The Shawshank Redemption

Trivia: In the original novel that the Shawshank Redemption is based on, Red is an Irishman which is where his nickname came from. In the movie, when Andy asks Red where his nickname came from, Red pauses and says "Maybe it's because I'm Irish" with a hint of sarcasm.

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Trivia: When the Warden opens the Bible to where Andy hid his rock hammer, he opens it to the book of Exodus, which chronicles the Israelites' escape from Egypt.

Trivia: There are many references to the number 237 in the movie. For instance, this is the number of Red's cell, and these digits are on Andy's prison I.D. This number makes appearances throughout Steven King stories, the most famous one being the room where the murders take place in "The Shining".

Trivia: Originally, the film was supposed to end before Red and Andy met again. The last shot was of Red's narration saying, "I hope the Pacific is as blue as it is in my dreams." After a huge argument, a few final shots of Red meeting Andy on the beach were added in.

Trivia: When Andy Dufresne makes his escape, and he crawls through the sewer pipe, the sludge in the pipe was made from a mixture of chocolate syrup, sawdust and water. Even today the pipes still smell like cocoa. (Confirmed by the Mansfield, OH Tourism Dept).

wizard_of_gore

Trivia: The sound of the warden shooting himself is the same sound of the man stamping "Approved" on Red's paper.

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Suggested correction: Please provide evidence of this. I've just done a comparison, and they sound different.

Trivia: Shawshank State Prison is actually the Ohio State Reformatory located in Mansfield, Ohio. If you take a tour, you can see the Warden's Office used in the movie and also Andy's tunnel. The prison has been used in several movies and music videos like Godsmack's "Awake."

Trivia: The photo of the young Red on his "Approval" document is a photo of Morgan Freeman's son. It was a police photo of him after he was convicted for joyriding.

Trivia: The Humane Society had to be present for the scene when the maggot is feed to the bird, Jake. The Society said it was cruel to the maggot, so it had to get a maggot that died of natural causes before the crew could shoot it.

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Suggested correction: Tim Robbins said this on a 1997 interview on the Tonight Show, but he really seemed to be joking.

Brian Katcher

Trivia: The $370,000 that Andy Dufresne steals from the Warden in 1966 may not seem like a huge amount for 20 years in prison, but adjusted for inflation to 2024, Andy stole about $3.6 million.

wizard_of_gore

Trivia: Andy and Red's opening chat in the prison yard, in which Red is pitching a baseball, required nine hours to shoot. Morgan Freeman pitched the baseball back and forth for the entire nine hours of shooting without a single word of complaint. He came back to the set the next day with his left arm in a sling.

Trivia: Whenever there is a shot of just Andy Dufresne's hands, they are actually the hands of director Frank Darabont, who prefers to use his own hands in these types of "insert shots." (Confirmed by Darabont during a 2008 Shawshank reunion).

wizard_of_gore

Factual error: Towards the end of the movie when Andy is escaping, he breaks open a sewage pipe and is covered with its contents. It is physically impossible for the sewage to shoot out of the break like it did. In order for that to happen there has to be pressure. But there is none there, because the end he crawls through is empty and the end is in the open air. (01:52:20)

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Chosen answer: In a nutshell, tax evasion. He's running the prison like a company doing building work with, as its described by the builder in the movie, a pool of slave labour to allow him undercut other contractors. He is skimming profit for his own pockets, along with taking bribes, etc. that Andy's creative book keeping is hiding from the IRS.

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