in this film, a few episodes of Men in Black: The Series (1997) and in Men in Black II (2002).
Mikey was created using a combination of an actor in a rubber suit and computer effects.
For the shot in which J flies backwards through a car windshield, the stunt double wore Kevlar underwear.
At one point in the movie, James jumps from a bridge into a bus full of tourists. The bridge where he jumps is the same where Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Hawkeye, Black Widow, and the Hulk fight against Chitauri's army in Avengers (2012).
When K takes J through the arrivals and customs area, there is an alien father and son. The father is played by Debbie Lee Carrington, who went on to dress up as a mini-Mimi Bobeck on The Drew Carey Show (1995), while the son was played by Verne Troyer, who went on to play Mini-Me in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999).
Rick Baker had previously designed Tommy Lee Jones' Two-Face makeup in Batman Forever (1995).
When K searches for his old girlfriend, the satellite video feed of her lists coordinates of 44.41 degrees north by 70.0 degrees west. On a map, those coordinates are in the small town of Readfield, Maine, at a point about 300 feet east of Chimney Road and 2,000 feet north of Chimney's intersection with Main Street in Kent's Hill. (And nowhere near Truro, Massachusetts, over 160 miles away. But the discrepancy might be explained by the use of an alien coordinate system required by the "Tycho Treaty".)
Bruce Campbell was set to appear in a small role, but he backed out to star in the television film Tornado! (1996).
The neon sign in the front window of the Russian restaurant translates into English as "Good Food." The sign is also listed under goofs/continuity for missing letters during the scenes filmed inside the restaurant.
John Turturro was offered the role of Edgar, but had to decline due to other commitments.
The song "Over the Rainbow" was going to be used in the opening sequence.
To make them into credible flying saucers, the CGI renditions of the towers at Flushing Meadows, Corona Park, where the finale takes place, are substantially different from the actual buildings. Primarily, there are actually three structures of varying height, not two as shown in the film. Additionally, the saucer dish of the shortest tower intersects with the poles of the taller ones, and the dish of the mid-sized tower intersects with the pole of the largest one. Therefore, there is really only one complete saucer, on top of the tallest building. Moreover, the dish atop the highest tower is double the thickness of the shorter tower, not equal, as depicted in the film.
The watch worn by J in the movie is a Hamilton Ventura, a style made famous by Elvis Presley in the movie Blue Hawaii.
Vincent D'Onofrio based Edgar's movements on Peter Sellers in Dr. Strangelove eller: Hur jag slutade ängslas och lärde mig älska bomben (1964).
Rip Torn played Tommy Lee Jones's father in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1984).
Barry Sonnenfeld defended the fact that some of the aliens are smokers on The Today Show (1952).
James Edwards' police issue handgun is a Smith and Wesson 3913NL.
During the scene in Jeebs' store, among the many genre items, such as a Lava Lamp is featured, a circa 1950s "Saucer" Lamp, made by the Eames Company from their Atomic Collection.
Much of the initial script drafts were set underground, with locations ranging from Kansas to Washington, D.C., and Nevada. Barry Sonnenfeld decided to change the location to New York City, because he felt New Yorkers would be tolerant of aliens who behaved oddly while disguised. He also felt much of the city's structures resembled flying saucers and rocket ships.
As K checks on his ex-girlfriend in Truro, Massachusetts, the spy satellite at first locks on (or on a spot very near) two invisibly-small firing ranges inside Otis Air National Guard Base, approximately thirty miles from Truro. This seems arbitrary, or a goof. But nearby is the giant missile-tracking radar of Cape Cod Air Force Station, home of the 6th Space Warning Squadron, one of whose tasks is to track all known Earth-orbiting objects "or any new orbiting objects." (Official mission statement.) Also, just a few miles to the south, is Otis's old, but still-active Guard training center called (oddly enough) Camp Edwards.
Vincent D'Onofrio used knee braces to get the feel of Edgar's restricted movements.
The housewife is named Beatrice, which is a reference to science fiction author Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.'s 1959 novel "The Sirens of Titan".
Barry Sonnenfeld called the protective clothes the clean-up guys are wearing "condom suits."
The film's climax takes place on the site in Flushing Meadows, New York, where the 1964 World's Fair was held.
The double-action revolver carried by the tow-truck driver and later by Edgar in the morgue scene is a Ruger Super Redhawk .44 Magnum, which is available in two barrel lengths. This one has a 9-1/2" barrel and weighs 58 ounces (i.e., a little over 3-1/2 pounds) empty.
Rip Torn's cousin is Sissy Spacek, who starred alongside Tommy Lee Jones in Loretta (1980).
Barry Sonnenfeld (director) uses the same font in these credits as he does in Addams Family Values.
Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith who star in this movie have and went on to play comic book characters. Jones who plays Agent K in the movie previously played Harvey Dent/Two-Face in Batman Forever (1995) and went on 14 years later to play Colonel Chester Phillips in Captain America: The First Avenger. Smith, who plays J in this film went on 19 years later to play Deadshot in Suicide Squad (2016).
Ray-Ban's Predator 2 sunglasses tripled in sales after Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones wore them in this movie.
According to the computer, when his identity is being erased, Will Smith's character James D. Edwards III had the Social Security number 905-80-5406.
Linda Fiorentino was pretty familiar with Will Smith's work - she had watched Bad Boys (1995) seven times with her stepson.
