Radical and revealing, this biographical drama delves into the life of George Jung, who grows up in a family going through a financial crisis in the 1950's. When George is just 10 years old, his father goes bankrupt and loses everything.
The young George is deeply affected by this event and does not want the same thing to happen to him, and his friend Tuna, in the 1960's, suggests that he deal marijuana. He is a big hit in California in the 1960's, yet he goes to jail, where he finds out about the wonders of cocaine. As a result, when released, he gets rich by bringing cocaine to America. However, he soon pays the price.
Cast: Franka Potente, Johnny Depp, Penelope Cruz
Crew: Ted Demme (Director), Ellen Kuras (Director of Photography), Graeme Revell (Music Director)
Rating: MA (Australia), 12 (Germany)
Genres: Crime, Drama, Biography
Release Dates: 06 Apr 2001 (India)
Tagline: Based on a True Story.
Did you know? Rachel Griffiths plays Ermine Jung (George's mother). The actress is five years younger than Johnny Depp (George). Read More
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as Barbara Buckley
as George Jung
as Mirtha Jung
Supporting Actor
Supporting Actor
as Pablo Escobar
Supporting Actress
Supporting Actor
Supporting Actress
Supporting Actress
Supporting Actor
Supporting Actor
as Diego Delgado
Supporting Actor
Supporting Actor
Supporting Actress
Supporting Actor
Supporting Actor
Supporting Actor
as Augusto Oliveras
Supporting Actress
as Derek Foreal
as Ermine Jung
Supporting Actor
Supporting Actor
Production
Producer
Production Company
Executive Producer
Line Producer
Associate Producer
Distribution
Distributor
Animation
Animator
Art
Art Director
Production Designer
Set Decorator
Prop Master
Set Designer
Set Dresser
Casting
Casting Director
Costume and Wardrobe
Costume Designer
Editorial
Editor
Special Effects
Special Effects Coordinator
Special Effects Technician
Special Effects Studio
Visual Effects
Digital Compositor
Film Type:
Feature
Language:
English
Spoken Languages:
Spanish
Colour Info:
Color
Sound Mix:
Dolby Digital, DTS, Sony Dynamic Digital Sound
Camera:
Panaflex Millenium, Panaflex Platinum, Panavision Panaflex
Frame Rate:
24 fps
Aspect Ratio:
2.35:1
Stereoscopy:
No
Taglines:
Based on a True Story.
Filming Locations:
Los Angeles, California
Chicago, Illinois
Palmdale, California
Ontario
Pasadena, California
Bel Air, Los Angeles, California
Long Beach, California
Spring Street Towers - 650 S. Spring Street, Downtown, Los Angeles, California
Ontario International Airport - 2900 E. Airport Drive, Ontario, California
Whittier, California
918 N Alpine Dr, Beverly Hills, California
Manhattan Beach, California
Acapulco, Guerrero
Ambassador Hotel - 3400 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, California
Chicago, Illinois
Palmdale, California
Ontario
Pasadena, California
Bel Air, Los Angeles, California
Long Beach, California
Spring Street Towers - 650 S. Spring Street, Downtown, Los Angeles, California
Ontario International Airport - 2900 E. Airport Drive, Ontario, California
Whittier, California
918 N Alpine Dr, Beverly Hills, California
Manhattan Beach, California
Acapulco, Guerrero
Ambassador Hotel - 3400 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, California
Goofs:
Miscellaneous
At Logan Airport, when George is returning from Cartegena in 1976, at least two passengers have wheeled luggage. Wheeled personal luggage was invented in 1989 by airline pilot Bob Plath, and introduced by Travelpro, which he founded.
Miscellaneous
The clip that Mirtha was wearing in her hair at the end of the movie did not exist until the mid 1990s.
Miscellaneous
When George and his friends steal the small plane, a Boeing 757 is taking off in the background. The 757 was not designed or produced until the 1980s.
Miscellaneous
When George is selling marijuana along the beach, he talks to some bikers. One of the motorcycles shown is a late 1990s Harley Davidson Sportster.
