norris said he got the idea to make the film after reading an article in "readers digest" that said hundreds of terrorists were running loose in the united states. "i thought, 'boy, that's scary,' " he said. " 'what if some guy on the order of a khomeini or a khadafy mobilized those guys and started sending them out to every major city?'... i know it's going to happen, and even in the movie, the head terrorist says, 'it's so easy because of the freedom of movement in this country.' so we're really accessible to this. the movie is not meant to scare people, but to make us aware of a potential problem."