The Junkman

As with many stunts-gone-wrong in his first film, Gone in 60 Seconds (1974), director H.B. Halicki was almost killed several times in accidents during production. The worst involved a scene where Halicki, playing the lead Harlan Hollis, was driving towards one of the hit men's planes, and both collided head-on when pilot Tony Ostermeier misjudged the distance between them. One of the wings came through the car's windshield and hit Halicki, while the plane crashed behind him. Both escaped with relatively minor injuries, but the car Halicki was driving, a 1980 Cadillac Eldorado, was wrecked, as well as the plane, and both had to be replaced for filming to continue.

This film is based partly on the life of director H.B. Halicki, who moved to Los Angeles from Dunkirk, New York, to start a junkyard business and ultimately become a prominent movie director. All of lead character Harlan Hollis's business, ranch and home locations are Halicki's actual properties, as well as all of the props/vehicles he uses and owns.

The phenomenal box office success of Gone in 60 Seconds (1974) allowed director/star H.B. Halicki to buy all of the property, vehicles and memorabilia seen in the film (as owned by character Harlan Hollis). Halicki owned the world's largest toy and automobile collection, which sat untouched for several years after his death in 1989, until litigation forced nearly the entire lot to be auctioned off in 1992.

The scene where Sergeant Gullen looks out of his office window to see the Goodyear Blimp flying past was achieved by building an office set and mounting it onto a trailer. This was attached to the van used as the Independent Network News unit in the film and towed past the blimp while it was anchored at its airstrip in Gardena, with the actor inside.

The movie took two years to make.