The High and the Mighty

Deliberate mistake: After the airplane loses its propeller and descends to lower altitude, the cockpit constantly shakes due to turbulence, and the flight crew complains about it in one scene. However, when the camera switches to the passenger cabin, everything remains perfectly still and serene until the airplane is on its final landing approach near the end of the movie.

Deliberate mistake: Throughout the movie, the din of the airplane's engines is consistently louder in the cockpit than in the passenger cabin, even though the engines are wing-mounted and therefore should be much louder in the cabin. This may have been done on purpose to allow the audience to hear the subtle dialogue in the cabin scenes. The cockpit scenes include lots of macho shouting, which is easier to hear over the engine drone.

Factual error: After the plane takes off from Hawaii, bound for San Francisco, there's a long shot of it flying among the clouds, with the left side well lit by the Sun. If the plane is flying east, in the northern hemisphere, then the Sun would be in the southern sky, illuminating the plane's other side.

More mistakes in The High and the Mighty

Dan Roman: I need a big man. Grab me around the waist.

More quotes from The High and the Mighty

Trivia: When Dr. Flaherty is painting on the beach, his tranquillity is broken by the nearby launch of a military weapon test. The film seen of the launch is stock footage of a U.S. built, back-engineered copy of the V-1 buzzbomb, one of the cutting edge weapons used by the Nazis during World War 2.

More trivia for The High and the Mighty

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.