Far and Away (1992): 15 INSANE Facts You Never Knew

Far and Away looked like an epic romance about two Irish immigrants chasing the American dream. But behind its sweeping landscapes and unforgettable Land Rush was a production filled with impossible technical challenges, near disasters, and two of Hollywood's biggest stars filming their own honeymoon. Ron Howard revived a camera format that had been abandoned for over 20 years. Tom Cruise endured brutal boxing scenes and delivered an Irish accent that became legendary for all the wrong reasons. Nicole Kidman unknowingly filmed on the very coastline her own ancestors had left more than 150 years earlier. And the movie's breathtaking opening shot survived only because the helicopter carrying the camera crashed into the Atlantic moments later. These are 15 weird facts about Far and Away — the kind that make one of the most ambitious historical epics of the 1990s feel even more extraordinary once you know what was happening behind the scenes.