Crimson Tide

Character mistake: More than once the crew of the submarine salute the Captain while uncovered in the hallways of the sub. Sailors never salute without their cover on.

Character mistake: When Denzel is talking to the crew about upgrading to DEFCON 3, they say the last time was 32 1/2 years ago during the Cuban missile crisis of October 1962. The problem is that they both take place during October, meaning that the half year part is a mistake. (00:34:00)

Character mistake: At the end of the movie, Ramsey and Hunter begin a conversation about Lippizaner horses. Ramsey says they are from Portugal, Hunter says they are from Spain. However, the Lippizaner horse's place of origin is believed to be in modern day Slovenia (though they are believed to have descended from Spain in the distant past). Lippizan is Slovenia's national symbol. Plus Lippizans are associated with the ‘Spanish Riding school' but the ‘Spanish Riding School' is situated in Vienna, Austria.

More for Crimson Tide

Mistakes

Factual error: After the 2nd sub attack, while Hunter is in charge, a call is made from conn to maneuvering, to restore propulsion as soon as possible. It shows a young black dude answering back on the MC, having to yell over the noise of water spraying everywhere. This was laughable. Maneuvering is the control room for the nuclear power plant. It's all control panels and 4 technicians plus the EOOW, a nuclear-trained officer or senior enlisted, who would be answering back to conn. There wouldn't be any flooding going on there. (01:09:45)

leepster

More mistakes in Crimson Tide

Quotes

Hunter: Chief of the Boat.
Chief of the Boat: Sir?
Hunter: Thank you, COB.
Chief of the Boat: Thank you? Fuck you! Get it straight Mr Hunter, I'm not on your side. Now you could be wrong! But wrong or right, the Captain can't just replace you at will. That was completely improper! And that's why I did what I did. By the book.
Hunter: I thank you anyway.

More quotes from Crimson Tide

Trivia

Trivia: I just saw the movie Crash Dive 2 (which is also about submarines and also involves an enemy Akula-class sub) and it has many recycled scenes from Crimson Tide. To name a few: the scene where the sub does a "snap shot" of two torpedoes, the scene of the Akula being hit, and the scene where a torpedo barely misses the heroes' sub.

More trivia for Crimson Tide

Questions

Question: The disagreement between Hunter and Ramsey centers on the interpretation of the message that got cut off - Hunter says it might be a recall order so it has to be verified before they launch missiles; Ramsey says it is meaningless because it got cut off, so they should proceed with their original orders. I do understand that the captain was working within a scary time limit (one hour till the Russians could fire their missiles), but I don't understand how anyone could justify not spending part of that hour trying to confirm the cut-off message. Naval command would hardly have radioed them again to say "Yes, we really want you to fire your missiles, we're just telling you again for emphasis," so that means it was not just possible but extremely likely that the cut-off message was a recall order. Given that, how could anyone in their right mind want to cause a nuclear holocaust without first trying to find out what the cut-off message really said?

Answer: In a war situation, the Captain is absolutely NOT allowed to try and contact anyone, lest it gives their position away, which is why he was unable to question or confirm the order.

GalahadFairlight

More questions & answers from Crimson Tide

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.