Trivia / Extreme Prejudice

• Box Office Bomb: Budget, $22 million. Box office, $11,307,844.
• The Cast Showoff: Maria Conchita Alonso did all her own vocals during the bar scenes.
• Deleted Role: Andrew Robinson was completely cut out of the movie. According to Michael Ironside, this is because, after seeing his first cut of the movie, Walter Hill thought that "It looks like it's starring Michael Ironside, with Nick Nolte, Powers Boothe, and Rip Torn supporting him, so we're gonna cut the whole Andy Robinson side of the film out." Ironside said that in deleted plot part he and Robinson's character were "playing CIA agents trying to do whole covert op, and Ironside's character was the go-between between the military side of the story, the police side of the story, and the government side of the story."
• Deleted Scene: A funeral scene of sheriff Hank Pearson was deleted after first two screenings of the movie. The soundtrack release for the movie does however includes track called "The Funeral" which was composed by Jerry Goldsmith for that deleted scene.
• Dyeing for Your Art: Nick Nolte lost more than 50 pounds to really get into his character.
• One-Take Wonder: The scene in which Powers Boothe picks up a scorpion then crushes it with his bare hand was done in one take.
• Release Date Change: TriStar Pictures initially toted the film as their Christmas 1986 release, but Walter Hill and production company Carolco adamantly requested they have more time for post-production. No Mercy took over the studio's December slot.
• Saved from Development Hell: John Milius wrote the script in 1976. He planned to direct it himself, but he made Big Wednesday instead.
• What Could Have Been:
  • John Milius' original script was more of a straight Government Conspiracy thriller in the vein of Z. He described the premise as "A group of drug dealers take over a town in Texas, then finally one person, a Vietnam veteran, stands up to them and wipes them out. Then we cut to a meeting room at the Pentagon, where we find out it was all a top secret experiment to find out how far Americans can be pushed before they fight back."
  • Jonathan Demme and Ted Kotcheff were both considered to direct before Walter Hill was hired.

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