Alternate versions

The UK cinema version and all subsequent video and DVD releases were cut by 5 seconds to remove the use of a butterfly knife. The Blu-ray reinstates the previously cut footage.

Director Brian Helgeland's cut was significantly changed by producer/star Mel Gibson before release and was 15 minutes shorter than the final version. Here are some of the differences to Gibson's highly publicized re-shoot version of the film that was released into the theaters.

• No voiceover of Porter
• The opening shot of Porter in the doctor's office is not in Helgeland's cut. The film begins with Porter on the bridge returning to the city. Brian's cut doesn't suggest the double-cross until we see the flashback.
• A more harsh exchange when Porter visits Rosie (Maria Bello) for the first time.
• Odds and ends with Val Resnick (Gregg Henry) throughout the film. Includes a curbside threat to the David Paymer character and a funny scene calling Pearl (Lucy Liu) on the phone.
• A small exchange between Porter and the Asian gang.
• When Val breaks in and beats up Rosie, Porter the dog gets shots in the head and remains dead. In Mel's cut, the dog lives.
• The two versions of the film begin to change greatly when Porter confronts Fairfax (James Coburn). The dialog is different and the outcome of the scene is changed.
• Bronson the Outfit boss is played by Sally Kellerman rather than Kris Kristoffersen. She's never seen in the film, instead interacting with Porter over speakerphones. When Porter begins to kill her associates, the boss almost immediately gives in to Porter's demands. In Mel's cut, the boss was a bigger character and provided a bigger climax. All the boss's son and torture scenes are not in Brian's cut of the movie.
• The climax of the film takes place on a mass transit platform. Porter arranges to pick up his cut of the money, but the boss dispatches hit men to stop him. He gets the money, but is shot in the chest. Stumbling out of the station, he shoots a couple of men in a car. Porter begins to die. Rosie finds him and slaps him back to life. Porter suggests a doctor he knows can patch him up. The final shot is of the two driving out of town.

The Indian version was heavily censored by the CBFC for an 'A' certificate with the results of 7 minutes of footage removed. The following Voluntary deletions of the film at the time of Revised Version :

• Reduced by 50% the visuals of the man being beaten up after the car collision. (Length Retained : 3.00 ft.)
• Reduced by 50% the visuals of the drug supplier being beaten up. (Length Retained : 3 ft. 08 frames.)
• Deleted the visuals of the hero killing the man shooting through the pillow.
• Deleted the dialogues: "He is probably fucking her. May be the dog too".
• Deleted the visuals of the hero lighting up a cigarette and smoking after the car blows up.
• Deleted the visuals of the boy's hand inside the woman's skirt in the car.
• Reduced by 60% the shoot-out between the two cars and also the hero shooting from under the car. (Length Retained : 17.00 ft.)
• Deleted the visuals of the wounded man at the car window and the hero pushing him away.
• Deleted the word "Cocksucker".
• Deleted the visuals of the syringe inserted in the dead girl's hand.
• Deleted visuals of the man gesturing and holding his crotch followed by the words "Fuck you" and the subsequent visuals of porter pulling the nose ring of the man's nose.
• Deleted all visuals of violent courtship exchanged between pearl dominatrix and Val.
• Deleted the words "Fuck your Mother".
• Deleted the visuals for pearl punching and kicking Val.
• Deleted the visuals of pearl violently whipping a man hanging upside down.
• Deleted the visuals of Val pulling Rosie by the neck and the following Dialogue "I am going to fuck you 6 ways from Sunday".
• Deleted visuals of porter smiling and the dialogue "You got a light just before he kills Val".
• Deleted the visuals of porter lighting a cigarette after killing Val (this sequence has been deleted to eliminate the effect of porter's callousness towards killing).
• Deleted every use of the word "Motherfucker".
• Deleted the visuals of pearl being punched by the fat man.
• Reduced the visuals of porter's toe being hammered during torture.
• Deleted the dialogue "Maybe we were aiming high" to establish that porter and Rosie have been reformed in the end.

In the North American prints, the 1987 Paramount Pictures logo with the 1995 Viacom "wigga-wigga" byline is played, International prints had the new version of the 1998 Warner Bros. logo.