19 Things You Need to Know About 'Training Day'

Image via Warner Bros.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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.”

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.

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.

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.”