- "Jackie Chan (I)" turned down a role, as he didn't want to play a "bad" character.
- When the crew ran a few minutes over filming at a location in Japan, they were not only told to leave, a man physically walked in front of the camera and forbade them from continuing filming.
- The "Osaka police office" is in fact the "Office of Prevention of Natural Disasters", next door.
- Yusaku Matsuda, who plays the villain, Sato, knew he had bladder cancer, and that his condition would be aggravated by acting in the movie. He elected to do so anyway, unbeknownst to director Ridley Scott, reportedly saying, "This way, I will live forever." He died on 9 November 1989, less than seven weeks after the film's American premiere.
- Director Trademark: [Ridley Scott] [score] Hans Zimmer and Ridley Scott collaborated for the first time in this movie.
- The winery where the final battle takes place is not in Japan, but in Napa County, California. The filmmaker's visa had run out, so final filming was shifted to the United States.
- Originally Paul Verhoeven signed on to direct the film.
- Howard Atherton shot most of the film, but he got so frustrated in Japan that he resigned. Jan de Bont was brought in to finish the rest of the film.
- Average Shot Length & Median Shot Length = ~3.5 seconds
- The character at the end of the film reads "kan", meaning "the end".
- Yusaku Matsuda's final film appearance.
- Ridley Scott's first cut of the film was 2 hours and 40 minutes long.
- In this film the character played by 'Andy Garcia' talks about what it would be like to be promoted to Internal Affairs in the division. In his next role he would actually be Internal Affairs (1990) in Mike Figgis' film with the same title, opposite Richard Gere.
>>> WARNING: Here Be Spoilers <<<
Trivia items below here contain information that may give away important plot points. You may not want to read any further if you've not already seen this title.
- SPOILER: At the end of the movie we see Nick apprehend the bad guy. Ridley Scott also shot an alternative ending where the bad guy is impaled on a spike.
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