Ad Astra

Character mistake: During the debrief meeting with the generals, Roy states the Lima Project was "some 29 years ago" and "the ship disappeared approximately 16 years into the mission." A few minutes later, Roy narrates "I was 16 when he left, 29 when he disappeared." This of course is only 13 years into the mission. (00:11:27 - 00:15:03)

Character mistake: Brad Pitt ends his message to his dad by saying "over and out", which is often used in movies but not how radio communication works. "Over" signifies the end of your current speech, "out" means you're done with the conversation. You use one or the other, not both.

Character mistake: Brad Pitt has control jets on his space suit - he uses them to accelerate him back towards his ship at the end, but somehow doesn't think to turn himself around and use them to slow down, hence slamming into the ship at great speed. Given the skill he demonstrates every other time in the movie, this only seems to happen for the sake of a dramatic arrival.

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: It is not unfeasible that he used the RPS fuel to accelerate and had none left, since he already wasted a certain amount after his father pulled him away from Lima station.

In space you can't just swing around and change directions because there is no friction or gravity. He would have to have a jet that shoots forward (a retrorocket) or he would have to turn using the jets which would make him go in the opposite direction, not slow him down. From what I saw, there was no retrorocket on his pack.

odelphi

There were retrorockets in his father's suite, he was flying in space using them. Why there was no such rockets in Roy's suite, wasn't it exactly the same? Helmets were identical, and other details too. He could slow him down.

There are no 'rockets' or 'retro rockets' on an EVA space suit, just thrusters that used in combination and with direction of the nozzles, can make it move any way they want, including turning and yes, slowing down. It's just Newton's Laws.

Character mistake: When Cepheus stops accelerating (which it would not have done until it turned to decelerate) crew plays in zero G's like amateurs who had never been in space. They were described as professionals with a lot of experience. They would never have risked fluid in the electronics by doing what they did.

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: In fairness, they were on drugs (mood stabilisers) at the time. This might have affected their judgement.

More for Ad Astra

Mistakes

Factual error: From the continuity of the movie it appears that the response from LIMA came within a few minutes of the transmission from Mars. This would be impossible. Even if Mars and Neptune were on the same side of the Solar System, in a straight line, they would be 4 light-hours apart, meaning the replay could not be received less than 8 hours after transmission. There's no implication that they kept Brad Pitt sitting in a room for 8 hours waiting for a reply.

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: IIRC, there was a communication sent from earlier. It's very possible they resumed 8 hours later, even if it was the next day. And, judging by the auditors sentiment to LIMAs response (discretion), there is a chance that LIMA did not respond favorably, nor ever would have a chance hear the "emotional" version of the communication sent that day.

Suggested correction: The objective of sending McBride to Mars was for him to transmit a number of appeals to his father on a familial level. Although McBride didn't know it, his messages were intended to catch his father off-guard, making him believe his son was en route to Neptune, but actually clearing the way for a nuclear strike against the LIMA. Unfortunately, the movie fails to make it clear that the younger McBride is transmitting several sequential messages over an extended period of time before his father finally responds. This is more a matter of bad pacing and editing than it is a factual error.

Charles Austin Miller

It was shown that the message the father answered was exactly the one in which the son rejected the script and began to speak from the heart. And this was the same message after which the father immediately answered, while the son was still in the room.

No, Roy McBride sent more than one message, and it even shows time pass between messages. His father's reply to an earlier message only arrived coincidentally as Roy went off-script on a subsequent message.

Charles Austin Miller

More mistakes in Ad Astra

Quotes

More quotes from Ad Astra

Trivia

Trivia: When Roy McBride is reviewing a top-secret message regarding his father and the LIMA mission, the message filename is "6EQUJ5," which is a very obscure easter egg in the movie. The filename 6EQUJ5 refers to the real-life "WOW Signal," a deep space radio signal received by the Big Ear radio telescope at Ohio State University in 1977. The alpha-numeric designation "6EQUJ5" was a printed readout of the signal's duration and intensity. This signal lasted 72 seconds and was 20 times stronger than background radio noise, causing a surprised astronomer to circle the printed 6EQUJ5 readout in red ink and make the handwritten notation "WOW!" in the margin. While the signal was an anomalous one-time event that was never repeated, and there is still no proof that 6EQUJ5 was alien in origin, it has stimulated debate about extraterrestrial radio signals for decades. Ironically, the movie "Ad Astra" concludes that there are no alien radio signals and that we really are alone in the universe.

Charles Austin Miller

More trivia for Ad Astra

Questions

Question: Tommy Lee Jones killed his crew 16 years ago, but the corpses are still inside the ship, some of them without signs of decomposition! Is not it stinky living with rotten bodies? Why are they still on board?

Answer: He killed the crew by shutting down the life support. The vacuum would prevent them from decomposing. Since he was now a single person, he would not need to regain access to the entire ship.

But one corpse's head was deformed, presumably rotten, while the others were intact. Why is there a difference?

Answer: He also mentions that his last few loyal crew members recently attempted to return home. This is what damaged the reactor and caused the surges. It is likely that these are the crew Brad Pitt encounters.

More questions & answers from Ad Astra

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.