<P> Stone based the character of Ray Hicks on Beat writer Neal Cassady, with whom Stone became acquainted through novelist Ken Kesey, a graduate school classmate of Stone's at Stanford University . </P> <P> Hicks' death scene on the railroad tracks at the film's conclusion is directly based on Cassady's death along a railroad track outside of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, in 1968 . The hippie commune setting, where lights and stereo speakers placed throughout the woods are utilized in Hicks' escape plan, is partially based on Kesey's home in La Honda, California, where Kesey and his friends--known as the Merry Pranksters--famously wired the surrounding woods with lights and sound equipment to enhance their experiments with LSD . </P> <P> The Saigon scenes were filmed on a set in Mexico . There was a casting advertisement in Mexico City for people of any Asian background to represent the Vietnamese . </P> <Ul> <Li> Nominee Palme d'Or Cannes Film Festival (Karel Reisz) </Li> <Li> Nominee Best Actor National Society of Film Critics (Nick Nolte) </Li> <Li> Nominee Best Adapted Drama Writers Guild of America (Judith Rascoe, Robert Stone) </Li> </Ul>

Where was who'll stop the rain filmed