Trivia

John Laroquette was John Candy's first choice for the role of Elliott Draisen, because the two had been friends since working together in "Stripes" (1981) eight years earlier. However, Laroquette was busy with "Night Court" (1984) and couldn't accept the role. Candy's good friend and frequent collaborator, John Hughes, then suggested Jeffrey Jones for the role, as Hughes had directed Jones in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" (1986). Candy initially was hesitant because he felt the film would seem too much like a John Hughes film without the involvement of Hughes himself, but Hughes assured Candy that Jones was right for the role and he was cast.

This is the third movie of the '80s in which the song, "Holding Out for a Hero" (1984), by Bonnie Tyler, was playing during an action sequence. The first one was the movie "Footloose" (1984), when Kevin Bacon is playing chicken with Jim Young on a tractor; the second movie was "Short Circuit 2" (1988), when, during the climactic scene, Johnny 5 the Robot is chasing and fighting bank robbers before they escape and in the third movie, "Who's Harry Crumb?" (1989), John Candy chases after the kidnappers while this song is playing, before they escape, similar to "Short Circuit 2" (1988).

This was the first of four movies starring John Candy released in 1989. The others were: Uncle Buck (1989), Speed Zone (1989) and The Rocket Boy (1989).

Director Paul Flaherty and actor John Candy were alumni of the Canadian sketch comedy improv troupe, The Second City, whose work is anthologized in "Second City Television", later "SCTV Network 90".

Cans of Coca-Cola, one of them being Diet Coke, are seen being drunk as product placements in this movie on at least a couple of occasions. The movie was made by TriStar Pictures, which was a division of Columbia Pictures, which was owned by the Coca-Cola Company. Around 1985, home video cassettes of Ghostbusters (1984) had been released with an advertisement for Coke on the tapes.

Jim Belushi: Uncredited, as a man on a bus.