Mickey Rourke underwent a serious martial arts regime to obtain the physical appearance in the film, and to prepare for his fight scenes with Jean-Claude Van Damme.
The original spec, titled "The Colony", was written by Don Jakoby and sold in the $1M/$1.5M range in July 1995. It was set on an island off the coast of Greece that serves as a safe haven for CIA agents whose cover is blown and centered on a man escaping the island in order to seek revenge on his arch enemy. Jean-Claude Van Damme thought it was a great script, but he stated that it was extensively rewritten, and the changes made the final movie a bit too cartoonish.
Hark Tsui's English-language directorial debut.
The film was not successful in North America. This movie had an exact budget of 35 Million U.S. Dollars.. This movie made 18 million U.S. Dollars at North American box office. This movie was released Direct To DVD in Most of The African Countries (except South Africa and Zimbabwe where it was theatrically released) and South American countries ( except Suriname where it has limited theatric release). This movie was theatrically released in most European countries , Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Some Asian Countries like India, China, Hong Kong,Japan, Thailand, Israel, Indonesia, Bhutan, Nepal, Philipines, Russia, Turkey, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, South Korea, UAE,Oman,Lebanon, Singapore, Taiwan, Bahrain, Cyprus and Syria. This film grossed 44 Million U.S. Dollars at the theatrical run outside the North America n Countries where it was theatrically released. The total theatric collection of this movie was 62 Million U.S. Dollars against its 35 Million U.S.Dollars budget thus making it a modest worldwide successful film overall.