Eric Roberts was offered a chance to reprise his role as Alex Grady but decided to appear in The Nature of the Beast (1995) instead. Roberts felt that appearing in the film would undermine Tommy Lee's story.
Barry Gray originally wrote the script as its own original action picture entitled "No Turning Back," whose lead was a black marine returning home from the Persian Gulf. But when Phillip Rhee got a hold of the script, he liked it so much that not only did he produce it, he wanted it to become a new entry in the Best of the Best (1989) series. So he asked Deborah Scott to rewrite it with Tommy Lee as the main character.
After seeing the finished product Eric Roberts said he was disappointed and that it seemed like a home movie.
Kane Hodder had different roles in the first three movies of the series. In Best of the Best, he plays Burt, the bar patron that accidentally punched his girlfriend when trying to punch Travis Brickley. In Best of the Best 2, he is one of the security men at the Colosseum. In Best of the Best 3, he is one of the white supremacists at the showdown at the end.
The cabin that was seen by the lake was once owned by Marge Schott (former owner of the Cincinnati Reds).