Opening credits are preceded by newsreel footage depicting the conditions of East Germany under Communist rule in the late 1970s.
       End credits are preceded with the following epilogue: “The Strelzyk and Wetzel families now live in West Germany. Peter owns an electrical supply store. Günter has realized his dream of becoming an auto mechanic. And the children are free to reach for the sky…without the help of a balloon.” End credits also note that the picture was “Filmed on location at Bavaria Studios Munich, Germany.”
       As reported in a 28 Nov 1979 LAT article, the wife of Walt Disney Productions producer Tom Leetch discovered a 17 Sep 1978 front page newspaper story in The Times (London), reporting the real-life balloon escape of the Strelzyk and Wetzel families from East Germany the previous day. After Leetch showed the clipping to Disney’s vice president of production and executive producer, Ron Miller, Eva Redfern of the studio’s office in London, England, contacted the two families to discuss the possibility creating a film about them. Less than a month later, Redfern met with Peter Strelzyk at the Hotel Atlantic in Hamburg, Germany. Although the families received five offers from other filmmakers, they accepted Disney’s terms—a $5,000 six-month story option and $50,000 if the studio moved ahead with development—because they remembered watching Disney films through illicit television signals in their home in East Germany; in addition, they hoped the film would educate people when it was eventually shown in their home country. The week of 19 Nov 1979, the Strelzyks and the Wetzels traveled to Los Angeles, CA, where they recorded twenty hours of interviews for Leetch, associate producer Marc Stirdivant, and writer John McGreevey. At this time, the film was referred to by an unofficial working title, The Balloon Movie.
       On 25 Apr 1980, DV reported that actor David Soul arranged to meet with Disney executives to be considered for starring role in the film, which had been named The Last Flight to Freedom. A 3 Sep 1980 HR brief announcing the involvement of director Delbert Mann also indicated that the title had been twice changed, from Wind to the West to Night Crossing.
       According to a 25 Feb 1981 Var article, filming was scheduled to begin 1 Sep 1980 in Munich, Germany, but an eight-week Screen Actors Guild (SAG) strike delayed production until 27 Oct 1980. Production notes in AMPAS library files listed the German cities of Landsberg, Mühltal, Harthausen, and Munich among the filming locations. In the town of Eulenschwang, the production team recreated a $300,000, half-mile section of the border between East and West Germany. Near Lake Constance in Friedrichschafen, Germany, filmmakers transplanted 300 pine trees, 150 cubic yards of soil, and 6,000 square yards of black plastic to transform a large fair exhibition hall into a contained forest set. The construction project took two weeks and cost $150,000. Additional interior filming took place at Munich’s Bavaria Studios. Glendale, CA’s Balloon Ventures, Inc., owner, Gary Cerveny, created seven balloons for the picture, six of which were authentic recreations of the Strelzyk and Wetzel’s actual balloon, with material and technical changes made to appease Federal Aeronautic Administration regulations. The remaining balloon was a smaller utility aircraft used for preliminary tests and aerial photography. One balloon reportedly required 12,453 square feet of material. The 25 Feb 1981 Var reported that unexpected snowfall caused delays during the final week of filming, and production completed the week of 18 Jan 1981, at least a week behind and over budget. The final cost was estimated at more than $10 million.
       Although domestic release was originally scheduled for Christmas 1981, a 29 Dec 1981 DV item announced that the U.S. opening had been rescheduled for 5 Feb 1982 in 600 theaters, prior to which Disney would host its first-ever press junket in mid-Jan 1982, including a preview of the film and interview sessions with the cast. Positive test screenings had reportedly been held in Seattle, WA, and White Plains, NY, and a 29 Jan 1982 Albuquerque Journal advertisement indicated that the film was also shown in Albuquerque, NM. On 16 Feb 1982, DV and HR stated that Night Crossing had its European premiere in Hamburg 11 Feb 1982, followed by another premiere in Berlin, Germany, 12 Feb 1982, which took place just before the Berlin International Film Festival (BIFF). The articles reported that BIFF director Moritz de Hadeln refused to admit the picture as the festival’s opening feature for fear of offending East Germany. Despite protests from the film’s German distributor, Twentieth Century-Fox, and German newspaperman Axel Springer, de Hadeln defended the film’s quality but still refused its inclusion for “artistic reasons.”
       The picture was released in Germany under the title With the Wind to the West; the 21 Jan 1982 DV scheduled its North German opening in sixty theaters before later expanding to 200 South German theaters and opening in the U.S. 5 Feb 1982.