Trivia for
Altered States (1980) More at IMDbPro »

• Author Paddy Chayefsky disowned this movie. Even though the dialogue in the screenplay was almost verbatim from his novel he reportedly objected to the over the top shouting of his words by the actors.
  
  
• Arthur Penn was originally slated to direct but resigned.
  
  
• The book was partially based on dolphin researcher John Lilly, who invented the isolation tank, and first started taking drugs while "tanking".
  
  
• Director Trademark: [Ken Russell] [snake] the dream sequence
  
  
• In his autobiography, director Ken Russell said he tried mushrooms during the making of the film, which resulted in a bad trip.
  
  
• In a 1981 interview with the New York Times, Blair Brown said many of the actors and crew tried out the isolation tank. William Hurt actually hallucinated, while Blair Brown found it very peaceful.
  
  
• Paddy Chayefsky had not seen the film before he took his name off the credits.
  
  
• Film debuts of both William Hurt and Drew Barrymore.
  
  
• At one point, Eddie Jessup mentions the work of "Tart, Ornstein and Deikman." This is a reference to Charles Tart, Robert Ornstein and Arthur Deikman, all of whom wrote books about altered states of consciousness, and all of whom have been involved in modern esoteric spiritual movements, such as the Gurdjieff Work.
  
  
• Ken Russell has alleged in interviews he was 27th choice for director.
  
  
• Some footage of "hell" in the hallucinations are from the movie Dante's Inferno (1935) taken from a dream sequence.
  
  
• At about 56 minutes into the film, when Emily returns from Nairobi, there is an airport announcement paging Mr. Daniel Craig.
  
  
• One of the few films to be released theatrically with the "Megasound" sound system format. Megasound was a movie theater sound system created by Warner Bros in the early 1980s. It was used to enhance the premiere engagements of a handful of Warner features. Theaters equipped for Megasound had additional speakers mounted on the left, right and rear walls of the auditorium. Selected soundtrack events with lots of low-frequency content (thuds, crashes, explosions, etc) were directed to these speakers at very high volume, creating a visceral effect intended to thrill the audience.
  
  

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