Trivia / Above the Law (1988)

• Accidentally-Correct Writing: The film's assertion that the CIA introduced crack into poor neighborhoods turned out to be dead on as in 1996 Gary Webb wrote a series of articles exposing the connection between the CIA and the flood of Crack Cocaine into poor neighborhoods
• Actor-Inspired Element: Steven Seagal personally selected every weapon seen in the film.
• California Doubling: Due to film schedule constraints, the sequences at "Chicago Summer CES" (Consumer Electronic Show) were actually filmed at the November Comdex (Computer Dealer Expo) in Las Vegas. The film crew carried press credentials and pretended to be a news show filming about the products in the booth.
• Cast the Expert:
  • Joseph F. Kosala (Lieutenant Strozah) is a real Chicago ex-cop. He's been in seven of Andrew Davis' movies. He was a technical advisor on this film.
  • The sword-fighting sequence was staged using Steven Seagal's own martial arts students.
• Colbert Bump: After the film opened, Akido experienced a boom worldwide. Steven Seagal's Los Angeles dojo was struggling before the movie. Afterward, it sold out all its classes.
• Completely Different Title:
  • In Russia, the bootleg translation became Nico. That's fine. But for some reason bootleggers titled the following Steven Seagal's films as sequels: Nico 2, Nico 3, Nico 4...
  • Greece: Chicago Hard
  • Portugal: Nico: On the Margins of the Law
  • Taiwan: Blood Master
• Copiously Credited Creator: In his film debut, Steven Seagal starred, co-wrote and co-produced.
• Creator's Favorite: Steven Seagal said that among his first five film roles, Nico Toscani was his favorite character to play.
• Darkhorse Casting: There's a story that Steven Seagal was given the starring role due to a bet made by talent agent Michael Ovitz, who co-founded Creative Artists Agency, that he could make anyone a star and cast his aikido instructor.
• On-Set Injury: Henry Silva broke Steven Seagal's nose in the final fight scene. Seagal was rushed to the hospital. The next day Seagal was back at work. He stayed up all night icing it, so that he wouldn't get a black eye.
• Pop-Culture Urban Legends: As of April 2022, John C. Reilly's IMDB page claims he was an uncredited thug. This is nothing more than IMDB vandalism; he was in college and wasn't even professionally acting in film when the movie was shot, and debunked the "fact" that he was in it during an interview with Dan Patrick.
• Those Two Actors: Joseph Kosala and Ron Dean were in this and five other films together, and often in the same scene. Not by coincidence, all six movies were Andrew Davis films.
• Star-Making Role: Steven Seagal.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Originally, the film was about corruption on the waterfront in San Francisco. When Andrew Davis and Steven Seagal changed the story, they moved the location to Chicago.
  • Seagal chose the film from a pile of scripts Warner Bros. had been saving for Clint Eastwood. It was re-written to focus on Seagal's (alleged) real-life backstory. Many of his stories have never been confirmed, or are in dispute. Chuck Norris was also considered, but The Cannon Group wouldn't release him.

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