When Will Sawyer and Zhao first meet, Sawyer greets him with some Mandarin, and Zhao replies in the same language but there are no subtitles on the screen. He is asking in jest, "Your Mandarin is quite good; how is your English?".
Production designer Jim Bissell said in an interview with the New York Post that the skyscraper is named for, and designed after, a Chinese myth of a boy who found and swallowed a pearl, and ultimately transforms into a great dragon. The building resembles this dragon, with its copper colored tail spiraling to the bottom, clutching the mythical pearl in its jaws at the top of the tower.
Architect Adrian Smith was brought in to consult during the writing process. Smith led the work on Dubai's Burj Khalifa, which at the time of this movie's release is the tallest building in the world, and Saudi Arabia's Jeddah Tower, the building proposed to surpass the record held by the former.
At the beginning of the movie, The Pearl and the Victoria Harbour in the back can be seen with the Bank of China Tower, Central Plaza, Two International Finance Centre and International Commerce Centre, the tallest four skyscrapers in Hong Kong; each one surpassing the other since 1990.
In the official trailer, there are derogatory comments made about the lead character being a glorified security guard. These scenes are not in the final film.