The director traveled through Managua, Nicaragua about ten years earlier while traveling through Central America. He was amazed how friendly the people were even though they had just suffered a horrible civil war and the capital city lay in ruins. The director vowed that he’d return one day and shoot there in order to show the good side of a scary looking city. He wanted to show that such a place could actually be a beautiful city once you got to know the people and looked past the sketchiness of the city.

While shooting in Managua, the Producers housed the entire crew at a hotel located in the slums of the city. It’s that same location where our protagonist, Conner Layne, spends his second night and manages to meet other foreign travelers.

While filming at that same hotel in Managua–a German traveler managed to get robbed at gun point in broad daylight only twenty feet from the hotel entrance. They took all his belongs and he took the next flight out of the city, vowing never to return to Managua.

Transporting cast and crew usual meant a minimum of three and a half hours at an airport, waiting through a line to get our boarding passes and checking in luggage. The cast and crew usually consisted between twenty-two and twenty-eight people and a minimum baggage count of seventy-four bags. The extra baggage cost was always minimum of $1600 each flight segment. Each crew member was only allowed to take one bag for themselves and the second bag was for production.

Once the filmmakers decided to use Managua as the first city on Conner’s journey, they called the Nicaraguan Embassy in Washington DC informing them of their intentions and seeking permission to film in their country. Once the embassy man on the other line heard our pitch his reply was simple, “I see no problem with you guys shooting there. This is what you need to do. Once you arrive at the airport with your cast, crew, and equipment–just tell the customs official that Juan Sanchez gave you guys permission to film in the country.” A little shocked by that response we replied, “Really? Don’t you think written permission by you guys would be better?” The man replied, “No, everyone knows Juan Sanchez and his word is good enough.” That was proof to the producers it was going to be easier to shoot in Nicaragua than first thought.

In Managua, the filmmakers had to fight the possibility of rolling blackouts in the city while shooting. Two different scenes that where being filmed at night caused problems during a blackout. Typically, the set would be lit and everyone ready to shoot, then right when the camera began to roll, the location would go black and the lack of electricity would make it impossible to shoot. Power outages usually lasted all night. During one scene, the lights went out but the gaffer managed to pull power from our crew bus to light the set. After the scene was shot and the crew boarded the bus to drive back to the hotel, the battery on the bus was dead. Most of the crew had to go outside and give the bus a push start in order to get back to the hotel, which was located in the slums of the city.

Location scouting for Managua was done in a different manner from the usual Hollywood location scout. Director Tom Whelan scouted the Managua locations all by himself. He boarded a flight from LAX to Managua with no agenda or plans, similar to the Conner character. Once there he just jumped into a taxi and told him to take him “somewhere special” at 1am in the morning.

The taxi driver took him to a hooker infested hotel located in the slums of Managua. After spending the night there he started walking around the city by foot and found all shooting locations for the film within three days. The city had changed a bit from his previous trip ten years ago, but he could still recognize many places he had visited on his last trip.

During casting in LA the producers had a hard time convincing any actors and agents to take the role of Christopher Loren seriously. The actor would love the part but didn’t think the producers could pull off the story for the budget of film. At one time the filmmakers thought of the actor Johnny Messner after watching Anacondas 2. They decided not to go after him because they thought he was “out of their range.” It was decided twelve hours before principal photography started in Los Angeles that producer Kyle Jackson would stay in LA and cast the part while the production moved to Nicaragua. Jackson would have seven days to cast the part. Jackson decided that he would put all his energy into getting Johnny Messner or die trying.

Jackson managed to get Messner’s cell phone number and called him out of the blue just thirty-two hours before his character started shooting down in Panama. Messner had just arrived in Portland, Oregon when he received the call from Jackson about playing the role. He was interested in the part so turned around and boarded a flight right back to Los Angeles and then was given a script at the airport when he arrived by Jackson who was waiting for him at LAX. He drove Messner to a restaurant near LAX, told him about the project, and gave him two hours to read the script and decide if he was interested. Messner left the restaurant and agreed to do the part. He boarded a flight two and a half hours later to Panama. He arrived in Panama City by 6pm the following day and twelve hours later he was on set playing the part of Christopher Loren.

The story continues…