Trivia for
Kaubôi bibappu: Tengoku no tobira (2001) More at IMDbPro »

• This film takes place between episodes 22 and 23 of the series
  
  
• The full English title of the film is "Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' on Heaven's Door". However, supposedly due to copyright disputes over the subtitle "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" (after a Bob Dylan song of the same name), Columbia Tristar, who is releasing the film in the United States, shorted the name to just "Cowboy Bebop: The Movie".
  
  
• The character, Vincent, is based on singer/song writer Bob Dylan who wrote the song that the title of this film is based.
  
  
• In the shots showing the T-shirt salesman, the T-shirt in the very lower left says "Bones", which is the production studio for Cowboy Bebop, the series and the movie.
  
  
• In the scene where the vintage airplanes are spreading the vaccine over the city, one of the old coots says (in the English subtitles) "This reminds me of the sinking of the Bismarck!" The airplane he's in is a Fairey Swordfish (a WWII-vintage biplane torpedo bomber), and Swordfishes were instrumental in sinking the Bismarck during the famous WWII naval battle. The red space ship Spike flies in the movie and the series is also called Swordfish II.
  
  
• The mysterious Rasheed is based on the Moroccan guide who accompanied the movie-staff while they were scouting locations.
  
  
• The animation is sufficiently detailed to identify some of the guns used; the pistol used by Vincent Volaju on the train is identifiable as a Strayer Voigt Infinity, chambered in either .45 ACP or .380 Browning, and the submachine gun fired into the weather control center ceiling by Faye Valentine is identifiable as a Heckler & Koch MP5K, chambered in 9mm. Faye's pistol is a Glock 30: the model number is clearly visible when Faye shoots the game in the arcade. (The Glock 30 is chambered for .45 ACP.) Spike's pistol is a IMI Jericho 941, though the movie does not give enough clues to identify what round the pistol was chambered for. Jet's pistol appears to be a Walther P99, but lack of detail makes identification and chambering difficult.
  
  
• When Faye 'kills' the arcade game Lee Samson is playing, he becomes very upset that he didn't get to meet a character in the game. The name varies depending on the source of the translations and subtitles, but the character's name has been referred to as Spokey Dokey, Spooky Donkey and, in the Columbia Tristar distributed version, Sporky Donkey. Although the reason for the different translation is negligible, the Spokey Dokey translation is a reference to a song of the same name in the original series composed by Yoko Kanno, which is heard, amongst other times, at the beginning and end of the first episode, Asteroid Blues.
  
  
• The Israeli-made Jericho 941 that Spike carries in both the series and the movie came originally in 9mm with a second barrel in .41 AE. However, the .41 AE round failed to catch on and it was discontinued as an option. Later models are available in 9mm, .40 S&W, and .45 ACP.
  
  
• The movie playing at the drive-in where Jet and Bob meet is High Noon (1952).
  
  
• Much to the chagrin of fellow staff members, half way through production, the movie changed from a ninety minute film, to a two hour film.
  
  
• Although having been involved in numerous dubs for Japanese games, Cowboy Bebop: Tengoku no tobira marks the first time voice actor Jennifer Hale has been involved in an anime dub. In a recent interview, she has stated that voicing Electra in the movie is one of her most favorite experiences.
  
  
• The look of Electra Ovilo is based on actress Gina Gershon.
  
  
• Cowboy Bebop: Tengoku no tobira began production as soon as the final episode of Cowboy Bebop was aired.
  
  
• Guest directors include Hiroyuki Okiura and Tensai Okamura, who directed the opening and the "Western film-within-the-film" respectively. Shinichirô Watanabe chose to use guest directors as those sections were quite different from the body of the film; and also because of the time restrictions.
  
  
• In the opening credits, the three US dubbing actors for Cowboy Bebop are shown in animation. The African-American man in headphones singing the line "What's up" is Beau Billingslea, the English voice of Jet Black; the woman in dark top drinking soda on the song line "sweet cakes" is Wendee Lee, the English voice of Faye Valentine; on the line "anyway", the man in sunglasses taking a karate pose is Steve Blum, the English voice of Spike Spiegel.
  
  
• Among the 'antique' planes seen in the movie are the Supermarine Spitfire, Fokker Dr.I Dreidecker, Faerie Swordfish, P-38 Lightning, F-84 Thunderjet, TBF Avenger, F/A-18 Hornet, and the AM-9 Zero.
  
  
• The film is set close to 2071. This means the Dr.I Dreidecker seen towards the end is over 150 years old.
  
  

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