As confirmed on The Grindbin podcast episode 368, the game footage at the beginning and end of the film is taken from The Super Pig Bowl played in The Miami Orange Bowl on January 14, 1989. The teams, made up of active duty police officers, are Miami's 'Magnum Force' (white and yellow) vs. NYPD's 'The Finest' (black and gold). Director Fabrizio De Angelis copied the white and yellow jersey design, complete with police D.A.R.E. logos on the shoulders, for the fictional 'Falcons' team in the film.
The late stuntman/director/screenwriter Gary Kent said he wrote a script called Earl Houston about soccer players staging a rescue operation and optioned it to a Swedish company for a small amount of money with the provision that more would be paid if it every went to production. Without Kent's permission, the script was sold to this Italian company which was unaware of the source and made the film with football players as the rescue squad. The Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, Texas, screened the film (a Japanese version on VHS!) with Kent in attendance in 2015.
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