John Woo's earlier cut came in at the two hour mark, and featured more character development and more violence in the action scenes.
Howie Long's character was originally supposed to be killed off earlier in the picture, but when Fox execs saw the dailies and liked his performance, his role was quickly expanded so he could be in the whole movie.
Samantha Mathis asked friend Sandra Bullock for tips on doing action scenes. Bullock told her to hum the James Bond theme before every take.
John Woo: [verbal confrontation between opponents from opposite sites of a wall] Deakins (John Travolta) and Hale (Christian Slater) talk to each other through a caved-in part of the mine.
John Woo: [unusual hand-to-hand weapons] On the train, Terry kicks the helicopter's tail-rotor against Shepherd's arm to knock him off-balance.