10 Things I Learned: Repo Man

The script for Repo Man was based on director Alex Cox’s experiences riding around with a real-life car repossessor named Mark Lewis, who had hired Cox as an assistant. Many of the film’s most immortal lines (“Only an asshole gets killed for a car,” “Ordinary fuckin’ people, I hate ’em”) were originally spoken by Mark.

Many people, myself included, encountered Repo Man’s essential punk soundtrack before they saw the film. That’s because the studio initially pulled the film from theaters after just a week. The soundtrack sold tens of thousands of copies, however, and as a result, the film was given another chance at a theatrical run. It subsequently became a hit on home video and a perennial cult favorite.

The members of the Los Angeles punk band Fear were originally considered to play the roles of the repo men, Bud, Oly, Miller, and Lite (all named for beers!).

Iggy Pop performs the film’s theme song, backed by Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols and Nigel Harrison and Clem Burke of Blondie. There are two iterations of the song, one with Pop’s vocals and one instrumental. The only place the instrumental plays in its entirety is over the end credits of the TV version of Repo Man.

Cox and actor Dick Rude, who plays Otto’s friend Duke in the film, knew each other from the Los Angeles punk scene and the world of UCLA student filmmaking, and Cox originally considered Rude for the role of Otto. Here, Rude holds up his 1982 high school graduation picture, which he says Cox used as inspiration when writing Otto’s character.

Legendary Los Angeles music scenester Rodney Bingenheimer has a cameo as a club manager in the film.

Future Reservoir Dogs star Chris Penn was originally cast as Otto’s friend Kevin but was replaced by Zander Schloss.

Cinematographer Robby Müller suggested Harry Dean Stanton, whom he had just worked with on Repo Man, to director Wim Wenders for his role in 1984’s Paris, Texas.

The glowing trunk of the car in Repo Man is a reference to the “great whatsit” in 1955’s paranoid Cold War thriller Kiss Me Deadly.

Harry Dean’s character, Bud, is quoting the Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata when he says “I’d rather die on my feet than live on my knees” at the end of the film.

Susan Arosteguy is a producer at the Criterion Collection.