Film title is taken from a Warren Zevon song of the same name, from his 1991 release "Mr. Bad Example".
The character name "Jimmy the Saint" is taken from the 1973 song "Lost in the Flood" by Bruce Springsteen.
Writer Scott Rosenberg created the distinctive slang-based vocabulary used by the characters in the film by mixing Vietnam slang and biker slang, and adding in some of his own original diction.