According to director Peter MacDonald in the DVD commentary, at the time this movie was being filmed, the Russians were, in fact, invading Afghanistan just as depicted in this movie, however about four weeks prior to this movie's premiere, the Russians withdrew from Afghanistan, and were no longer at war with that country. MacDonald felt that this turn of events had hurt the movie's box office returns, because the idea of the Russians being the primary villains in this movie was no longer really believable. At the same time though, MacDonald was somewhat glad of the idea that the events of this movie may have helped to contribute to Russia's withdrawal from Afghanistan.
