Taps

Prior to the production of the film, the key actors -Timothy Hutton, Sean Penn, Tom Cruise and others - were required to participate in a 45-day-long period of orientation with the students of Valley Forge Military Academy. They were given uniforms, borrowed from their real life counterparts at the school and given authentic military haircuts. They slept in campus barracks and were subjected to the same rigors and hardship that all Valley Forge cadets went through. While most of the actors enjoyed and excelled at their orientation, Cruise opted to leave the training for the comforts of a nearby hotel until filming began.

When the characters use an Army Saber to salute, they all fail to do it correctly except Sean Penn while on horseback. It is a two-step maneuver. On the preparatory command of "PRE_SENT," the saber is brought to a position approximately four inches from the soldier's nose so that the tip of the saber is six inches from the vertical. The soldier is looking at the flat side of blade at the top of the hilt and the blade is either straight up or slightly tilted forward. The actors do this part correctly. What they fail to do is at the command of execution "ARMS," the right hand is lowered with the flat of the blade upward, the thumb extended on the left side of the grip and the tip of the saber about six inches from the marching surface and pointed at the ground. Assuming the actors received the same instructor at Valley Forge Academy, they must have all been taught this way. It is not, however, in accordance with Army Regulation FM 22-5, now called FM 3-21.5.

The Amazon streaming version of the film replaces The Doors, Stevie Nicks, and The Pointer Sisters songs with generic music.

Featured in Sneak Previews: Taps, Cinderella, Taxi Zum Klo, Heartbeeps (1981)