Image via Warner Bros.
For years, the Academy Award for Best Actor eluded Denzel Washington. He received a Supporting Actor Academy Award for his phenomenal work in 1989’s Glory, but then he lost in the Best Actor category twice—once for playing Malcolm X in the 1993 Spike Lee joint of the same name, and again for the lead role in The Hurricane (2000).
But in 2002, Washington received a Best Actor Oscar for playing Detective Sergeant Alonzo Harris in Antoine Fuqua’s 2001 crime drama Training Day. Washington makes an amoral, duplicitous villain so charismatic and likable, and Ethan Hawke, playing the naive rookie trainee who’s in way in over his head, is the perfect foil.
How many acts of evil are too many? How far can you go before the ends no longer justify the means? Between the moral choices, the celebrity cameos, the slick one-liners, and the cinematography—which makes LA appear perpetually ablaze—this movie still holds up, two decades after its release. Here are 19 trivia facts and Easter Eggs for the next time you watch Training Day, which is now streaming on Netflix.
Lead roles
In its original, indie incarnation, Samuel L. Jackson and Matt Damon would have played the two lead roles. But once Warner Bros. secured the rights for the screenplay, the studio recast both parts with Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke.
When Hawke tried out for the role of Jake Hoyt, Washington had already secured his role as Alonzo. To test Hawke and see if he had chemistry with his potential co-star, Washington went off-script during their audition, forcing Hawke to improvise and react on his feet.
The car and license plate
Alonzo drives a 1979 Chevy Monte Carlo in the movie. His license plate is ORP-967. This stands for Officer Rafael Pérez, who was born in 1967. Pérez was a real LAPD officer who specialized in drug and gang activity. He was a part of the infamous 1998 Rampart scandal, and he became infamous for theft of cocaine and framing suspected criminals. For quite some time, Pérez was under suspicion for the murder of Christopher Wallace, aka The Notorious B.I.G., but the inmate who made the accusation recanted his statement in 2014.
Cut my life into pieces
The suburban kids who Alonzo and Jake bust near the beginning of the movie are blasting the rock song “Last Resort” by Papa Roach. The band, like many of the mainstream artists on the Training Day soundtrack, hail from California.
The story of the snail
Roger tells a long-winded joke about a snail who gets its shell broken and spends an entire year crawling back to the same spot where it was injured. Roger explains that once Jake understands the joke, he’ll understand the streets.
Taken on its face, the story is an acknowledgment of people who are forced to suffer repeatedly, but still find the resilience to survive. On a deeper level, the snail story foreshadows the end of the movie when Jake, after being nearly killed by Smiley, goes back to The Jungle to confront Alonzo. And the neighborhood, recognizing that Jake understands the streets, turns on Alonzo at the movie’s climax.
Doggystyle
Several prominent music stars have key supporting roles in Training Day. The wheelchair-bound drug dealer Blue is played by West Coast legendary rapper Snoop Dogg. In real life, Snoop is a member of the Rollin 20s Crips, although he’s had back-and-forth drama with their leadership in recent years.
Goodbye and I choke
Sandman’s wife is played by multi-platinum R&B singer Macy Gray, best known for her husky voice and 1999 hit single “I Try.” It was Denzel Washington who called her and suggested she try out for the role.
A rare look inside
Much of the movie’s second half takes place in “The Jungle,” a fictional gang-controlled neighborhood in Los Angeles. These scenes were shot on-location at the Imperial Courts housing projects in Watts. Director Antoine Fuqua secured permission from the local gang leaders to shoot footage in the projects, and Fuqua cast local residents and gang members in background roles.
Model mistress
The role of Alonzo’s mistress Sara is performed by model and actress Eva Mendes. Mendes would later star in 2 Fast 2 Furious, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, Out of Time, Ghostrider, and The Other Guys.
English translation
Alonzo speaks to his son in Spanish. Here is what he says, translated into English:
Como esta, mijo? Te portas bien? Esta creciendo, papasito.
How are you, son? Are you being good? You are growing up, handsome man.
Mijo, no llores. Ven aqui, mijo. Vente no llores. Escucha a tu papi.
Son, don’t cry. Come here, son. Come here, don’t cry. Listen to your father.
Steakhouse
The restaurant where Alonzo and Jake meet the Three Wise Men is a well-known steakhouse called Pacific Dining Car. Established in 1921, the restaurant closed its doors in 2020 on account of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Express yourself
The G.O.A.T. rap producer Dr. Dre performs a small supporting role as Paul, one of Alonzo’s corrupt protégés. Two years prior, Dre dropped The Chronic 2001 album, regarded today as an undisputed West Coast classic.
"Clean the tub"
After shooting and killing Roger, Alonzo sits in his car, talking on his phone. He tells the person on the other end to make sure he cleans the tub. We find out later, based on how Jake nearly died, that Alonzo was likely talking to Smiley, and advising him on how to kill the rookie cop.
(Rock) Superstar
During the scene when Jake and Alonzo are visiting Smiley’s house, the song on the soundtrack is “(Rock) Superstar” by LA rap group Cypress Hill. The group released this song as a single, along with its rap counterpart “(Rap) Superstar,” in 2000.
Meet Sniper
The actor who plays Sniper is Raymond Cruz. You might know him best from Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, where he plays cartel leader Tuco Salamanca.
In the dark
The actors who play Smiley, Moreno, and Sniper during the poker scene did a lot of improvisation, which made the scene even more tense and awkward. “They really let us work, which happens with good actors,” recalled Cruz. “You let them work and get out of the way.”
"It's like that"
The gang member who points the gun at Alonzo is played by Cle “Bone” Shaheed Sloan. An inactive Bloods gang member, Sloan served as a technical advisor on this movie. More recently in 2015, Sloan was a victim of the Suge Knight hit-and-run that killed Heavyweight Records co-founder Terry Carter. Sloan refused to testify against Knight during a preliminary hearing several months later.
That's the Old Spice guy
During the climactic neighborhood scene, you can see a young Terry Crews in the background; this was one of his first roles in a Hollywood film.
King Kong
The most memorable line in the movie comes near the end, when Alonzo, trying desperately to hold onto his power and dignity, screams, “King Kong ain’t got sh*t on me!” Denzel improvised this line: “That was an in the moment thing. His (Alonzo’s) ego was so big that King Kong didn’t even register. I always tell people that in the end of Training Day, when he gets out of his car, he’s heading to his trunk to try and get some guns. He still thinks that he can get away with it. He was all about the ego.”
Altered ending
Alonzo dies at the end of the movie due to a Bonnie and Clyde-esque Russian mob hit. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Washington revealed that this wasn’t the original plan: “In the original script he did [survive], but I was not having it.”