The original director hired for this film was 'Michael Cimino'.

'Michael Cimino' was originally hired as director. He was fired when he asked for a $250,000 advance for re-writing the entire screenplay prior to shooting. (The movie's total budget was only $7.5 million.)

The scenes where Chris Penn's character had to learn how to dance were added to the script because Penn really could not dance.

Christopher Atkins was originally signed to play Ren MacCormack.

The movie was loosely based on events that took place in the tiny, rural Oklahoma farming community of Elmore City.

In the liner notes for the re-released "Footloose" soundtrack (1999), there's a brief introduction by Kenny Loggins which mentions that the script for the film was loosely based on actual events which tranpired in the young life of his long time friend, and "Footloose" screen writer, Dean Pitchford.

With the Principal's knowledge, 24-year-old Kevin Bacon attended the Payson Utah High School as "Ren McCormack", a transfer student from Phili to get into his role. With his narrow tie and new-wave haircut, he was treated pretty much like in the film. Bacon gratefully left with the location scouts on the afternoon of the first day.

Dianne Wiest, who plays Ariel's mom, Vi, is only 9 years older than Lori Singer (Ariel).

Kevin Bacon broke out in hives around his midsection when he had to film the City Council scene where he makes the case for holding a prom dance. The actor says he is uncomfortable when speaking in public, but has never had a reoccurrence of hives.

Chris Penn couldn't dance, so they had to teach him in terms of what he already knew: wrestling.

Based on the 1978 events in a small Oklahoma town where dancing had been banned for nearly 90 years until a group of high school teens challenged it.

Tom Cruise and 'Rob Lowe (I)' were both slated to play the lead. The casting directors were impressed with Cruise because of the famous underwear dance sequence in Risky Business (1983), but he was unavailable for the part because he was filming All the Right Moves (1983). Lowe auditioned three times and had dancing ability and the "neutral teen" look that the director wanted, but he pulled his knee, and the injury prevented him from taking the part. After watching Diner (1982), the director had to convince the producers to go with Kevin Bacon.

'John Lithgow' filmed scenes for Terms of Endearment (1983) while on a break from shooting this film.

The character of "Willard" (not even called by that name in the original script) was specifically rewritten by Dean Pitchford with 'Chris Penn' in mind.

In the scene where Rev. Shaw shows Ren a picture of his deceased son Bobby, John Lithgow actually showed a picture of his real son.

Continuity

When Ren is dancing in the factory and is swinging on the high bar-type pole, he is wearing gloves. During the rest of the sequence he is bare-handed.

Near the end of the film Willard gets into a fight with Chuck and his pals and Ren shows up to help him out. During the fight, both Willard's black tuxedo and Ren's red tuxedo get completely covered in dirt. As soon as the fight is over and everyone goes back into the dance, both tuxedos are completely spotless.

When Ariel is going from the car to truck, the stereo in the back window of the truck disappears and reappears between shots.

The scene with the semi is early in the day, just after church. The scene at the drive-in is supposed to be shortly after that, yet it is dark outside.

When Ariel is making the switch from the car to Chuck's pickup and the tractor-trailer is headed for them, they are about to converge at a railroad crossing, but when they do meet, there is no railroad crossing to be seen.



Factual errors

During the chicken race, even though Chuck jumped at the last second, considering how close the tractors were, they still would have collided.

The dance scene at the end of the movie shows glitter falling down on the crowd continuously, yet there is hardly any on the floor and very little on anyone dancing (or in their hair).



Revealing mistakes

When Ren and Willard are washing the car the back is covered in suds and then it's not and then it is again all while they were in the front of the car the entire time.

In the final dance at the prom, when the break dancer has the floor and is dancing, the camera pans over to Ariel. It can be seen that the break dancer and the rest are all watching behind her and to her left.



Audio/visual unsynchronized

When Ren and Willard are driving away from the gas station (before they're pulled over by the police), one of their heads can be seen in the rearview mirror - they're talking, but their lips never move.



Crew or equipment visible

In one scene with Rev. Moore, the nursery/preschool in the foreground shows two children's toys still sitting atop "apple boxes," likely from a previous scene where the toys were raised to film height.