Trivia: John Woo wanted Hale to die in the film, but the studio was against it because of Slater's popularity with younger audiences.
Trivia: When Stanley introduces himself, Mason replies with "but of course you are". James Bond said the same thing to Plenty O'Toole in Diamonds are Forever, and both Bond and Mason were played by Sean Connery.
Trivia: Derek Jacobi played Hamlet in a 1980 BBC production.
Trivia: The film as originally intended was longer and more violent, had a non-linear narrative and a much darker ending. The studio forced director Tim Pope to re-edit the film to follow a structure more akin to the first film in order to capitalize on its success and also made him delete a number of key scenes. This lead to he and writer David Goyer disowning the film. The original workprint of the film that represented Pope and Goyer's vision was well over two hours long, as compared to the theatrical cut's anemic 84 minute run-time.
Trivia: Early in the film, Tom Mullen mentions the name "John Smith." Mel Gibson provided the voice of John Smith in "Pocahontas."
Trivia: Scriptwriter Shane Black is a huge believer in recycling. Check out how much the moment when Jackson is captured by Bierko resembles Rigg's capture by McAllister in "Lethal Weapon". Black's 3 biggest movies - "Lethal Weapon", "The Last Boy Scout" and "The Long Kiss Goodnight" all involve a major character's daughter being kidnapped (to say nothing of all beginning with an "L").
Trivia: "Last man standing" is actually the third remake of the 1961 Kurosawa film "Yojimbo" (Japanese for "The Bodyguard"). The second remake of the film was in 1967 called "A Fistful Of Dollars", starring Clint Eastwood. Yojimbo had the exact same plot as the other two, except it was about a Lone Samurai. The other two films just took the exact same story and put it in a different time period and setting.
Trivia: Col Patterson's employer, Dr Beaumont, played by Tom Wilkinson, was actually eaten by a lion while visiting Africa.
Trivia: The story was inspired by the classic television show "The Twilight Zone" (1959) in the episode "The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street," which depicts the denizens of the street slowly becoming crazy after a power failure. In fact, in the film's production notes, Matthew and Annie live on the corner of Maple and Willoughby (another classic TZ episode, "A Stop At Willoughby"), obvious allusions to "The Twilight Zone".
Trivia: This film was released as 'Hard Eight' in the US.
Trivia: Originally, Alan Silvestri was hired to write the score, but it was eventually decided that his musical style clashed with the tone of the film, and he was replaced by Danny Elfman.
Trivia: This film marked the directorial debut of Jean-Claude Van Damme.
Trivia: Kurt Russell kept the outfit he wore in Escape from New York. The very first day of shooting Escape from L.A., he stepped out of his trailer in that very same outfit for shooting. He and producer Debra Hill looked at each other and began laughing. Debra Hill said it was like going into a time machine.
Trivia: Gene Hackman plays Sam Cayhall, the father of Lee Cayhall Bowen (Faye Dunaway). In reality Hackman is only 11 years older than Dunaway.