The film was released in theaters but only after it failed to air as a pilot for a network television series.

The destruction of the cocaine processing factory by the Band required three contingents of firemen, hundreds of extras, eight Doberman pinschers and their assorted trainers, dozens of stunt men and the invention and precision of a team of special effects personnel so that the Band became the heroes that executive producer Michael Mann so specifically describes.

When Michael Mann, executive producer of Miami Vice (1984), was first presented with the concept for this film, he found it so exciting that he instantly agreed to become its executive producer without even having seen a first draft of a script. Within three months of his initial meeting with Tri-Star Pictures, Mann had worked so successfully with screenwriters and first-time collaborators Leo Garen and Jack Baran that the film was ready to roll in Miami Beach, FL. Principal photography began on Sept. 30, only four months after Mann's first meeting with TriStar executives.

After the dangerous and drenching days filming in Florida's Everglades, the cast and crew were delighted to shoot matching sequences in the still wild but less treacherous and deserted Crandon Park Zoo, greater Miami's original zoological park on Key Biscayne. Director of photography Reynaldo Villalobos was able to match his "wet, liquid, hot" look, first achieved in the Everglades, in the sub-tropical garden of Crandor Park.

Michael Carmine, who played Ruben, also appeared on Miami Vice (1984) as Snake. Carmine was a respected actor and his sudden death from heart failure at the age of 30 shocked the acting community in 1989.

Nestor (James Remar)'s extravagant lifestyle is supported by the underbelly of Miami Beach life. Executive producer Michael Mann (I) said,: "The cocaine dealers are anything but small-time but our heroes, the kids, and their life is what 'Band of the Hand' is about . . . their life on the skids. It's flamboyant and full of color but it's not $4-million estates on islands in the Bay. That's not their life, The milieu of 'Band of the Hand' is a sub-strata of the street life, what's happening underneath the rock, below the pavement".

The producers worked out a unique deal with Miami Beach officials ensuring that when shooting was completed, the production would leave the area--i.e., the repainted and refurbished exteriors of Art Deco homes, the park, and various other structures--in an infinitely better condition than when they first began to work there. As a result, there was a playground built that was fully landscaped on Collins Avenue at 2nd Street in the south end of South Miami Beach.

Nestor (James Remar)'s state-of-the-art cocaine processing factory, built amid the ripening avocado trees in a Florida City grove, was the setting for the last five days of shooting on the movie.

What appealed to executive producer Michael Mann were "the surprises". Mann said, "And the strangeness of it. Here you have five basically criminal sub-culture juveniles coming together and healing themselves. What was interesting to me is how they respond when they're thrown into a really hostile environment, first the Everglades, then inner-city Miami, where the conflict is so pronounced. They have to learn to survive by ultimately finding some kind of bond with each other . . . or die". Director Paul Michael Glaser added, "[The picture] vibrates with the energy of these ghetto kids fighting with the elements. Ultimately, we have the synthesizing of the city in the jungle, the jungle in the city".

Theatrical directorial debut of Paul Michael Glaser.

Further up Biscayne Boulevard in Miami is Hamilton House, another waterfront condominium, which was converted into the bedroom suite of Weston's house. This penthouse-duplex was filled by production designer Gregory Bolton with top-of-the-line Michael Memphis Design Group Graves-style furniture: witty, glossy, and readily relocatable to any museum's decorative arts collection.

Almost half of the movie was shot in South Miami Beach.

Four miles up from Collins Avenue, in the ritzy Bal Harbour part of the city of Miami Beach, the green marble foyer and its adjoining circular drive was the backdrop for a major confrontation between Carlos and Nestor.

Carlos is played by Danny Quinn son of Anthony Quinn , while Nikki was played by a rather young Lauren Holly. The two were actually married in real life in 1991. Her very public 1994 divorce included accusations of abuse and had him claiming that her careless spending squandered their fortune and her accusing him of infidelity and refusing to work. A few months later she met Jim Carrey on the set of Dumb and Dumber (1994), and they were secretly wed for a total of ten months.

Leon (I) (Moss) shot to international fame when he appeared in Madonna (I)'s music video for her hit song "Like a Prayer". After his star turn in Крутые виражи (1993) alongside John Candy he opted to drop his last name and worked simply as Leon.

Principal photography began in Florida's Everglades . The 1.5 million acres of sub-tropical jungle--home to alligators, crocodiles and two-ton manatees--was the most challenging, treacherous and simultaneously visually exquisite setting for the film. Air boats were loaded with essentials only: cameras, film, bug spray, food, handguns--the swamps are crawling with poisonous rattlesnakes and copperheads--make-up, costumes and portable bathrooms. The crew, working mainly in chest-high water, was pared down to critical members only. The 20-minute ride from shore to the coral-reef hammock island was both noisy and exhilarating as the air boat glided through the Glades, dodging the water hyacinths and myriad forms of flora and fauna, which at times resembled an Iowa wheat field in shades of green.

The movie was shot entirely on location in and around Miami Beach, FL, between Sept. 30-Dec. 13, 1985.

A little further up Miami Beach was the site of the interior of the halfway house, a building named "The Elizabeth Apartments". Inside this nearly totally gutted shell, the individual rooms for the Band and Joe were created, each room a reflection of their specific personalities.

Espanola Way, a street on Miami Beach between 15th and 16th at Collins Avenue, was the scene of the major rumble between the warring gangs of Moss and Ruben.

During the 1997 divorce of his father Anthony Quinn, Danny Quinn testified under oath that he had in fact physically abused Lauren Holly during their rocky marriage. He testified that "I would grab her; I would punch her; I would kick her. It was awful. There were times I really wanted to hurt her." During the ugly divorce suit between Anthony and Iolanda Quinn, Danny also testified that his Academy Award-winning dad beat his mother.

Martin Ferrero, appearing here uncredited as the hardware clerk with a profound knowledge of gopher extermination methods, is one of Micheal Mann (I)'s "stock company", having appeared in Схватка (1995), Crime Story (1986) and 23 episodes of Miami Vice (1984)

Stephen Lang and Bill Smitrovich both went on to appear prominently in Micheal Mann's later productions of Охотник на людей (1986) and Crime Story (1986).