Robby Garber's father passed away in February 2024 while he was finishing making changes to the final draft of the script for Operation EX-I-33. The movie is dedicated to the memory of his father who was so very proud of him on making his directorial debut.
In the screenplay as well as in the movie, the fictional virus is called the "Vua virus." Vua in the Vietnamese language translates to "fake." The movies plot deals with the main characters taking shelter in an old bunker after the breaking news reports of the spread of the Vua virus not knowing that the virus itself does not exist. It was the government agent, played by Daniel Martin Berkey that uses these false news reports to lure Chris and Jenna into their bunker.
In the movie the fictional county Chris and Jenna live in is called Bedrigen County. When Robby Garber wrote the script, he used the Dutch language for the name of the town and county they live in. In Dutch, Bedrigen means "Deceived". The town and county the main characters live in was designed to deceive the characters.