Trivia / Tango & Cash

• Actor-Inspired Element: The glasses Sylvester Stallone wears early in the film are his own, not props. He usually wears contact lenses in his films. The lenses show that he is very near-sighted in one eye, less so in the other. Plus, he has astigmatism.
• Creative Differences: In his 1999 book of memoirs, Elevating Deception, Andrei Konchalovsky said that the reason he was fired was because he and Sylvester Stallone wanted to give the film a more serious tone and make it more realistic than the producers wanted, especially Jon Peters, who kept pushing for the film to be goofier and campier, and as such, his relationship with Peters became untenable. Another reason why Konchalovsky was fired was his refusal to agree to what he referred to as the "increasingly insane" demands that Peters had. Konchalovsky said that he was initially hired to make a buddy cop movie with plenty of humor, but Peters basically wanted to turn it into a spoof, without any semblance of seriousness, and Konchalovsky refused. Essentially, Konchalovsky argued that they were simply trying to make two different movies, and when Peters realized his inability to bend Konchalovsky to his will, he fired him.
• Creator Backlash:
  • Andrei Konchalovsky said that the film, "like any real Hollywood film, is a film for people who can't read".
  • Jeffrey Boam described his work on the film as "a long, incredibly awful rewrite" that he didn't even bother seeking credit for.
  • Jack Palance appeared on a talk show and said that making the movie was the worst experience of his life.
• Dueling-Stars Movie: Sylvester Stallone vs. Kurt Russell? Oh hell, yes!
• Executive Meddling: Andrei Konchalovsky, the director, was eventually fired from the film by producer Jon Peters who wanted to movie to be a spoof while Konchalovsky wanted it to be a serious buddy cop movie. He was fired near the end of principal photography and replaced by Rambo III director Peter MacDonald, (credited as executive producer) before he himself was replaced by Albert Magnoli (of Purple Rain fame) who shot the climax and handled reshoots (including a brand new opening sequence), and then Stuart Baird was placed in charge of the editing. In total, the film had four different directors.
• Fake Brit: Brion James as "Requin".
• Missing Trailer Scene: The theatrical trailer shows some alternate and deleted scenes; alternate cut of the shower scene between Tango and Cash, deleted or alternate fight scene between Cash and the Chinese assassin during which Cash says "I hate you karate guys", and a Deleted Scene in which Tango is reading the newspapers and then pulling out a SPAS-12 shotgun at someone and shooting at a car with it.
• The Other Marty: Originally, Katherine, Tango's sister was to be played by Daphne Ashbrook, and she was not supposed to be Tango's biological sister, possibly an adopted sister, or a foster child his parents took in. But, when they decided to make her his actual sister, they re-cast the role with Teri Hatcher, who slightly resembles Stallone.
• Technology Marches On: Cash's pistol-mounted laser sight was a rather advanced piece of kit for the era, but it has since been replaced with much lighter and compact models.
• Troubled Production: The original director was fired mid-shoot and his first replacement soon after, the first cinematographer Barry Sonnenfeld was fired before production started, the script was constantly being rewritten on the fly, budget went over by 20 million dollars, a fourth director took over editing... and through it all, Stallone was often said to be the man who actually held everything together. The film's line producer Larry Franco later told Empire magazine that it was "the most screwed-up show I ever worked on. And I worked on Apocalypse Now".
• Uncredited Role:
  • Stallone and Lethal Weapon scribe Jeffrey Boam rewrote the original screenplay near-constantly due the hectic and disorderly production.
  • Geoffrey Lewis (Captain Schroeder) went uncredited despite having a sizable supporting role.
• What Could Have Been:
  • The original plan was to pair Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger, but Arnie wasn't interested. Patrick Swayze was then offered the role of Cash, but declined, opting to do Road House (1989) instead. Other candidates were Michael Biehn, Pierce Brosnan, Kevin Costner, Tom Cruise, Harrison Ford, Richard Gere, Mel Gibson, Don Johnson, Michael Keaton, Ray Liotta, Liam Neeson, Gary Oldman, Robert Patrick, Bill Paxton, Ron Perlman, Dennis Quaid, Gary Sinise, Bruce Willis and James Woods.
  • Face (played by Robert Z'Dar) was originally meant to be just a generic henchman character. However, Stallone and Konchalovsky liked Z'Dar and his look so much that they rewrote the character to give him an expanded role and more dialogue.
• Working Title: The Set Up.

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