Factual error: The green car that the 3 ladies are always in has a shot where you can see the brand of tires being a Hankook Optimo. This was in 1961 and these radial tires didn't exist yet.
Factual error: In one scene in the car (a 1957 Chevrolet), someone turns on the radio. The sound from the radio is heard immediately. This would only happen in a transistor radio. The radio in that year Chevy was a tube radio, and would need time to warm up before any sound was heard.
Factual error: The movie takes place in 1961 but the police car escorting the women to work is a 1964 Galaxie 500.
Factual error: In the conference room Katherine is at the board working out of the re-entry figures. She begins by converting 17544 mph to 25371 feet per second. The correct answer is 25731, an error of just over 1 percent in the first line of her calculations. She persists with the error but, contrary to the calculations she's presented, she gives the answer that she would have obtained had she not been working with the wrong figures. She then says that her obtained answer converts to 2990 miles, which it doesn't. (01:34:50)
Factual error: The truck that drives John Glenn to the launch pad is an M939 series 5 ton, which did not go into service until 1982.
Factual error: The eight stripe IBM logo is shown on a portfolio. That logo did not exist until 1972.
Factual error: During this era (I was there), nearly everyone (myself excluded) smoked like chimneys, and engineers in the office scene were no exception. All depictions of them laboring over their slide rules should have, realistically, been seen through a thick haze of cigarette smoke.
Factual error: When they are watching the video of Yuri Gagarin's space flight (April of 1961), the announcer describes the time as "UTC." The official abbreviation of UTC and the official English name of Coordinated Universal Time was not adopted until 1967. They would have described it as "GMT" (Greenwich Mean Time).
Factual error: In the conference room scene Katherine presents the landing point, orally and in writing, as 5.0667° N and 77.33° W then indicates this is the target landing point in the area of the Bahamas "give or take 20 square miles." However, this latitude and longitude is actually on the Pacific coast of Colombia - about 1300 miles from the Bahamas and on the other side of Central America. (01:36:00)
Factual error: When character Mary Jackson was appealing to Judge in court and sweet-talked him by mentioning his college that he graduated from George Mason, George Mason didn't exist until after 1957 and the movie setting was 1961-1962, which wouldn't be enough time for the character to graduate and become a judge by then. (01:00:00 - 01:05:00)
Factual error: In at least two places in the film an IBM Selectric is used. They are: (a) A room at the beginning of the movie where typewriters are shown; (b) Near the end when Katherine Johnson (Taraji P. Henson) is typing up her report. The Selectric was introduced on July 31, 1961 (the year most of the movie takes place). It is impossible for it to have been used during the first scene as that takes place prior to Shephard's flight, which was on May 5, 1961. Glenn's flight in Friendship 7 took place on February 2, 1962. So the Selectric may have been used by Johnson at that time, but it is extremely unlikely. IBM had expected to sell 20,000 in the first 6 months and had orders (not deliveries) for 80,000 of them by the end of 1961. They were rare. NASA would not have gotten one, as law offices and similar business were IBM's bread and butter.
Factual error: When Colonel Jackson comes to town to organize a National Guard unit, he is wearing the Army Green military uniform. It only has the branch insignia (infantry) and the US lapel. It has no name tag, no shoulder insignia showing what unit he was assigned to, no shoulder unit crests and no award ribbons. A person with that rank must have been in the Armed Forces at least 16-18 years and no ribbons?
Factual error: During Glenn's reentry scene in Feb. 1962, a police car is passing. It is a 1964 model.
Factual error: In the background towards the end there is a Mercedes Benz W108 that was not built before 1965. (01:42:45)
Factual error: They show a clip of JFK's Rice University speech on Sept. 12, 1962. Shortly afterwards, Paul Stafford makes a statement that JFK has ensured their job security by proposing to go to the moon. They should have shown the clip from his speech to Congress on May 12, 1961 when he actually first made the proposal to go to the moon. By the time of the Rice speech, two orbital flights had already taken place. In the movie, the first orbital flight (Glenn) doesn't happen until after the Rice speech.
Factual error: The IBM arrives on several pallets with the parts on the pallet fixed with stretch foil. This foil became common in packaging at least ten years later. In the 60s sensible equipment was crated and one should have seen huge wooden boxes.
Factual error: The signs in the hallway are made of blue plastic. Not in 1961. They became common later. (00:09:35)
Factual error: When the man takes a picture at the party, he holds the camera up to his face like a modern camera. The old style camera he is using would require you to hold it down at waist level and look down into the viewfinder.
Suggested correction: He doesn't hold the camera right up to his face. It is in front of and below his face. You didn't need to hold these cameras right down at waist level. His viewing angle is fine.
Factual error: When John Glenn is in the van being transported to the launch pad, the van is being escorted by a police vehicle with Virginia markings. (The launch pad is in Florida).
