Hidden Details You Never Noticed In The Shawshank Redemption

The Shawshank Redemption is one of those movies that everyone loves, but it didn’t do well when it first came out. It’s a pretty lengthy prison movie with a lot of details and hidden references that you wouldn’t notice unless you pay close attention. Even if you’ve seen it a bunch of times, there’s still more to discover.

1.A Sausage Party

The events of Shawshank Redemption take place in a prison for men, so not having a lot of women in the shot actually makes sense. But throughout the whole movie there are only two women who actually say anything. And they’re not even main characters – one of them goes full Karen about bad service at a store, and the other one helps Andy at the bank after he’s escaped from prison.

2.Red is Irish?

One day, Andy asks Red, played by Morgan Freeman, how he got his nickname. Red says that it probably originates from his last name – Redding, but then he jokes that maybe it’s because he’s Irish. It’s supposed to be just a goof, but there’s more to it than that. In the original story, Red is an Irishman, but the director, Frank Darabont, wanted Morgan Freeman to play him, which changed the character’s background.

3.Real Prison, Fake On The Inside

Movies often use actual real-life locations for some scenes and then shoot the rest of the scenes in a studio or a sound stage. In The Shawshank Redemption, they filmed the outside scenes at an old prison that was shut down a long time ago and also wanted to use the interior. But the inside of the place was so literally crumbling down so fast that it was cheaper to shoot the indoor scenes on sound stages instead of fixing the prison.