Miscellaneous
When George goes to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, looking for a marijuana dealer, you can see a Ladatel prepaid telephone card sign in the entrance of a store in the background. The Ladatel prepaid card didn't exist until the late 80's, and the sign is from the late 90's.
Miscellaneous
In the series of freeze-frame photos following the initial meeting with Pablo Escobar, while the song "Blinded By The Light" plays, at least two bottles of flavor-infused vodkas are shown behind a bar (Absolut Citron and a Stoli Berry flavor). These vodkas were not introduced until the late 1980s.
Miscellaneous
When the house is full of money, the twenty dollar bills are clearly from a much later issue.
Miscellaneous
The "Miami Beach hotel" scene opens with a shot showing the outside of the hotel. Among the visible newspaper boxes is one for the Long Beach newspaper and with 1990s style graphics.
Miscellaneous
Kevin mentions the pot market at Hampshire College in 1969. Hampshire College admitted its first class in 1970.
Miscellaneous
In the off-kilter shot of the motel sign, a pick-up truck is visible in the foreground. That particular model was not available in the 1970s.
Miscellaneous
When they first go to Mexico, a VW Beetle in the background has turn signal lights on the front bumper. VW signal lights were on top of the fenders from the 1940s to the 1970s. The lights moved to the bumpers in the 1980s.
Audio/Video Mismatch
Towards the end of the movie, when George calls Derek from the payphone to make the final deal, a boom mic appears.
Continuity
When George visits his parents after Barb dies, he drinks and smokes with his father. George takes a deep rolling hit from his cigarette, but never exhales.
Continuity
When George goes to meet Diego to confront him about cutting him out, George pulls the pistol on Diego and dry fires it, producing a click. George then puts the gun to his own head and pulls the trigger for a second time, again producing a click. This would not be possible to do unless George had racked the slide back on the pistol so that it could be fired again.
Continuity
The man that leads them to their first Mexican marijuana connection has his hair in a ponytail. In the next shot when they are following him, his hair is loose.
Continuity
When George gets busted the last time, his lawyer brings him a pack of Camels. He opens it and sets them to his right. When the lawyer pushes the tape recorder towards him, the Camels are on his left side. When he gets ready to start the player, they're back on his right side.
Continuity
When George toasts with his father, there is smoke coming from his cigarette. In the next shot, he lights it.
Continuity
When Georges party gets busted on his birthday the Fed agent that carries out his daughter is the same actor that was the police detective that escorted him out of his parents house.
Continuity
The sweat stains on Diego's shirt when he first meets Escobar.
Continuity
George and Escobar's relative positions during their first meeting.
Crew/Equipment Visible
In the final drug bust, a crew member wearing a gold watch is visible behind the plastic.
Crew/Equipment Visible
When George and Tuna first enter Derek Foreal's salon, the assistant director can be seen on the left gesturing and yelling, "Action".
Crew/Equipment Visible
When Tuna is driving the RV cross country, the crew truck is visible in the windshield.
Errors in Geography
"Norman's Cay" is hilly, yet it's in the Bahamas, which are flat.
Factual Mistake
The Mexican airport scene, which takes place in 1968, includes a 1973 VW micro bus.
Miscellaneous
At Logan Airport, when George returns from Cartegena in 1976, a man in a brown coat with a reddish scarf picks up a bag, then walks through the immigration and customs station behind George without being checked through.
Miscellaneous
When George and Mirtha are fighting, George's mother, not a crew member, can be seen from the kitchen. She was originally supposed to be in the scene, but the long shots were not used, and her presence seems incongruous.
Miscellaneous
When George and Barb are walking on the beach, there is a large freighter in the background, heading out to sea, with a plume of smoke behind it. Rather than become smaller and smaller as it sails away, it moves sideways, and the smoke does not move in relation to the ship. This is because it is a picture being moved sideways to simulate an ocean./ It's a real ship. The camera is being panned to the left to follow the actors, which makes the ship appear to move right. There is no reason to overlay a ship in the background when it has nothing to do with the story.
