Factual error: After the successful Trinity test in 1945, people in a crowd are holding small US flags with 50 stars on them (offset rows). At the time there were only 48 states and the flag had 48 stars in even rows. The 50 star flag didn't exist until 1960, after Alaska and Hawaii were made states in 1959.
Factual error: When Oppenheimer delivers his lecture in "Dutch" he's actually speaking German. Although in the German dubbed version, the language heard is Dutch.
Continuity mistake: Near the end of the movie, when Oppenheimer is being interrogated in the small room, his lawyer is on the phone (we later find out it's Kitty). In a wide shot, he gives Oppenheimer the phone, and he puts it to his left ear. The next shot is a tight shot of Oppenheimer's face with the phone to his right ear.
Factual error: In the film, when Oppenheimer receives the Enrico Fermi award in 1963, Edward Lawrence congratulates him by patting him on the shoulder. Lawrence died in 1958 and could not have been there.
Continuity mistake: The strong wind blowing when Oppenheimer is approaching/climbing the tower completely stops when he's at the top.
Factual error: Just before the Trinity test explosion, a counter is shown counting back to zero. The counter displays the numbers with Nixie tubes. The tubes, however, were only invented in 1955.
Factual error: When Edward Teller proposed that a fission explosion might ignite the atmosphere in an uncontrollable chain reaction, Oppenheimer did not go to New Jersey to consult with Einstein. He actually went to Michigan to consult with experimentalist Arthur H. Compton.
Factual error: The real Edward Teller walked with a pronounced limp due to his right foot being almost entirely severed in a streetcar accident in 1928. In the film, he walks normally.
Continuity mistake: When the scientists are testing the plutonium in the desert, there is a shot of Oppenheimer and Groves walking over to the explosion site. In the background, Lilli Hornig can be seen climbing over a small dirt hill. When the shot cuts, Lilli can now be seen standing next to George Kistiakowsky closer to the explosion site. When the shot cuts back to Oppenheimer and Groves, she is still climbing over the dirt hill. (01:36:50)
Factual error: No one would have used the phrase "black hole" in 1939. The term "black hole" was first used in 1963 in "Life" and "Science News" and by Ann Ewing in an article in January of 1964. Princeton physicist John Wheeler popularised the term.
Suggested correction: Nobody uses the term "black hole" in the movie, only the term "dark star". Oppenheimer once refers to it as a hole in space, but not a black hole.
When Oppenheimer walks into the room of cheering people (after he says he'll be in Pasadena), someone says "paper on black holes, it's in!"
Ah, yes, I see. I wonder, though, if it's really that unlikely someone would call it a black hole before it was popularized? It is essentially what they are. Certainly, it's possible somebody before 1963 called it that without it ending up in a paper. Just a coincidence, then.
Visible crew/equipment: When Oppenheimer and Strauss talk on the lakeshore at the Institute for Advanced Study just after Einstein left, a big stage light is reflected in Strauss' glasses. (00:12:06)
Continuity mistake: When Lawrence enters the classroom, where he finds Oppenheimer writing "F.A.E.C.T." on the chalkboard, the letters C and T are written differently in two distinct shots. (00:36:02)
Audio problem: When Oppenheimer confronts Nichols in his office after finding out Lomanitz got drafted, there is a shot focusing on Nichols where Oppenheimer says, "Don't be an asshole, Nichols," where his mouth doesn't move along with the line. (01:13:08)
Continuity mistake: When Roger Robb has finished questioning Oppenheimer for the final time, in the shot of Robb saying "Just as it had with the atomic bomb, exactly," he has no glasses on. When the shot cuts, he suddenly has glasses on. (02:46:28)
Continuity mistake: When Roger Robb asks Kitty if there are two types of communists, Kitty says she couldn't answer that one, to which Ward Evans replies, "I couldn't either." Gordon Gray can then be seen turning his head to face Evans, but when the shot cuts to focus on Evans, Gray is looking straight forward at Kitty. (02:40:55)
Continuity mistake: William Borden is handed a letter that he wrote to J. Edgar Hoover. A copy of the letter is then handed to the other people in the boardroom. In a shot focusing on Borden, the letter is on the table, but when the shot cuts, he is suddenly holding the letter. (02:30:12)
Continuity mistake: When Roger Robb asks Oppenheimer if Haakon Chevalier still his friend, Oppenheimer replies "Yes," and then it cuts to Lloyd Garrison, unhappy that he said that. In this shot, Garrison's forearms are on the table, but when the shot cuts, his forearms are on his lap. (02:26:50)
Audio problem: When Roger Robb is asking Oppenheimer if he referred to microfilm during his interview with Boris Pash, in a shot focusing on Oppenheimer, Lloyd Garrison says "I'm sorry," but his mouth doesn't move. (02:25:25)
Continuity mistake: Oppenheimer comes across a paper for a discussion on "The Impact of the Gadget on Civilization" among the Los Alamos scientists. In the shot of him grabbing the paper, it is soaking wet, but in a close-up of the paper, it is nearly dry. (01:34:35)
Continuity mistake: After speaking with Niels at the Christmas party, a woman approaches Oppenheimer about a call from San Francisco. In one shot, the woman places her left hand on a support beam, but when the shot cuts, her hand is at her side. (01:26:55)
Suggested correction: While this is correct, an argument can be made that since the colour scenes are meant to be subjective and the black and white scenes are meant to be objective, Oppenheimer could have been unintentionally mapping the modern US flag onto this scene.
THGhost
That's a ridiculous stretch with zero evidence, not least as 48 star flags are seen in colour in other scenes. Sometimes a mistake is simply a mistake.
There is evidence, though. Nolan said so himself. Look it up. As for the mistake itself, I'm merely repeating what I've read on Twitter, and this correction was merely a suggestion. Seeing the 48 star flags in other colour scenes still doesn't disprove this theory. It is just a theory though, so no need to shoot it down so hard.
THGhost
He's said subjective in terms of the colour scenes being "first person", and maybe not strictly factual in terms of creating moments between characters and conveying emotion, but nowhere does that stretch to "one random scene happens to feature 50 star flags because Oppenheimer is mapping the modern flag onto it, when nothing like that happens anywhere else in the film."
Meh, take it up with Twitter. I just thought it was interesting, so I posted it here for a different point of view/perspective for others to read. It is most likely bull**** though.
THGhost
The fact that a director realized they had made a mistake and retroactively made up a deus ex machina explanation for it in no way invalidates the mistake. Nice try, Mr. Nolan but this posting is absolutely valid.
While Christopher Nolan's talked about the subjective/objective colour/black and white thing, which is entirely fair and no doubt exactly his intention, I don't think he's actually tried to "excuse" this by using that explanation, that's just other people trying to connect the two things. I'm not sure Nolan has commented on the flag issue in interviews at all.
Precisely, and I was in no way trying to invalidate the original mistake. I just found the whole theory interesting and posted it here. It is rather hilarious that a director with such attention to detail like Nolan would have missed something like this. We shall see if he gets it fixed for the streaming/physical release.
THGhost
It's not fixed in the home video version. However, the behind-the-scenes materials provide a reason for the mistake, in that putting a crowd in the scene was apparently a spur-of-the-moment decision. It's like that in their haste to bring in the crowd, the set decorators bought some modern miniature flags and put them into the scene without anyone realizing the 48/50 discrepancy.
Vader47000