Big Trouble in Little China

The lead actor Kurt Russell expressed hesitation regarding the lead role during the 2001 DVD audio commentary, citing a succession of commercial box-office failures prior to production. Director John Carpenter dismissed the financial concerns during a pre-production consultation, stating that box-office history did not influence casting decisions due to a specific desire to secure the actor for the project. The production schedule required immediate casting security because Twentieth Century Fox fast-tracked the project to compete with a rival studio production, The Golden Child (1986). The studio executive leadership allocated a 25 million dollar production budget, which demanded extensive physical set construction on the Twentieth Century Fox stages in Los Angeles. The director John Carpenter secured creative control over the martial arts choreography and special effects deployment, choosing to collaborate with a trusted lead performer to streamline logistical adjustments on set.

In the first fight scene in the alleyway that Jack and Wang witness, the same stuntman can be seen charging, fighting, and indeed being KO'd alternately dressed as a Chang Sing, or Wing Kong.

Director John Carpenter filmed an extended ending sequence where character Jack Burton encounters the three street punks from the opening sequence sitting in a sports car parked near the San Francisco docks. The sequence features Jack Burton intentionally driving the Pork Chop Express freight truck into the sports car, pushing the vehicle and the passengers into the Pacific Ocean. Twentieth Century Fox executives removed the sequence from the theatrical release print after test audiences responded negatively to the violent nature of the confrontation. This footage appears exclusively on the supplemental sections of the special edition DVD and Blu-ray home media releases.