This episode marks the crossover of three Law and Order franchises. Dick Wolf first proposed a cross-over for Law & Order (1990), Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999), and Law & Order: Criminal Intent (2001) which centered on a terrorist's plot and a ticking time-bomb scenario. It was nixed when terrorists hijacked the planes that brought down the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001.
To date, the 3 current Law & Order series air on the same night in the following order: Law & Order, followed by SVU, with Organized Crime rounding off the block. However this crossover aired in the reverse of its regular order, opening with Organized Crime and ending with Law & Order.
The episode title "Gimme Shelter" is a nod to a song by the group The Rolling Stones, which was inspired by the chaos and civil unrest of the Vietnam War era of the 1960's.
Pasha D. Lychnikoff, the actor playing Daniel Rublev, guest starred in the SVU Season 11 episode titled Ace (2010), as the broker of a black market adoption ring Stabler and Benson are investigating.
The mega yacht the victim ran from appears to be made by German ship building company Lürssen, though it is hard to tell for certain as each mega yacht is custom made, no two are exactly the same. As of 2021 13 of the 25 largest mega yachts in the world were made by Lürssen; they hold the record for the world's largest yacht with the Azzam, coming in at 592 feet long and 13,136 tons displacement this mega yacht is longer and heavier than a typical destroyer, by comparison the US Navy's new Flight III Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer is 510 feet long and 9,500 tons displacement. The Azzam is also the fastest mega yacht in the world with a top speed of 32 knots, which also rivals an Arleigh Burke; it has staterooms for 30 guests, a dining hall, swimming pools, movie theater, mini submarine launching bay, two helipads and an internal hanger for storing a helicopter while sailing. It was purchased by Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, president of the United Arab Emirates, for $605 million.