In the scene where the bug visits the morgue, a copy of Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand is visible.
The same tandem bike is used by Barry Sonnenfeld in Kär i karriären (1993).
Rick Baker was one of the artists that was brought in by Steven Spielberg to design E.T. for E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982). The job eventually went to Carlo Ramboldi, but Baker eventually went on to work on another Spielberg production, Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990). This marks their third collaboration together.
Jay says, "Don't start nothing, won't BE nothing," to Edgar the Bug. Eighteen years later, Will Smith's son, Jaden Smith, is rumored to star in DC's television show Static Shock, based on the DC comic Static. On the cover of the 1993, Static #1 has the quote, "You don't start none, there won't Be none."
Tony Shalhoub plays Jeebs the pawnshop owner and he is one of many aliens disguised as a human. In Monk: Mr. Monk and the UFO (2009), he plays a human whom some people think is an alien who looks human.
In the scene where James is the only one to spot the need for a writing surface, any of the characters could have simply got out of their egg chair and used the surface of the table, as it was positioned close to several of them.
This is the only film that Agent J and Agent K don't kill the main antagonist.
Vincent D'Onofrio (Edgar the Bug) was originally going to play Martin Brundle in The Fly II (1989) the sequel to the Fly (1986) the remake of the 1958 film of the same name which Jeff Goldblum stars as a scientist whom undergoes a horrific transformation into a mutant bug. Vincent D'Onofrio didn't get the part and the role was given to Eric Stoltz. Will Smith previously starred opposite Jeff Goldblum in Independence Day (1996).
Agent J and Agent K fight the main antagonist during the night-time, following it's sequel Men in Black II (2002).
Included among the American Film Institute's 2000 list of the 500 movies nominated for the Top 100 Funniest American Movies.
Lowell Cunningham: Creator of the original comics appears briefly as short-sleeve MiB office employee.
Barry Sonnenfeld: one of the aliens on the surveillance screen.
At the end of the film, Agent J reveals to Agent L that Dennis Rodman is an alien. This was changed to Michael Jackson in the German, Spanish and French dubbing of the film due to Dennis Rodman not being widely known in Germany, Spain nor France. Oddly enough, Michael Jackson makes a cameo appearance in Men in Black II (2002).
During the shoot, there was a script revision which changed the role of the 'Galaxy' in the movie - the two Arquillians at the restaurant were originally warring species, who would exchange the galaxy to end a war which the Edgar Bug wanted to keep going. Fortunately, some creative tricks could be used to avoid having to re-shoot several scenes. For instance, the Arquillian restaurant dialogue was originally in English, but was redubbed in post-production in an alien language, that could be subtitled with a new explanation. Similarly, new lines were written for Frank the Pug, whose scenes had to go through post-production anyway. Barry Sonnenfeld could be heard on the DVD bonus material jokingly advising fellow directors to include a talking dog into every movie, which makes it easy to change the plot while filming.
According to the novelization, James is right to shoot Tiffany, the cardboard cutout on the MiB firing range. She's actually a dangerous alien in disguise, while all of the other aliens around are completely harmless.
When James is in the elevator with Agent K, he tells him that he does not want to be called "sport" or "kid", or anything like that. K continues to call him things like that throughout the film. It's not until the end, right before he is neuralyzed, that K finally calls him "J"
The final scene reveals that our universe is seen to exist in a gaming marble, just like the Galaxy. Both the scene, and concept of the miniature Galaxy, were inspired from Douglas Adams's novel 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy', where Ford Prefect tells Arthur Dent he knew of a planet that got used in a game of inter-galactic bar billiards and was potted into a black hole ("only scored thirty points, too").
The climax was going to be a humorous existential dialogue between agents J and K and the Bug, but the studio called for a more action-packed climax, so it was changed to the Bug getting blown up.
The ending of the movie is a long-take with the camera showing planet Earth, moving away to show Mars and the rest of the planets, the solar system and finally the Milky Way, depicting this as a little gaming rumble property of a gigantic alien being. The same idea was used in Kontakt (1997), released nine days later, but the scene is changed to continue moving shown more galaxies, super-galaxies and finally the entire universe, closing with a head-shot of young Ellie Arroway (Jena Malone). In 2004, Simpsons (1989) paid tribute to this scene repeating it in the Couch Gag, in Simpsons: The Ziff Who Came to Dinner (2004). In it, after showing the entire universe, galaxies were turned in atoms, DNA's chains and cells, with the camera finally exiting from Homer's head.
After the Edgar Bug kills the Arquillians in the diner, he leaves the restaurant and walks down the sidewalk. The camera cuts back to the cat in the restaurant where we hear the cat growl. The cat's growl is actually a sound effect from the "zombie" monster in the 1996 PC game Quake (1996).
Body count: 11.
The appearance of a female with the initial L (Laurel Weaver/Agent L) appears to be in keeping with the main MiB agents (J, K, and L).
Its highly likely that Orion, the cat of Gentle Rosenburg, is also a more than coincidental reference to Ellen Ripley's cat Jones in Alien (1979). Both in terms of a loyal companion, and also certain shots of the cats' reactions to both films' aliens are nearly identical.
The winged insect that splatters against the van windshield in the opening scene foreshadows Edgar the Bug.
User reviews