The film is based upon the Dark Horse comic book series of the same name.
First movie together for action star Jean-Claude Van Damme and director Peter Hyams. They followed up the cooperation with Morte Súbita (1995) and Aliança Mortal (2013), and almost worked on a movie in between called 'Abominable' before it was cancelled. Van Damme later credited Hyams as the only person who came to visit him while he was in rehab.
First Jean-Claude Van Damme movie to gross $100 million worldwide, and his highest grossing solo movie as of 2024. In a way, it was also the prelude to his downfall: by 1995, his success led to a studio offering him a three-picture deal which would earn him $12 million per movie (a 50% increase of his $8 million salary for Street Fighter - A Última Batalha (1994)). However, he demanded $20 million per film, the same as Jim Carrey's salary at the time. The studio balked at this proposal, as Carrey's movies still out-earned van Damme's 3 to 1 ($1253 million versus $433 million). He later explained that his rejection (which he did under influence of alcohol and cocaine) was more about consolidating his Hollywood status than the money, but it severely tainted his reputation in the movie industry. This, coupled with several violent incidents and more drug abuse, led to consistently diminishing returns, fewer movie offers as well as lower salaries.
In the fight scenes in the last act of the film, Jean-Claude Van Damme's stunt double was used to create the illusion of the younger Max Walker. This was also done for Ron Silver's character of Senator McComb.
2004 Max's hairstyle was partially influenced by Wolverine from the X-Men comics. Max also wore Wolverine brand workboots on and off duty.
Peter Hyams: [Spota] a character named Spota. Spota is the maiden name of director Peter Hyams's wife.