Koyaanisqatsi

Godfrey Reggio was hooked on Philip Glass doing the music. He approached Glass through a mutual friend, and Glass replied, "I don't do film music." Reggio persisted, and finally the friend told Glass that the tenacious guy was not going to go away without at least an audience. Glass relented, though he still insisted he wasn't doing the music. Reggio put together a photo montage with Glass' music as the soundtrack, which he presented to Glass at a private screening in New York. Immediately following the screening, Glass agreed to score the film.

The two explosions at about 18 minutes into the film were shot with anamorphic lenses and not properly desqueezed for the film's 1.85:1 aspect ratio.

End credits go over mashed voice recordings in English ranging from call operator answers to television news.