Trivia / Fire Down Below

• Box Office Bomb: Budget, $60 million. Box-Office, $24.5 million.
• Completely Different Title: In Spain this movie was promoted as a sequel to On Deadly Ground, hence the Spanish title, En tierra peligrosa 2.
• Creator's Favorite: At the Fan Expo Canada Steven Seagal cited this as well as On Deadly Ground as his favorite movies he starred in.
• Executive Meddling: Warner Bros. wanted to make sure that this had the same fast pace and short running time like all the other films Steven Seagal 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. But they also removed several big action sequences on which much of the $60 million budget was spent on. 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. A 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.
• Mid-Development Genre Shift: When Bruce Willis was attached as the lead, the screenplay by Jeb Staurt, was more a drama with detective elements. When Steven Seagal came aboard after Willis departed, writer Phillip Morton was brought in to convert the material into an action film that incorporated the genre staples Seagal was famous for.
• Missing Trailer Scene: Some of the trailers for the movie show several deleted scenes, these include; In-depth view of Frank Elkins' investigation and murder (in the movie his scenes are included only in opening flashback montage), Cotton complimenting Jack and Sarah at the dance, shot of Jack in a black t-shirt turning around and pulling gun at somebody, Sarah pointing a shotgun at someone or something, gas station explosion, deleted car chase. Many other scenes were also deleted. Although it's well known that other films that Steven Seagal made with Warner Bros were also severely cut down and edited in post productions by either Seagal or studio for various reasons (Hard to Kill, Out for Justice, The Glimmer Man), it's not known why was this edited down to the point that entire action sequences were removed or cut down, although pacing issues and studio's insistence on shorter running time are believed to be the reasons for that.
• Star-Derailing Role: The film's failure ended Steven Seagal's contract with Warner Bros..
• What Could Have Been:
  • In an earlier draft of the screenplay, it is revealed that Earl Kellogg is the man responsible for the death of the two EPA agents at the start of the film.
  • Bruce Willis turned down the lead role. Harrison Ford and Mel Gibson were also considered.

---