'21 Bridges' star Chadwick Boseman dishes out trivia on the movie title and how NYC's bridges play a pivotal role in the film
They say you can never learn enough about New York City. And people couldn't be more right. With a history that spans centuries, the city of New York is anything but easily comprehensible or predictable.
With a background and landscape so massive, it is nearly impossible for even native New Yorkers to know it all. So, when you see a movie based in NYC, you might overlook certain facts that exist but are elusive to the common eye.
The soon-to-be-released crime-thriller movie '21 Bridges' is a classic example of such NYC trivia that not only us, but even the movie team had initially missed. The lead actor, Chadwick Boseman, who features as the main protagonist, Andre Davis, recently shared some fun facts about how the movie derived its name.
In a recent edition of 'The Graham Norton Show', he revealed how the movie came to be named '21 Bridges'. The five boroughs of NYC including the island of Manhattan are connected to each other by at least 100 bridges.
The bridges connect across the rivers, bay areas of Manhattan to the other boroughs, upstate, as well as neighboring states like New Jersey, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Vermont, and Connecticut.
Initially, the production team had named the movie '17 Bridges', with the idea that there were only 17 key bridges that networked in and out of the state.
But during the filming, while the production team continued to research, they discovered that there aren't 17 but 21 such bridges that connect the island to the mainland, for inbound and outbound traffic.
The number of bridges makes for an integral part of the plot and hence had to be precise for the movie name as well. As the bridges became a key element in the movie, its name was changed to '21 Bridges' to include all the bridges that connect Manhattan to the mainland.
'21 Bridges' follows tormented NYPD detective Andre Davis, who is on a manhunt to find two robbers who killed eight of his fellow policemen, leading to an unexpected and huge conspiracy.
And for his search strategy, he comes up with a plan that no cop has ever thought of before. He orders for a complete lockdown of Manhattan, all 21 bridges, four tunnels, three rivers, and subway, and shuts down any exit or entry to and from the city to the rest of the country.
Hence, no one will be able to get in or get out, while the manhunt is on. This would give the NYPD the perfect opportunity to cover all the bases and nab the killers from any corner they try to escape from.
The crime-thriller-suspense movie starring Chadwick Boseman, Sienna Miller, J.K. Simmons, Taylor Kitsch, and many others, is all set to release in theaters, on November 22, 2019.
