Mickey Rourke attempted to quit smoking during filming, in preparation for his pro boxing career. By the end of the film, he gave in and resumed smoking, the same as his character, who resumes smoking to the surprise of Willem Dafoe.
Before Willem Dafoe and Mickey Rourke were cast, Morgan Creek Productions considered Kevin Costner for the lead, and either Jeff Bridges, or Nick Nolte as the Gorman Lennox character. In the end, the three actors' hefty price tags were too rich for the medium-budgeted production.
Ray Dolezal's car is 1966 Chevrolet Corvette Sting Ray C2.
Warner Brothers briefly considered re-titling the film "Quicksand."
The film cast includes four Oscar nominees: Mickey Rourke, Samuel L. Jackson, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and Willem Dafoe.
Mimi Rogers: Molly Dolezal, the wife of Ray Dolezal (Willem Dafoe). Her role was initially more substantial, with an entire subplot dedicated to her searching for Ray. Most of her scenes were cut to shorten the runtime, and because director Roger Donaldson found the subplot disrupted the rest of the movie, which test audiences agreed with. Because the role ended up being so small, producer Scott Rudin offered to remove Rogers' name from the credits, which she accepted.