Some aerial shots in this film were originally shot, but ultimately unused, for Michael Bay's film The Rock (1996). Bay is very good friends with director Don Michael Paul and allowed him to use the footage in this film.
In an article for the German publication Berliner Kurier, Wolfgang Lindner recalls the eccentricities of Steven Seagal on the set. Reportedly, Seagal traveled everywhere in the company of a Buddhist adviser whose verdicts on the state of Seagal's karma would be reason enough for Seagal to halt filming for a day.
All indoor prison scenes were shot in an old STASI prison in Berlin, Germany.