Revealing Mistakes
In the scene after George meets Pablo Escobar and his associate is executed, Escobar's henchmen are dragging the "dead" body. However, you can still see the "dead" man isn't actually dead, the man's legs are bent and his feet flat on the ground.
Revealing Mistakes
Flipped shot: When George is first taken to Colombia to meet Pablo Escobar and the plane is landing in the background, the Chevy bow-ties on the front of the pickup trucks in the foreground are backwards.
At Logan Airport, when George is returning from Cartegena in 1976, at least two passengers have wheeled luggage. Wheeled personal luggage was invented in 1989 by airline pilot Bob Plath, and introduced by Travelpro, which he founded.
Miscellaneous
The clip that Mirtha was wearing in her hair at the end of the movie did not exist until the mid 1990s.
Miscellaneous
When George and his friends steal the small plane, a Boeing 757 is taking off in the background. The 757 was not designed or produced until the 1980s.
Miscellaneous
When George is selling marijuana along the beach, he talks to some bikers. One of the motorcycles shown is a late 1990s Harley Davidson Sportster.
Miscellaneous
When George goes to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, looking for a marijuana dealer, you can see a Ladatel prepaid telephone card sign in the entrance of a store in the background. The Ladatel prepaid card didn't exist until the late 80's, and the sign is from the late 90's.
Miscellaneous
In the series of freeze-frame photos following the initial meeting with Pablo Escobar, while the song "Blinded By The Light" plays, at least two bottles of flavor-infused vodkas are shown behind a bar (Absolut Citron and a Stoli Berry flavor). These vodkas were not introduced until the late 1980s.
Miscellaneous
When the house is full of money, the twenty dollar bills are clearly from a much later issue.
Miscellaneous
The "Miami Beach hotel" scene opens with a shot showing the outside of the hotel. Among the visible newspaper boxes is one for the Long Beach newspaper and with 1990s style graphics.
Miscellaneous
Kevin mentions the pot market at Hampshire College in 1969. Hampshire College admitted its first class in 1970.
Miscellaneous
In the off-kilter shot of the motel sign, a pick-up truck is visible in the foreground. That particular model was not available in the 1970s.
Miscellaneous
When they first go to Mexico, a VW Beetle in the background has turn signal lights on the front bumper. VW signal lights were on top of the fenders from the 1940s to the 1970s. The lights moved to the bumpers in the 1980s.
Audio/Video Mismatch
Towards the end of the movie, when George calls Derek from the payphone to make the final deal, a boom mic appears.
Continuity
When George visits his parents after Barb dies, he drinks and smokes with his father. George takes a deep rolling hit from his cigarette, but never exhales.
Continuity
When George goes to meet Diego to confront him about cutting him out, George pulls the pistol on Diego and dry fires it, producing a click. George then puts the gun to his own head and pulls the trigger for a second time, again producing a click. This would not be possible to do unless George had racked the slide back on the pistol so that it could be fired again.
Continuity
The man that leads them to their first Mexican marijuana connection has his hair in a ponytail. In the next shot when they are following him, his hair is loose.
Continuity
When George gets busted the last time, his lawyer brings him a pack of Camels. He opens it and sets them to his right. When the lawyer pushes the tape recorder towards him, the Camels are on his left side. When he gets ready to start the player, they're back on his right side.
Continuity
When George toasts with his father, there is smoke coming from his cigarette. In the next shot, he lights it.
Continuity
When Georges party gets busted on his birthday the Fed agent that carries out his daughter is the same actor that was the police detective that escorted him out of his parents house.
Continuity
The sweat stains on Diego's shirt when he first meets Escobar.
Continuity
George and Escobar's relative positions during their first meeting.
Crew/Equipment Visible
In the final drug bust, a crew member wearing a gold watch is visible behind the plastic.
Crew/Equipment Visible
When George and Tuna first enter Derek Foreal's salon, the assistant director can be seen on the left gesturing and yelling, "Action".
Crew/Equipment Visible
When Tuna is driving the RV cross country, the crew truck is visible in the windshield.
