During the freeway chase scene, Michael Bay attached cameras to a couple of stunt cars, and asked the drivers to crash into the falling cars, in order to capture never-before-seen shots.
Scenes from the movie were filmed at the "Bird" house in Delray Beach, Florida. The mansion stood nearly completed and vacant for years before it was purchased. The new owner advertised in Variety for a movie company to use the mansion in a movie and blow it up. By the end of filming, only the swimming pool was left.
When Dennis Greene, who played Reggie, showed up for shooting, he was told by Martin Lawrence's bouncer that he mustn't look into Lawrence's eyes or talk to him, and Lawrence himself was subsequently nasty to him. It was all a ploy arranged by Director Michael Bay who wanted the boy to be genuinely scared of Lawrence. Greene also wasn't told about the gun that he would be threatened with.
The line in which Johnny Tapia says to Alexei "Listen here you Russian punk, I, me, Johnny Tapia will sever your head off" was taken from a real FBI audio surveillance recording of American Mobster John Gotti, in which Gotti stated "You tell this punk, I, me, John Gotti will sever your motherfucking head off."
Michael Bay comments on the DVD that they got through the whole car chase without damaging the Ferrari (in spite of what we saw on film for laughs). He complains that Martin Lawrence struck a concrete barrier with the passenger door in a following scene (an outtake).
Michael Bay: the man driving the P.O.S. car that Marcus attempts to commandeer, but Mike tells him to go for a better car.