Five of the 36 paratroopers in the beginning of the film got blown as much as a mile off-course during filming. One got stuck in a tree, and had to convince locals that he wasn't really an enemy soldier.
Patrick Swayze got frostbite during filming. A few years later, he said it still felt like someone shoving toothpicks up his fingernails when he got too cold.
The plot, a Soviet and Cuban invasion from Mexico, was based on C.I.A. and War College studies of U.S. weaknesses at the time.
The film contains no computer graphics effects, chroma key composites, or miniatures. All of the explosions are real, and actual size.