Errors in Geography
"Norman's Cay" is hilly, yet it's in the Bahamas, which are flat.
Factual Mistake
The Mexican airport scene, which takes place in 1968, includes a 1973 VW micro bus.
Miscellaneous
At Logan Airport, when George returns from Cartegena in 1976, a man in a brown coat with a reddish scarf picks up a bag, then walks through the immigration and customs station behind George without being checked through.
Miscellaneous
When George and Mirtha are fighting, George's mother, not a crew member, can be seen from the kitchen. She was originally supposed to be in the scene, but the long shots were not used, and her presence seems incongruous.
Miscellaneous
When George and Barb are walking on the beach, there is a large freighter in the background, heading out to sea, with a plume of smoke behind it. Rather than become smaller and smaller as it sails away, it moves sideways, and the smoke does not move in relation to the ship. This is because it is a picture being moved sideways to simulate an ocean./ It's a real ship. The camera is being panned to the left to follow the actors, which makes the ship appear to move right. There is no reason to overlay a ship in the background when it has nothing to do with the story.
Revealing Mistakes
In the scene after George meets Pablo Escobar and his associate is executed, Escobar's henchmen are dragging the "dead" body. However, you can still see the "dead" man isn't actually dead, the man's legs are bent and his feet flat on the ground.
Revealing Mistakes
Flipped shot: When George is first taken to Colombia to meet Pablo Escobar and the plane is landing in the background, the Chevy bow-ties on the front of the pickup trucks in the foreground are backwards.
Trivia:
To prepare for the role Johnny Depp interviewed the real George Jung in prison.
The actors snorted milk powder in the cocaine scenes.
Director Ted Demme died less than a year later, while playing basketball. A postmortem toxicology test showed cocaine in his system.
The scene where Ray Liotta asks Johnny Depp where he got the money to pay for Franka Potente's wedding ring, Johnny Depp says, "Construction." This is a reference to Goodfellas (1990) where Lorraine Bracco asks Ray Liotta how he can afford to pay everyone with twenty-dollar bills and why he knows everyone so well, Ray Liotta then replies, "Construction."
A lot of Johnny Depp's dialogue was improvised, including the scene where they are trying to find a place to put all their money from selling coke and his line "We're gonna need a bigger boat" (a quote from Jaws (1975)).
According to the Director's Commentary, the tape that George Jung leaves for his father near the end of the movie is a verbatim transcript of a tape that the real George Jung recorded under similar circumstances.
The real George Jung (played by Johnny Depp in the film) was released from prison on 2 June 2014. He was due to be freed in November, but was released early after fulfilling a plea bargain by testifying against his co-conspirators. Jung will reside in a San Francisco halfway home until he re-adjusts to society.
Rachel Griffiths plays Ermine Jung (George's mother). The actress is five years younger than Johnny Depp (George).
Ray Liotta who plays George's (Johnny Depp) father is only eight years older than Depp.
When George is in the courtroom the first night before he finds out that Barbara's sick, the words that he is reciting to convince the judge that he is innocent are lines from Bob Dylan's song "It Ain't Me Babe" and Woody Guthrie's song "Pretty Boy Floyd".
Although she was at the premiere, Emma Roberts did not see the movie until about 6 years after its release.
When George is sharing a cell in prison with Diego, George is seen reading a paperback while reclining on his top bunk. The book is "Hells Angels" written by Hunter S. Thompson, the author whom Depp previously portrayed in the movie Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998).
In one scene, George (Johnny Depp) has his suitcase searched at an airport. When a pair of women's underwear are found, George says "Hard to break old habits." This is an obvious reference to Depp's previous film Ed Wood (1994) in which Depp's character is well known for wearing women's underwear.
George's last line, "There are no more white horses or pretty ladies at my door" is a reference to the Emerson Lake and Palmer song "Lucky Man".
The scene at the hotel (where Johnny Depp gets shot in the shoulder) was supposed to be taking place in Miami Beach. It was filmed at a small hotel outside of downtown Los Angeles, where it was raining and about 40°. Shooting had to be delayed briefly because the actor's breath could be seen on film.
