- Adaptation Displacement: Not many ever speak about the novel or earlier film.
- Awesome Music: Nine Inch Nails' "The Mark Has Been Made", featured in both the trailers and the movie during Creasy's Lock-and-Load Montage.
- Critical Dissonance: Critics weren't very kind to the film, but it still reached #1 in the box office and is quite highly regarded today. Compare the 39% of Rotten Tomatoes to the 7.7 of IMDB.
- Fridge Horror: It's never spelled out, but after the ransom exchange goes haywire and the money goes missing, the Voice orders Pita's death but actually keeps her alive on the basis that "a dead girl is worth nothing to me". Since he can't ransom her to her parents anymore, exactly what kind of people did he intend to sell her to instead?
- Germans Love David Hasselhoff: The novel is considered a Cult Classic in Japan, so much so that it drove Japanese tourism to Malta in the 1980s. The Times of Malta noted Creasy's similarity to the Rōnin archetype as a possible reason for the character's popularity with Japanese readers.
- Magnificent Bastard: John Creasy is an alcoholic ex-CIA agent who gets hired by the Ramos family to be a bodyguard for their young daughter Pita. After growing attached to Pita, Creasy is shot and she is kidnapped and seemingly killed when a ransom drop off goes wrong. Seeking revenge for her death, Creasy begins searching for those responsible in spite of his horrible injuries. With reporter Mariana Guerrero’s aid, Creasy tortures and murders his way through both the kidnappers and the members of La Hermandad who ruined the drop off, rescuing another kidnapped girl along the way. When he discovers that Pita’s father ordered her kidnapping in order to pay off his debts, Creasy forces him to admit his guilt to his wife, and leaves him a gun to kill himself with. Eventually discovering the identity of the kidnappers’ leader, Daniel Sanchez, Creasy holds his family hostage in order to find where Daniel is. Daniel then reveals that Pita is actually alive and Creasy agrees to turn himself over in exchange for Pita, reuniting with her and then passing on from his wounds before Daniel can get to him.
- Tear Jerker: The ending. Creasy knowingly trades his life for Lupita's, telling her briefly it's time for her go home, and that he's "going home, too". The movie ends with his obituary, followed by Manzano walking into "The Voice's" house and shooting him dead, with the official report saying the he was "killed in the course of arrest."
- Woolseyism: In Spain, "Nunya" is changed to "Katy".Pita: Katy?Creasy: Katymporta?note
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