 The first draft of the script was set during the transfer of Hong  Kong from British to Chinese rule with Carver a zealot bent on  destroying Hong Kong rather that hand it over to the Chinese.  According to director Roger Spottiswoode (qv), this plotline was  dropped when former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger (qv),  who was acting as a consultant on the production, warned that if  something actually did occur during the handover in real life the  film (which was set to open a few months later) would look  ridiculous. This led to a last