The film was originally shot as a made-for-TV movie. Paramount executives were so impressed with it that they released it in theaters as a feature. The cast sued the producers for higher pay, claiming they were paid television salaries and not feature film salaries. The case was settled out of court.
The letterman's jacket that Kevin Costner wears in the movie is the one he earned by playing baseball at Villa Park High School.
Kevin Costner has said that he has never forgotten this film and the powerful influence it has had on him. Costner would later star during the 1990s in such post-apocalyptic movies as Waterworld (1995) and The Postman (1997).
Movie posters for this film featured a number of different preambles that read: (1) "Imagine a day like any other. The children are fighting, the refrigerator is humming. Highways are jammed, playgrounds are filled. Everything is perfectly normal... For the very last time"; (2) "It happened in an instant. The televisions went blank, the radios - silent. The cities were gone, the future abandoned. And the only thing they have left to hold onto, is the people they love" and (3) "They never had a chance to see their children grow up. To watch each other grow old. To fix up the house, to take that vacation. Because it only took an instant to shatter their dreams".