Trivia for
1408 (2007) More at IMDbPro »

• Kate Walsh was originally cast in this film, but was forced to drop out due to scheduling conflicts with the television show "Grey's Anatomy" (2005). She was replaced by Mary McCormack.
  
  
• The story this film was based on was almost never written. Stephen King originally created the first few pages of '1408' for his nonfiction book, "On Writing," as an example of how to revise a first draft. The story, however, intrigued him, and he wound up not only finishing a complete draft, but adapting it for an audio-book compilation of short stories.
  
  
• There are many references to the number "13" throughout the movie. The room is numbered "1408", add each number together equals 13. The room is on the 14th floor, and the Hotel skips the 13th floor, so the room is technically on the 13th floor. The room's key lock also has "6214" etched into it, which adds up to 13. And the first death was in the year 1912, which adds to 13. Even the film's American release date sums to 13: June 22, 2007.
  
  
• One of the first victims of the room was named "Grady." Grady was a character in "The Shining," Stephen King's other horror story about a hotel.
  
  
• In addition to the previous numbers adding up to 13, the hotel is mentioned to be at 2254 Lexington Street in New York City. 2254 adds up to 13.
  
  
• At one point in the movie Mike wears a hat that says "Paranoia is total awareness". This is a nod to one of Stephen King's favorite quotes, "Perfect paranoia is perfect awareness".
  
  
• When the clock starts counting down from 60:00, the movie ends exactly one hour later.
  
  
• The axe the fireman uses to break down the hotel door at the end of the movie is the same axe that Jack Nicholson used in The Shining (1980) (both movies were also shot at the same studio - Elstree, in London)
  
  
• Towards the beginning of his stay in room 1408, Mike mentions that "some smart-ass" once wrote about the 'banality of evil.' The smart-ass in question is German political theorist and intellectual Hannah Arendt, who wrote about the 'banality of evil' in her essay "Eichmann in Jerusalem."
  
  
• While addressing his audience at the book signing, Mike says, "Stay scared." This is a phrase traditionally used by director George A. Romero, a friend of Stephen King's. Romero has said this at numerous conventions and often uses it as part of his signature.
  
  
• Mike Enslin has a Chicago White Sox hat. Chicago is John Cusack's home town. Also, in a previous film, Eight Men Out (1988), Cusack portrayed White Sox third-baseman George "Buck" Weaver. Cusack himself is a both a devoted Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox fan. He has said so in numerous interviews.
  
  
• The initial story inspiration for 1408 came from a collection of real-life news stories about parapsychologist Christopher Chacon's investigation of a notoriously haunted room at the famous Hotel Del Coronado in Coronado, CA, as well as another undisclosed hotel on the East Coast.
  
  
• In the movie John Cusack's character says to his recorder, "hotel rooms are just naturally creepy places, don't you think? I mean How many people have slept in that bed before you? How many of them were sick? How many were losing their minds?" Stephen King wrote this in his explanatory note of 1408 in his compilation book of short stories.
  
  
• Enslin, while looking at the book of the murders, unknowingly, circles the 14th floor and ends up back at the elevator he got off. The classical music that is playing in the elevator was featured in the beginning of "Father's Day", the first segment which was part of the anthology collection Creepshow (1982). The screenplay for that film was written by Stephen King and the segment after "Father's Day" featured, as the lead, none other than Stephen King himself.
  
  
• John Cusack's second appearance in a Stephen King film adaptation. The first was Stand by Me (1986).
  
  
• The bottle that Gerald Olin offers Mike Enslin is named "Les Cinquant Sept Décès". In French, it means literally "The fifty seven deaths". And just after that we learn that in the room 1408 there were 56 deaths. So we could have guessed that Mike's fate was "written".
  
  
• Mary McCormack was pregnant throughout filming, explaining why most shots of her are filmed above the waist.
  
  
• As Enslin is walking to 1408, reading the files Olin gave him, he comes across a page that says "My brother was eaten by wolves on the Connecticut Turnpike." This is a reference to King's short story. As Enslin loses his mind in the room, that is the last intelligible thing he says to his tape recorder. His brother actually died of lung cancer.
  
  
• Keanu Reeves was attached for playing lead role in the movie.
  
  
• In its standard edition, the DVD runtime is exactly 104 min and 8 sec, referring directly to the movie title. This also makes the DVD stop playing at precisely 1:44:08, again referring to the title.
  
  
• When he picks up the phone towards the end of the movie they say "this is 5" then "this is 8" - which adds up to 13.
  
  
• Mike opens the room's Bible at random to Chapter 11 of book Samuel 2; 11 and 2 equal 13. (Not to mention the book sharing its name with Samuel L. Jackson.) Also, though this could be pure coincidence, the 13th verse of the same chapter bears a rough analogy to Mr. Olin's dealings with Mike: "At David's invitation, he [Uriah] ate and drank with him, and David made him drunk. But in the evening Uriah went out to sleep on his mat among his master's servants; he did not go home." (King James Version.) This is part of the famous story of how King David sent Uriah out to be killed in battle so that he could marry Uriah's wife Bathsheeba. It is interesting that Mr.Olin's last line in the film seems to imply a duplicity similar to King David's.
  
  

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