Sony Pictures Entertainment picked up the US rights to the film after its completion, and considered giving the pic a theatrical release through their TriStar Pictures arm, but after the box-office failure of Double Team, Knock Off and Universal Soldier: The Return (all Sony releases) they ultimately sent the film straight to DVD.
Near the end, the bus driver invites a waitress to see the Japanese movie Yojimbo, o Guarda-Costas (1961) with him. This film is a remake of that.
The film's titles are Desert Heat/Inferno. In 2016, Van Damme was named 'Ambassador of Animal Humanity' in the USA. In the UK, a brand of toiletries, Lacura, which do not conduct animal experiments have a shower gel named 'Desert Heat'.