Editing Targets (section)

===Development===
The character and actions of Bobby Thompson are patterned after [[Charles Whitman]], who committed the [[University of Texas tower shooting]] in 1966. The character of Byron Orlok, named after [[Max Schreck]]'s vampire [[Count Orlok]] in 1922's ''[[Nosferatu]]'',{{cn|date=February 2025}} was based on Karloff, with a fictional component of being embittered with the movie business and wanting to retire. The role was Karloff's last appearance in a major American film. Karloff gives a celebrated 100-second [[long take|single-take]] performance of [[W. Somerset Maugham]]'s retelling of the [[Babylonian language|Babylonian]] fable ''[[Appointment in Samarra]]''. In the film's finale at a drive-in theater, Orlok—the old-fashioned, traditional screen monster who always obeyed the rules—confronts the new, realistic, nihilistic late-1960s "monster" in the shape of a clean-cut, unassuming multiple murderer.

Bogdanovich got the chance to make ''Targets'' because [[Boris Karloff]] owed studio head [[Roger Corman]] two days' work. Corman told Bogdanovich he could make any film he liked provided he used Karloff and stayed under budget. Bogdanovich used clips from Corman's Napoleonic-era thriller ''[[The Terror (1963 film)|The Terror]]'' in the movie.  The clips from ''The Terror'' feature [[Jack Nicholson]], [[Dick Miller]] and Boris Karloff. A brief clip of [[Howard Hawks]]' 1931 film ''[[The Criminal Code]]'' featuring Karloff was also used. [[Polly Platt]] was the film's production designer, in addition to developing the story, and it was her idea to set the ending at a drive-in movie theater.

Interviewed in 2003, Bogdanovich explained that filming on or near the freeway was not permitted, so the freeway shooting spree was filmed guerilla-style in a two-day period. To save money, the whole sequence was filmed without sound, and editor [[Verna Fields]] added the effects afterwards. Bogdanovich has said that [[Samuel Fuller]] provided generous help on the screenplay and refused to accept either a fee or a screen credit, so Bogdanovich named his own character Sammy Michaels (Fuller's middle name was Michael) in tribute. Fuller advised Bogdanovich to save as much money in the film's budget as possible for the film to have an action-packed conclusion.{{sfn|Nollen|Nollen|2021|p=320}}