In earlier screenplay drafts, there was a more prominent female role that was earmarked for Linda Fiorentino.
Holly McClane:
Holly McClane: John, why does this always happen to us on Christmas Eve?
"Dulles Airport" bears not the faintest resemblance to Dulles Airport.
The shootout between the airport SWAT team and the terrorists was severely edited before the film received an "R" rating. Among the scenes trimmed down is the scene where O'Reilly (Robert Patrick ) shoots the first SWAT officer in the head with a Glock 17. When the officer is shot in the head in the "R" rated version, it is shown from a distance. In the work print shown to exhibitors in the summer of 1990, the man is shot in the forehead but is shown in a graphic closeup. A lot of the bloodier shots were also trimmed down in this section as were a couple of extended scenes of the people on the plane that Colonel Stuart crashes.
English, Spanish
$70,000,000 (estimated)
$21,744,661 8 July 1990
$117,540,947
$240,031,274