The scenes with Bruce Lee's spirit were filmed with Tae-jeong Kim and Kurt McKinney speaking different languages. Kim's voice was later dubbed into English. The actors read cue cards behind the cameras, and didn't know what they were saying to each other.
In the first combat sequence, Jean-Claude Van Damme jumped off another villain's shoulder to perform a flying kick. It was supposed to hit Timothy D. Baker's upper chest, but Van Damme repeatedly struck Baker in the face, knee, and throat instead. Baker later appeared as a character witness against Van Damme in a lawsuit filed by Jackson 'Rock' Pinckney, claiming that the poorly-performed kicks were largely due to carelessness on Van Damme's part, and that they continued even after Corey Yuen told Van Damme to be more careful.
The scene with Kurt McKinney doing two-finger push-ups was filmed with wires to hoist McKinney up and down. The trees in the background cover up the wire.
Tae-jeong Kim had been a stand-in for Bruce Lee in Game of Death (1978) and Game of Death II (1980).
Kurt McKinney's Los Angeles Police Department application was accepted the same day he was cast in the lead role. He turned down an opportunity to become a police officer to pursue acting.