The film was conceived and produced by Madhouse founders Masao Maruyama and Rintaro, the latter of whom served as composition organizer alongside Katsuhiro Ōtomo on the project.

[2] In the film's frame story, a girl named Sachi (Hideko Yoshida/Cheryl Chase) plays a game of hide-and-seek with her cat Cicerone.

A revolution in the fictional South American country of the Aloana Republic results in a new government that refuses to accept a contract for the construction of a city-sized project called Facility 444 in an inhospitable swamp.

Witnessing the destruction of several robots and 444-1's refusal to cease operations, Tsutomu begins to lose his patience and is nearly killed by 444-1, who was programmed to eliminate anything that poses a threat to the project.

Construction Cancellation Order (工事中止命令, Kōji Chūshi Meirei) is written for the screen and directed by Katsuhiro Otomo, with character designs by Otomo and animation direction by Takashi Nakamura[1] This segment's depiction of South America as a dangerous, unstable place is comparable to other depictions in the Japanese media during the 1990s such as Osamu Tezuka's 1987 comic Gringo.