Quiz

The movie was originally written to star Sylvester Stallone and Kevin Spacey. Kevin Spacey was supposed to be the hostage-taker with Stallone playing opposite him. When Stallone turned down the part, Spacey decided he wanted to play Chris Sabian rather than Danny Roman. Fortunately, the role originally meant for him was re-cast with Samuel L. Jackson.

This movie is dedicated to J.T. Walsh (Niebaum), who died five months before the film's release. This was one of three films of his released posthumously.

The film was largely based on the events surrounding the St. Louis pension fund scandal of 1988. In the 1988 case, the ex-policeman, Anthony D. Daniele, had just been sentenced to eight years in prison for stealing from the police and fire department pension fund via a kickback scheme that cost the fund $333,000. The scheme involved the paying of artificially high commissions to a brokerage firm and receiving kickbacks. The sentence also required Daniele to pay back $200,000. The attorney with the firm was sentenced to nine years and the other participants, who pleaded out, were sentenced to serve between six months to three years.

Although he was not a negotiator, Daniele, like the Danny Roman character, had been a member of the police hostage-response team. The day after sentencing, he went to the office of the man who exposed him, John Frank, vice president of the city police board, and took him hostage. As with the film, this standoff took place on a high floor of a high-rise office building. The stand-off lasted 15 hours before Daniele gave up.

The original ending involved a Mexican standoff with one hundred fifty cops pointing guns at the protagonists in a railway station. Kevin Spacey objected to this ending, as he felt it had been done many times before, so it was re-written.

For the lengthy phone conversations between the two leads, Kevin Spacey made a point of being on set to help Samuel L. Jackson with his performance.