According to William Forsythe, Steven Seagal told him, "You really need to work on your Brooklyn accent." Forsythe, a Brooklyn native, replied, "Trust me, YOU do."
Dan Inosanto was one of Bruce Lee's best friends. He taught Lee to use nunchaku, and was one of the three people Lee let train others in Jeet Kune Do. He is also a master stick fighter, and has studied multiple disciplines like Escrima and Silat.
Steven Seagal declared in an interview that the movie's bar brawl was his personal favorite among all fight scenes he's done.
The movie was originally over 30 minutes longer, with some more plot details and character development. Steven Seagal cut some of William Forsythe's scenes because he felt that Forsythe was upstaging him. Michael Eliot re-edited the original cut of the movie. Some scenes were deleted, others were cut down for pacing. It caused some minor continuity issues, and left two montage scenes with no dialogue in the finished film.