Paul Reubens previously did an anti-crack PSA as his character Pee-Wee Herman before starring in this movie which caused criticism from anti-drug companies.
John Leguizamo was offered a role in this film but turned it down because he was already working on Moulin Rouge! (2001).
Emma Robert's first movie.
Ray Liotta and Rachel Griffiths, who play husband and wife, share the same birthday, December 18th.
Denis Leary was originally cast as Derek Foreal.
The real George Jung, played by Johnny Depp, hid marijuana in an RV and delivered it to costumers. Emma Roberts, who played George's daughter, later starred in We're the Millers (2013), a comedy about a fake family who smuggles marijuana in an RV.
There's a pattern to the film's plot. Everytime George says "everything is perfect", things will start to go wrong in his life.
The actors snorted milk powder in the cocaine scenes.
Director Ted Demme died less than a year later, while playing basketball. A postmortem toxicology test showed cocaine in his system.
The scene where Ray Liotta asks Johnny Depp where he got the money to pay for Franka Potente's wedding ring, Johnny Depp says, "Construction." This is a reference to Goodfellas (1990) where Lorraine Bracco asks Ray Liotta how he can afford to pay everyone with twenty-dollar bills and why he knows everyone so well, Ray Liotta then replies, "Construction."
A lot of Johnny Depp's dialogue was improvised, including the scene where they are trying to find a place to put all their money from selling coke and his line "We're gonna need a bigger boat" (a quote from Jaws (1975)).
According to the Director's Commentary, the tape that George Jung leaves for his father near the end of the movie is a verbatim transcript of a tape that the real George Jung recorded under similar circumstances.
The real George Jung (played by Johnny Depp in the film) was released from prison on 2 June 2014. He was due to be freed in November, but was released early after fulfilling a plea bargain by testifying against his co-conspirators. Jung will reside in a San Francisco halfway home until he re-adjusts to society.
Rachel Griffiths plays Ermine Jung (George's mother). The actress is five years younger than Johnny Depp (George).
Ray Liotta who plays George's (Johnny Depp) father is only eight years older than Depp.
When George is in the courtroom the first night before he finds out that Barbara's sick, the words that he is reciting to convince the judge that he is innocent are lines from Bob Dylan's song "It Ain't Me Babe" and Woody Guthrie's song "Pretty Boy Floyd".
Although she was at the premiere, Emma Roberts did not see the movie until about 6 years after its release.
When George is sharing a cell in prison with Diego, George is seen reading a paperback while reclining on his top bunk. The book is "Hells Angels" written by Hunter S. Thompson, the author whom Depp previously portrayed in the movie Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998).
In one scene, George (Johnny Depp) has his suitcase searched at an airport. When a pair of women's underwear are found, George says "Hard to break old habits." This is an obvious reference to Depp's previous film Ed Wood (1994) in which Depp's character is well known for wearing women's underwear.
George's last line, "There are no more white horses or pretty ladies at my door" is a reference to the Emerson Lake and Palmer song "Lucky Man".
The scene at the hotel (where Johnny Depp gets shot in the shoulder) was supposed to be taking place in Miami Beach. It was filmed at a small hotel outside of downtown Los Angeles, where it was raining and about 40°. Shooting had to be delayed briefly because the actor's breath could be seen on film.
Paul Reubens previously did an anti-crack PSA as his character Pee-Wee Herman before starring in this movie which caused criticism from anti-drug companies.
John Leguizamo was offered a role in this film but turned it down because he was already working on Moulin Rouge! (2001).
Emma Robert's first movie.
Ray Liotta and Rachel Griffiths, who play husband and wife, share the same birthday, December 18th.
Denis Leary was originally cast as Derek Foreal.
The real George Jung, played by Johnny Depp, hid marijuana in an RV and delivered it to costumers. Emma Roberts, who played George's daughter, later starred in We're the Millers (2013), a comedy about a fake family who smuggles marijuana in an RV.
There's a pattern to the film's plot. Everytime George says "everything is perfect", things will start to go wrong in his life.
