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.

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Mistakes

Factual error: Throughout the movie, all sorts of messages are passed over the 1MC (ship's intercom) when the boat is supposed to be stealthy. They've set "Ultra Quiet" to avoid the enemy sub but no-one was any quieter, and everyone was still using the 1MC. Worse, people are shouting commands and status updates, both in person, and over the intercom! No wonder that Akula found them. The only thing protecting this ship was plot armor! In real life, messages would be passed quietly using sound powered phones (which we also see), rather than blasting the info loudly to the entire crew, because sonar will literally pick up the sounds of loudspeakers and people shouting. Let's not even mention classified target data being passed to the entire ship's crew on the 1MC. (00:49:00)

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Quotes

Hunter: In my humble opinion, in the nuclear world, the true enemy is war itself.

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Trivia

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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

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