Paul Dano and Rooney Mara were considered for the lead roles before Jesse Eisenberg and Dakota Fanning were cast.
After its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, Edward R. Pressman Film and Clarke Abbey, widow of author Edward Abbey, asked a federal court to shut down the film because of its similarity to Abbey's 1975 novel The Monkey Wrench Gang. According to a Hollwood Reporter article in February 2013, negotiations behind the scenes resolved the matter.
Night Moves is the name of the boat they use to explode the dam.
"Night Moves" is one of several films about dam destruction and ecoterrorism released in 2013 and 2014. While "Night Moves" was released May 30, 2014, ecoterrorism thriller "The East," starring Elliot Page, was released a year earlier, on May 31, 2013. Ecoterrorism documentary "If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front" premiered three years before "Night Moves," in 2011, while the Patagonia documentary "DamNation," also about dam destruction and environmental activism, premiered at SXSW in March 2014.
During the movie there is an implied romantic liaison between Dena and Harmon. The characters, played by Dakota Fanning and Peter Sarsgaard, also appear in Very Good Girls (2013) where Sarsgaard's character has an ongoing romantic interest in Fanning's character, which is not necessarily welcomed.