Outland

Sean Connery lost a major extended cameo role in Chariots of Fire (1981) because this movie went over schedule.

The script was originally intended to be set in a western period, but writer-director Peter Hyams decided to move it to outer space due to the influence of Alien (1979). The original title was "Io", but Hyams was persuaded to change the title by an executive from the Ladd Company following a demonstration on random people, which showed that many would read the title as "number 10" instead.

Writer-director Peter Hyams handled the cinematography for most of this movie, while Stephen Goldblatt usually worked when there was something Hyams did not know how to do. Goldblatt was misleadingly hired by Hyams, who really wanted him to stand aside and do nothing, and to use him as a scapegoat for the Ladd Company in case anything went wrong while using the new IntroVision process. He was furious at being lied to and wouldn't have taken the job if he'd known Hyams' intentions at the outset, but stayed on in order to learn how to use IntroVision, and because as a young cinematographer with a sole prior feature credit, quitting the movie could have ruined his career. It is the only one of his movies whose wrap party he skipped.

The mining company is referred by the name "Con-Amalgamate". This is the same name given to the company that manufactured the defective life support system mentioned in Capricorn One (1977) (also written and directed by Peter Hyams). Con-Amalgamate is also the name of the company that Peter Boyle's character, Jack Mitchell, says that he works for in T.R. Baskin (1971).

One of the few movies to be released theatrically with the "Megasound" sound system format. Megasound was a movie theater sound system created by "Warner Brothers" in the early 1980s. It was used to enhance the premiere engagements of a handful of Warner Brothers movies. Theaters equipped for Megasound had additional speakers mounted on the left, right, and rear walls of the auditorium. Selected soundtrack events with lots of low-frequency content (thuds, crashes, explosions, et cetera) were directed to these speakers at very high volume, creating a visceral effect intended to thrill the audience.