Brian Cox cast The Silence of the Lambs (1991) director Jonathan Demme as an inside joke. Cox originated the role of Hannibal Lector in Manhunter (1986) but was replaced by Demme with Anthony Hopkins. Additionally, Gano Grills, who plays Mondo Brown, appeared in Hannibal (2001), the sequel to The Silence of the Lambs (1991).
Jonathan Demme, who plays the commercial director, wears a cap with the Play Tone logo, which is the name of Tom Hanks production company.
Christopher Meloni and Robert John Burke later work together in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999) as Detective Elliot Stabler and Captain Ed Tucker, respectively.
The five percenters are a real religious movement, they call themselves the "Five-Percent Nation" or sometimes the "Nation of Gods and Earths", as Hill states they believe that five percent of all black men are enlightened with the true understanding of life. More specifically they believe that 85 percent of the world's population are "uncivilized people...who are ignorant of the true God and the true nature of how the world works", that ten percent of the population are the "elites" who know the truth of existence and God, but choose to keep the rest of the population ignorant of those facts in order to control them and the world and finally that the remaining five percent of the population know the truth and are actively trying to enlighten the remaining 85 percent. They believe that Black people were the first humans on Earth and are therefore a race of gods and are the fathers and mothers of civilization. The Five-Percent Nation is influenced by Islam, although as they believe they are gods they feel they do not have to obey Islamic traditions like not smoking, drinking or doing drugs.
When Dr. Nathan is examining Ginzburg she asks him if he is experiencing other symptoms besides his cough like shortness of breath, chills or night sweats, he says all of the above, Dr. Nathan then recommends transferring him to the AIDS ward. Ginzburg's symptoms are all classic signs of pneumocystis pneumonia (PCP), which is caused by the yeast-like fungus Pneumocystis jirovecii. PCP is rare in healthy people, but it is commonly seen in people with compromised immune systems such as people with AIDS, those with conditions that require medication to suppress the immune system like autoimmune diseases & cancer and in people with chronic lung disease. The pneumocystis fungi readily move through the air, as such they are found in most people's lungs, but they are easily kept in check by the immune system when its healthy and not a cause for concern. However in those with a weakened immune system the fungi then become the source of a opportunistic infection, they invade the lung's alveoli and multiply causing the alveoli to fill with fluid preventing them from filtering oxygen leading to hypoxia which is fatal if left untreated.