Fox chose Howie Long for the lead after several key executives were pleased with his performance in the studio's action film A Última Ameaça (1996).
Veteran parachutist Keith Perepelkin died after his main chute failed during a stunt where he jumped from a helicopter onto " Squamish Chief" in British Columbia, Canada. The stunt was performed in violation of the Canadian filming permit.
The film was originally set up at the now defunct Savoy Pictures. When Savoy had the project, the film was going to be more epic in scale, with comprehensive visual and computer effects. Savoy offered Sylvester Stallone $20 million to star, and he accepted. However, the studio went broke before the film was made. Twentieth Century Fox picked up the script from "turnaround" and changed it into a smaller, more intimate film with a $30 million budget.
Filming took place between August and November 1996. Howie Long would still do Fox's NFL pre and post game on Sundays.