Gas! -Or- It Became Necessary to Destroy the World in Order to Save It. (1970) on Netflix

Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Gas! -Or- It Became Necessary to Destroy the World in Order to Save It. (1970)

Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.

• SPOILER

  Roger Corman was unhappy that American International Pictures made several cuts to the film without his approval, including the removal of the closing shot in which God comments on the action, a shot Corman regarded as one of the greatest he had made in his life.
• United Artists, which had paid for the script's writing, refused to finance Gas-s-s-s, believing it needed a $2 million budget. Corman bought the script back from the studio and financed the film himself for around $300,000.
• Edgar Allan Poe, who appears in the film, was a late addition: Corman called Poe "actually a second thought", said he was not in the original concept, and that they decided to put him in on a motorcycle.
• The film's subtitle, "It Became Necessary to Destroy the World in Order to Save It", alludes to a 1968 quote, "it became necessary to destroy the town to save it", attributed to a U.S. Army officer after the Battle of Bến Tre in Vietnam.
• Corman said George Armitage's first draft grew into "a direct liberal left-wing statement picture" instead of science fiction, so he decided to switch to a comedy, thinking back to Bucket of Blood and Little Shop of Horrors.
• Gas-s-s-s was the last film Roger Corman directed for American International Pictures; he made only one more movie before a 20-year sabbatical.
• Corman described Gas-s-s-s as "a very inexpensive film" shot with a skeleton crew and a cast of almost entirely amateur actors, with only the leads being professionals.