The concept for the film came from a story contest that Toho held in 1986, which was to decide on the narrative for the next installment in the Godzilla series. Jim Bannon was the contestant who was noted for his Godzilla 2 script, which had Godzilla facing off against a giant computer, but was beat out by Shinichiro Kobayashi with his early draft for Godzilla vs. Biollante. However, Toho didn't scrap Bannon's second place entry, but instead had Masato Harada heavily rework the idea, removing Godzilla and other elements from the film, until they were left with the final product: the infamous Gunhed.
Famous Hollywood Sci-Fi director James Cameron, who started his career as an expert special effects technician in Roger Corman's B movies, said in one of his interviews that Gunhed is one of his favorite B movies.
Popularized by famous Canadian electro-industrial band Front Line Assembly in their award-winning music video for their 1992 hit single Mindphaser. The video consists almost entirely out of edited scenes from Gunhed, with shots of the band members playing the rebels who battle the computer, spliced in with the movie footage.
Gunhed's cockpit features a cash register keyboard. Legible keys include "SUB TOTAL" and "CHANGE." "NO SALE" is visible on the panel.
Gunhed stands for 'Gun UNit Heavy Elimination Device'