Once again a fun and very enjoyable episode!
Here are a few notes and precisions I'll add for now:
• The initial title LETHAL CONTACT dates from Jonathan Tydor's original screenplay that he wrote in 1984 (before THE TERMINATOR came out I must add). Back then the project revolved around a genetically modified human soldier from the future, sent as a scout to prepare for an invasion of a rogue army looking for a new world to conquer... But the 48 HRS. concept was already there (and there hadn't been that many buddy movies at this point).
The script was well received and turned around from producer to producer, including John Carpenter who was gonna produce it for Paramount with Andrew Davis in the director's chair. Ultimately it got the hands of Mark Damon and Moshe Diamant who first got Farhad Mann of MAX HEADROOM to make it.
To make it short, after many rewrites the future aspect was asked to be removed and they brought in David Keopp (BAD INFLUENCE, JURASSIC PARK, SPIDER-MAN etc) and his then partner John Kamps to rewrite it and that's when the project was retitled DARK ANGEL in around 1987-88.
Then of course Craig Baxley and Dolph Lundgren came on board, after they had been previously involved in a post-ACTION JACKSON Joel Silver project called MAN TO MAN that was canceled a few days before day 1 of filming (Baxley re-used ideas from it, like the car chase going through the mall, which was set in a Vegas casino in the previous project). Baxley rewrote the script as well which Tydor and Koepp weren't too thrilled about. Koepp didn't use his real name because he didn't think the movie would do well...
• For me, who have known it as DARK ANGEL from even before they filmed it (Dolph announced it as his next film to be shot right after THE PUNISHER), this title is both a more or less subtle play on words with "archangel", and the dichotomy of the "bad alien" (named Talec in the script) albino look, his actions and his "I come in peace" catchphrase (plus often people or creatures coming from above the sky/beyond the stars are often mistakenly taken for angels at first). So he's a "dark angel", an anti-angel. I hear what Molt says about it being a little cheesy or like a bad horror movie, yet my guess is back in the day their intention was to go for "mysterious", not to be on the nose or too literal of what the movie is. And I guess before Triumph Films changed it for the US market (which was the last to get a release), nobody thought of calling it I COME IN PEACE. I COME IN PEACE is surely original and catchy and I would have loved it more had it been used first. For sure people's views on the title depend where they're from and which they knew of first...
• The 7-8 days missing of Caine to me is that he and his partner were working were preparing their bust and disappeared from everyone for "safety". I have to check the script again because I think it's made clearer.
• Regarding the flying deadly discs and PREDATOR 2, I don't know if there was a direct influence or if both projects had the same idea, but what's for sure is that DARK ANGEL / I COME IN PEACE was already released in Korea and Taiwan by the time cameras rolled on PREDATOR 2 in February 1990. Given that the former took almost a year to come out in the US, both films were released in the fall 1990 in America whereas Baxley's movie was completed and ready for delivery/release by the end of 1989.
• The visual effect supervisor was none other than Bruno Van Zeebroeck who since built a very impressive credit list: he was an assistant on PREDATOR and DIE HARD and later coordinated VFX on big movies such as Fincher's ALIEN 3, Tony Scott's UNSTOPPABLE, TRANSFORMERS REVENGE OF THE FALLEN, RED, BATTLESHIP, GANGSTER SQUAD, Michael Mann's BLACKHAT, INSURGENT, and Tarantino's THE HATEFUL HEIGHT.
(And what I just found out is that he also helped on JOSHUA TREE / ARMY OF ONE)
• For the space gun, Baxley wanted it to be like ROBOCOP's but more lethal and enhanced.
• The alien cop's death happening as a sort of explosion from "inside out" of himself was meant as the way these aliens die.
• I never felt the film had too many subplots or characters because it's really well tied together. If there may be a few things left out not completely resolved or unclear in the end, I don't mind it because they're not indispensable and you can fill in the blanks. I don't necessarily enjoy movies where they beat the audience telling or explaining them every little detail, especially in this case which is essentially a comic book fantasy, a contemporary and futuristic western dealing with sci-fi and outer space elements where Dolph Lundgren is David and an even bigger giant is an alien Goliath... And it really comes together in every department, and it's a perfect ending to the craziness of the 80s action/sci-fi and the beginning of the 90s.
• The cheap comics that was discretely published a few months after the US release had only two issues, but the guys behind it apparently wanted to make an entire run that would be unrelated to the film's storyline
• On a personal note, since I first saw the film in June 1990, I've been moved by Dolph's crying performance when he finds his partner dead, underscored by Jan Hammer's guitar theme
I also love the scene when he's at home drinking his glass of wine and thinking about his girlfriend (there again Hammer's love theme is really nice and simple)