Trivia for
Romancing the Stone (1984) More at IMDbPro »

• The phrase "Romancing the Stone" is a piece of jewelers' jargon, referring to a step in preparing a gem for use in jewelrey.
  
  
• The water taxi Joan Wilder rides to meet Ira is named "The Orca," which is also the name of Quint's boat in Jaws (1975). Jaws director Steven Spielberg produced director Robert Zemeckis' previous film, Used Cars (1980). Zemeckis also co-wrote Spielberg's 1941 (1979) which features a "Jaws" parody.
  
  
• Alan Silvestri was hired to do a temporary score for the film, but director Robert Zemeckis liked his work so much that he kept him on as composer.
  
  
• Director Trademark: [Robert Zemeckis] [citation] At the beginning of the movie, when Joan Wilder has finished the book, she prepares "dinner" for her cat. This scene resembles a well-known commercial for cat-food.
  
  
• The treasure map that is integral to the movie was designed by puzzle columnist Dr. Crypton.
  
  
• In the English version of the film, Gloria speaks of "Macy's" as the department store where Joan gets sick. The German edition of this movie says "Bloomingdale's" instead of "Macy's". Gloria says "Bloomingdale's" on the English audio of the DVD.
  
  
• Reports of kidnappings in Colombia forced the location shoots to be done in Mexico.
  
  
• The Eddy Grant song "Romancing the Stone" did not feature prominently in the film (the guitar solo can be heard in the background of the scene where Joan and Jack enter the house of her "fan," Juan) and was not included on the soundtrack album. Although he was commisioned to write the song for the movie, the filmmakers chose not to use it. When the movie was released and proved to be a big hit, Eddy released the song on his own. One of the video clips of the song, however, makes prominent use of footage from various scenes from the film.
  
  
• Both Sylvester Stallone and Christopher Reeve turned down the role of Jack T. Colton, before Michael Douglas accepted the part.
  
  
• The stunt double for Kathleen Turner who did the actual mud slide scene was Jeannie Epper who was also the stunt body double for actress Lynda Carter on the "Wonder Woman" (1976) television series.
  
  
• Director Robert Zemeckis asked Danny DeVito to shoot a special promo for the movie. It was to be filmed on a Malibu beach, next to a tall cliff. For the promo, DeVito was strapped into a harness and hoisted fifty feet in the air by a huge crane. When he was in the air, DeVito discovered that there was a house on top of the cliff, with a swimming pool terrace outside. A woman in a bikini was lying on a deck chair next to the pool. She jumped up and began screaming at DeVito, yelling that he was a "peeping Tom", and that she was going to call the police. In a panic, DeVito yelled for the film crew to bring him down at once. The film crew told him that the crane had jammed, and DeVito was left hanging in the air with the screaming woman throwing things at him from the top of the cliff. A few minutes later, the woman told DeVito that he was being filmed for a segment of the TV show, "TV's Bloopers and Practical Jokes".
  
  
• When Jack is rummaging through his destroyed Jeep he throws out a couple of magazines including the July 1983 issue of Playboy before finding the picture of his dream yacht.
  
  
• Director trademark: panning across part of a room with a loudly ticking clock to a ringing phone (also found in Back to the Future and Amazing Stories Book Two: Go to the Head of the Class).
  
  
• The white car driven by Ralph is a RENAULT 4L.
  
  
• The Rolling Stone that Jack finds in the dead pilot's bag is the September 9, 1982 edition, featuring Elvis Costello on the cover.
  
  
• The scene in which Joan Wilder offers to pay Jack T. Colton in traveler's checks and he asks if they are American Express is a reference to the American Express commercials featuring Karl Malden, who previously co-starred with Michael Douglas in "The Streets of San Francisco" (1972).
  
  

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