Trivia / Sudden Death

• Box Office Bomb: Budget, $35 million. Box office, $20,350,171 (domestic), $64,350,171 (worldwide).
• Cast the Expert: The announcer used in the movie is actually the Pittsburgh Penguins' real announcer Mike Lange. He also uses some of his trademark sayings such as "Scratch my back with a hacksaw" and "Call Arnold Slick from Turtle Crick". The color commentator was also the Pens color commentator at the time Paul Steigerwald. Steigerwald would go on to take over as the TV play by play man until moving to the team's marketing department in 2018.
  • While most of the Pens players are represented by name, their then goaltender, Tom Barrasso, noted for his prickly personality, absolutely refused to take part or allow his name to be used. So, playing the fictional Brad Tolliver would be current Penguins broadcaster/analyst and former player, Jay Caufield.
• Cowboy BeBop at His Computer: Netflix streaming listed this as taking place at a baseball game.
• Creator Killer: The film's disappointing performance killed writer Gene Quintano's cinematic career for six years.
  • Producing this movie was probably a big part of the reason why Howard Baldwin eventually had to sell the Pittsburgh Penguins. Of course, the silver lining was that the franchise was saved once again by Mario Lemieux.
• Production Posse: Faith Minton, who plays the Dark Action Girl henchwoman Carla, has previously worked with director Peter Hyams in Stay Tuned three years prior to the release of this film as another henchwoman.
• Referenced by...: Parks and Recreation had Andy Dwyer recapping the movie in a Filk Song.
• Sequel Gap: The direct-to-video film was released 25 years after the first film.
• Short Run in Peru: It was released first in Brazil, and Jean-Claude Van Damme even visited the country to promote.
• Technology Marches On: The idea of keeping a media blackout on the situation was a little ridiculous back in 1995, and even more so in the age of everywhere Internet access.
• What Could Have Been:
  • The original script was intended as an Affectionate Parody of action films; the bit where McCord fights a terrorist wearing the Icebergh outfit is a remnant of this.
  • The script was initially written to have the Pittsburgh Penguins play the Los Angeles Kings instead of the Chicago Blackhawks.
  • The film would feature actual footage from a Penguins-Hawks game that would open the 1994-95 season... if the lockout didn't happen to push it forward; the upside to this was that it gave the filmmakers plenty of time to do whatever they needed.
  • Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, and Bruce Willis were considered for the role of Darren McCord, but all three turned it down. Schwarzenegger turned down the role because he had already filmed True Lies and Junior back to back. Stallone turned the role down because he didn't like the quality of the script. Willis turned the part down because he was already working on Die Hard with a Vengeance.
  • James Woods was originally considered for the role of Joshua Foss, but he turned down the part because he didn't like the direction of the character.
  • The role of Emily McCord was originally offered to Mara Wilson, but her parents forbade her from accepting it, due to the script's violent content.