Kurt Russell confessed on the DVD commentary that he was afraid of starring in the movie because he had made a string of movies that flopped at the box office. When he asked John Carpenter about it, he told Kurt that it didn't matter to him - he just wanted to make the movie with him.
The Chinese characters in the main title translate to "Evil Spirits Make a Big Scene in Little Spiritual State."
Kurt Russell suffered a bad case of the flu during the scene just after the brothel, so the sweat on his body is real, caused by the fever.
The Three Storms were partly the inspiration for the popular character of lightning god Raiden from Mortal Kombat fighting video game series, while David Lo Pan was the inspiration for the evil sorcerer Shang Tsung.
Jackie Chan was John Carpenter's first choice to play Wang Chi, but producer Lawrence Gordon was highly against it, fearing Chan's English wasn't good enough after seeing his performances in Battle Creek Brawl (1980) and The Protector (1985), but Carpenter wanted Chan after the success of Police Story (1985). Chan declined and Dennis Dun was cast instead.