Lead actor Stephen Dorff is really claustrophobic. Director Gabe Torres did not know this until after filming wrapped. Torres stated that Dorff's willingness to stay inside a glass box for the duration of filming was "extreme method acting".
Brake was shot in 12 days.
Composer Brian Tyler's soundtrack involved actual car part noises. Tyler claims that many filmmakers have since come to him and asked him to do another score similar to Brake's, even though many laughed at the idea of an experimental score utilizing car parts.
Timothy Mannion, the film's writer, came up with the idea after listening to 911 calls from car trunks on YouTube.
Director Gabe Torres wanted to do a Die Hard-style thriller that took place in a single location. He contacted his agent and she started looking at scripts. She called him and asked him if he wanted to consider a movie that took place in the trunk of a car. He asked "how much?". She responded "all of it".