Ashley Judd took kick-boxing lessons from stuntman David Lea before filming. She insisted on doing many of her own stunts, but the studio finally put their foot down when she wanted to leap off a 150-foot waterfall. A stuntman, wearing a wig, made the jump instead, narrowly missing the rocks as he plummeted through the falls to the water below.
Denied a cinema release in Virginia, due to the unsolved murders of three girls in the area. It was deemed to be insensitive to the families involved to release the film in the affected communities.
A split diopter lens is used in the final kitchen scene. The two shots show both characters in sharp focus, even though one is much farther from the camera. Normally, one or the other would be out of focus. But a half-width lens placed in front of the camera's main lens adjusts the focal plane of one side of the scene, allowing close and distant subjects to appear sharp. Brian De Palma often uses this filming technique.
At one point, Denzel Washington was to star, but he had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts, and Morgan Freeman was brought into the project.
Ashley Judd and Morgan Freeman also co-starred in High Crimes (2002), Dolphin Tale (2011), Olympus Has Fallen (2013), and Dolphin Tale 2 (2014). They reportedly enjoy co-starring together, especially after Freeman gave Judd high praise for her powerful performance in this movie.