The title and idea are partly inspired by the work of Thomas Paine and his text "The Rights of Man" from 1791, which posits that popular political revolution is permissible when a government does not safeguard the natural rights of its people.
The scene in which John Brown smashed into the water and is visible from below the surface is not performed by Vaslov Goom but Micha Strecker. The scene had to be re shoot in a lake near Berlin.