Sally Field has stated that this is her least favorite of her movies. She did it mainly "for the paycheck", just like Sir Michael Caine.
Much of the behind-the-scenes footage shot for the "making of" documentary promoting this film was unusable, because the actors kept making impromptu comments clarifying how much they regretted having agreed to appear in it.
Nominated for Worst Picture at the Hastings Bad Cinema Society's 2nd Stinkers Bad Movie Awards in 1979.
This movie went into production before L'Inévitable Catastrophe (1978) was released. That movie was the beginning of the end for the big-budget/all-star disaster movie genre, when it tanked at the box-office. The failure of this movie, and Le jour de la fin du monde (1980) was the genre's death knell. All three were produced and/or directed by the self-proclaimed "Master of Disaster" Irwin Allen.
Producer and director Irwin Allen instructed composer Jerry Fielding to time the main title music to come to a loud crescendo when Allen's credit came on-screen. Allen was reportedly furious when this bit of self-aggrandizement drew laughter from audiences.