* CrowningMusicOfAwesome - The whole thing. One of Philip Glass's best-known works, and with good reason.
* EarWorm - Philip Glass's music ''will'' get ''will'' get stuck ''will'' get ''will'' get stuck ''will'' get stuck get stuck stuck ''will'' get stuck stuck get stuck in your head.
** The Anthem from ''Powaqqatsi'' is another Ear Worm.
* FirstInstallmentWins
* MisaimedFandom - the film and imagery similar to it is sometimes used to ''celebrate'' technology.
** It ''is'' easy to find "beauty in the beast" due to the wonderful cinematography. Part of Godfrey Reggio's concept for the film is that every viewer could take something completely different from it.
** Nobody says you shouldn't use it for that purpose. Your interpretation is yours and yours alone.
* NewerThanTheyThink: Superspeed time lapse photography was new. Only ''{{TRON}}'' and ''PinkFloydTheWall'' had employed it - and only briefly.
* OlderThanTheyThink: Many viewers think [[spoiler:the exploding rocket]] was the space shuttle ''Challenger'', which [[spoiler:was destroyed]] three years after this movie came out. [[spoiler:The explosion filmed was with an unmanned Navy Atlas rocket, about 20 years earlier.]]
* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: The [[{{Undercrank}} time-lapsed sequences]] of cloudscapes, scenery, traffic, and walking crowds have been ''very'' widely imitated, but you saw it here first.
* SurprisinglyImprovedSequel: ''Powaqqatsi'' is a better film, but fewer people know it, save for the music piece "Anthem" which appeared in ''TheTrumanShow''.
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