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The story
A fading actor best known for his portrayal of a popular superhero attempts to mount a comeback by appearing in a Broadway play. As opening night approaches, his attempts to become more altruistic, rebuild his career, and reconnect with friends and family prove more difficult than expected.
What critics & audiences say
Tomatometer91%Fresh#55 of 98 winnersIMDb7.7705K votes#54 of 98 winners
Metacritic87/ 100#33 of 93 winners
TMDB7.4/ 10
Famous lines
You're doing this because you're scared to death, like the rest of us, that you don't matter. And you know what? You're right. You don't.
Popularity is the slutty little cousin of prestige.
Sixty's the new thirty, motherfucker.
I mean, who the fuck are you? You hate bloggers. You mock Twitter. You don't even have a Facebook page. You're the one who doesn't exist.
They love blood. They love action. Not this talky, depressing, philosophical bullshit.
Lesley: Why don't I have any self-respect?
Laura: You're an actress.
How did we end up here? This place is horrible. Smells like balls.
I'm nothing. I'm not even here.
Sam: Truth or dare?
Mike: Truth.
Sam: You're boring.
Mike: No, truth is always interesting.
You are a god. See? There you go, you motherfucker. Gravity doesn't even apply to you.
Quotes via Wikiquote
Fun facts
- The original ending had Johnny Depp in Riggan's dressing room putting on Riggan's wig and speaking in Jack Sparrow's voice. Alejandro G. Iñárritu called it "so embarrassing" and rewrote the ending halfway through filming after a new one came to him in a dream.Wikipedia · Development
- When Michael Keaton first discussed the script with Iñárritu, he asked whether the director was making fun of him over his Batman role. The film still drops Burton Batman references, including Riggan last playing Birdman in 1992.Wikipedia · Casting
- Iñárritu gave the cast the script along with a photo of Philippe Petit tightrope-walking between the Twin Towers, and told them, "We are doing that."Wikipedia · Casting
- The drum score was mostly improvised by jazz drummer Antonio Sánchez, who had never scored a film. The Academy ruled it ineligible for Best Original Score because of over half an hour of classical cues, and rejected an appeal.Wikipedia · Music and soundtrack
- Because the film is staged to look like one continuous take, nothing could be cut or reordered later. Each scene was rehearsed so precisely that Iñárritu said "there was no room to improvise at all."Wikipedia · Rehearsal and filming
- Emma Stone recalled ruining a six-minute take by walking around a corner too quickly; shorter scenes typically needed about 20 takes. The live Times Square sequence was shot only twice to avoid drawing tourists.Wikipedia · Rehearsal and filming
- Josh Brolin was originally set to play Mike Shiner, but the financiers replaced him with Edward Norton due to scheduling conflicts. Norton told Iñárritu the role needed someone with "at least a little bit of authentic depth of experience" in that world.Wikipedia · Casting
- Iñárritu's co-writers and "huge" industry figures told him the single-shot idea could not work, and he himself called it "almost suicidal." Armando Bo said they wrote everything around the one shot.Wikipedia · Development
- According to Rodeo FX, visual effects touched 90% of the film's frames, much of it subtle work like stitching takes together and erasing the crew's reflections from the many mirrors.Wikipedia · Post-production and visual effects
- Emmanuel Lubezki shot handheld scenes on a tiny Arri Alexa M, sometimes just two inches from Michael Keaton's face. He said the long takes would have been impossible with the cameras of a few years earlier.Wikipedia · Rehearsal and filming