The paintings featured in the film are: "Woman with Parasol and Child" by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1874; "A Friend in Need" (Dogs Playing Poker) by Cassius Coolidge, 1903; and "Free Form" by Jackson Pollock, 1946.
While for dramatic effect, the script calls out the repeated use of the number "three" as an indicator of fraudulent numbers, the theory behind fraudulent number detection is known as "Benford's Law." The law states that in numbers, such as account transactions, the probability of a number occurring naturally drops, as one moves from smaller numbers to the larger numbers following a logarithmic scale. This law has been successfully used to detect fraudulent accounting transactions.
Anna Kendrick based her character on her mother, a real accountant who went over the script and explained the math to her daughter.
While it might seem odd for a strong box filled with gold and other valuables to include a copy of "Action Comics #1" (1938) comic book, this issue is valued at over $4 million in mint condition.
"Where fun goes to die" is an actual unofficial motto of the University of Chicago.