First movie together for action star Jean-Claude Van Damme and director Peter Hyams. They followed up the cooperation with Sudden Death (1995) and Enemies Closer (2013), and almost worked on a movie in between called 'Abominable' before it was canceled. Van Damme later credited Hyams as the only person who came to visit him while he was in rehab.
The film is based upon the Dark Horse comic book series of the same name.
First Jean-Claude Van Damme movie to cross $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 (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 outgrossed 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.
The virtual reality nude scene was originally supposed to be a nature documentary about beavers. However the off-site film team got drunk on the evening of shooting and ended up in a strip bar. The next morning they woke up realising they had missed the bus to the nature reserve and had to instead film one of the dancers they had met in the club the night before.
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.
Peter Hyams: [Spota] a character named Spota. Spota is the maiden name of director Peter Hyams's wife.