This film was produced by the Blender Foundation in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Before this short film called Mango, Tears of Steel and three other open source animated films (Dream of Elephants in 2006 and Big Rabbit in 2008, 20 10) have been released. As in the past, almost all the production funds come from fans.

Because the soundtrack, sound effects and mixing are all external providers, the Foundation can only suggest that open source/free software be included in the workflow, but it cannot be a mandatory requirement.

The background of the story is a group of soldiers and scientists gathered in Oude Kerk, Amsterdam. In order to save the world besieged by destructive robots, they recreated the key scenes of that year through technology. Can this last attempt before despair change history?