John Candy died during filming. His few remaining scenes were either not filmed, or were filmed using a stand-in, then re-written not to involve him. For example, his prolonged fistfight with the general, and during his second bar sequence footage was re-used from his earlier bar sequence.
John Candy was contractually mandated to make this film due to his existing contract with Carolco Pictures from their scrapped John Hughes comedy Bartholomew v. Neff, which Candy was to star in with Sylvester Stallone.
Ends with "Dedicated to the memory of John Candy."
The final film John Candy was involved with. His previously-filmed movie Canadian Bacon (1995) was however released a year after this one.
The character John Slade is a reference to Cactus Jack Slade in The Villain (1979), played by Kirk Douglas.