The cottage that is set on fire in the final scenes was specifically rigged to burn out within about eight minutes. Despite objections from director of photography Sven Nykvist, director Andrei Tarkovsky insisted that only one camera be used. During the first take, as the cottage burnt down, the film jammed in the camera, and the crew could not reload it in time. Therefore, the house had to be reconstructed at great expense over two weeks, and burnt a second time, but with two cameras this time. The shot ends abruptly after almost 7 minutes because the camera had run through the entire reel. Cast and crew broke down in tears after the take was completed.
The opening, post-credits shot (a tracking shot of Alexander, Little Man, and Otto talking and walking) lasts nine minutes and twenty-six seconds, the longest single take in all of Tarkovsky's work.
There are only 115 shots in the entire film.
The part where Alexander tells Little Man about when they found their house is actually the story of how Andrei Tarkovsky and his wife, Larisa Tarkovskaya, found their house in the U.S.S.R.
Tarkovsky was ailing from lung cancer when he made this film, and his health steadily declined after shooting wrapped. He was shown the final cut of "The Sacrifice" on his deathbed in a Paris hospital.