During the first test screening of the film, John Woo turned to a producer and noted they never did such previews in Hong Kong. The producer asked him how he knew if people liked the movie or not, and Woo responded "Oh, if they didn't like it, they set the theatre on fire and slashed the seats."
John Woo's original cut of the film ran nearly two hours and focused more on Fouchon. Jean-Claude Van Damme and his editor locked themselves in an editing room for two days and reedited the film for the producers. Van Damme stated that moviegoers were paying to see a Van Damme movie, not a Lance Henriksen movie.
The strong chemistry between Arnold Vosloo and Lance Henriksen led one Universal executive to quip that he wished he could have gotten the pair their own film together.
Hollywood had already shown interest in John Woo when he was approached by Warner Bros and director Oliver Stone to direct a modern kung-fu movie. The project ultimately fell through and Woo went on to make Hard Boiled (1992) instead. Afterwards he was offered the screenplay to Hard Target, and although he liked the story, he thought the film would be too difficult to make. Jean-Claude Van Damme had already been a huge fan of Woo's films and arranged to meet with him in Hong Kong, together with writer Chuck Pfarrer and producer James Jacks. The two got along well, despite both Woo and Van Damme's difficulty with their English. On working with Van Damme, Woo later stated that he was "sure of my own abilities, and I know how to make an actor look good on screen, make him look like a hero. I thought I could do the same for Van Damme". Despite early misgivings of working with Van Damme, Woo changed many action scenes in the film to make them more spectacular on finding that Van Damme was up for it. While working with Van Damme, Woo stated that Van Damme had "a pretty big ego, but he's still professional and always tries to do a good job."