Fire Down Below

Warner Bros. wanted to make sure that Fire Down Below has the same fast pace and short running time like all the other Steven Seagal films he made for them in the previous years, so just like they did with all of those films, they heavily re-edited the movie and deleted lot of the plot and character scenes. They also removed several big action sequences, on which much of the $60 million budget was spent.

These include opening action sequence involving Taggart and his partner Frank, who originally had lot more scenes but those were removed and entire original opening of the film was re-edited into few minutes long opening montage in the final cut of the film. Other deleted action sequences include really big and complicated chase scene which took place at night in woods and hills and it involved police cars chasing tanker truck full of toxic waste which eventually crashes into a train on the river bridge. Scene where Taggart kills second corrupt FBI agent by burning him alive in gas station explosion was also cut out and changed so that in the film he leaves him alive. Trailers for the film show many parts of deleted and alternate scenes including deleted action sequences.

Near the end of the movie, Jack throws a flare towards one of the fake US Marshals who catches it just inches before it lands in a puddle of gasoline. Liquid gasoline is itself not flammable; but gasoline vapor is. Holding a flame inches away from such a large puddle of gasoline would ignite the vapors.

Featured in At the Movies: Fire Down Below/In and Out/Julian Po/Bang (1997)