Factual error: In the scene right after the Apollo 11 landing, where Lovell is in the garden with his wife, he is playing with his thumb and the waxing moon. He covers the moon with his thumb repeatedly. Usually the diameter of the moon disk is about half of the diameter of the thumbnail on an outstretched arm of an average adult. Since Lovell's arm is not fully stretched the moon should appear even smaller. In this scene we see a moon approximately of the size of the whole thumbnail. In relation to Lovell's thumbnail that moon is far too large. (00:05:05)
Factual error: On July 20, 1969, the moon phase was waxing crescent. In the movie, on the eve of the moon landing, the moon is shown in waxing gibbous phase when Lovell (Hanks) covers the moon with his thumb. (00:06:02)
Visible crew/equipment: During Marilyn Lovell's nightmare, the crew experiences cabin decompression. Right when the master alarm goes off, you see a piece of monofilament attached to Jim Lovell's suit hose, used to try and simulate zero G to make the hose appear to be floating. (00:13:20)
Factual error: As Lovell explains the Apollo 1 fire to his son (in 1967), a large RC model aircraft can be seen over the child's shoulder. The N-Number (tail number) for FAA registration is N1976M. The particular aircraft represented on screen is a Cessna 182P - which according to FAA records - wasn't built until 1976. (00:14:50)
Factual error: When astronauts are wearing their spacesuits before launch, we can see NASA's "snake logo" introduced in 1975, when the plot is happening in 1970. (00:28:29)
Factual error: During the launch sequence, a car that appears to be from the 1990's is parked in the background. (00:30:15)
Continuity mistake: When Capcon 1 and John Young are watching Haise start to play the background music they are standing near their fairly clean desks in Mission Control. About 20 seconds later, after the Haise children laugh and Lovell says there seems to have been a last-minute change in the programme, the camera shows Capcon 1 and Young now seated eating dinner. Considering the amount of junk food now laid over their area and Capcon 1 half-way through eating his burger they appear to have been eating for at least several minutes, not 20 seconds. (00:46:00)
Continuity mistake: When Blanche is waiting for her son's broadcast to appear on TV she is seated beside two women. When she is told "this is all the channels we get" the middle woman moves her left hand to her face. In the next frame with the camera angle in front of the viewers the middle woman's left hand is at her lap. (00:46:00)
Character mistake: When Marilyn asks Henry "Do they know they're not on the air?" her finger is pointing just below her face. In the next frame with the camera now facing the pair, her hand is down at her lap. (00:47:00)
Visible crew/equipment: Right after the explosion, Lovell tells Houston that they've got multiple cautions and warnings, and they've got to restart, then Swigert says, "I'm going to SCS," and he flips the switch. In the next wideshot of the trio, we can see the arm and fingers of a hidden crew member wearing a short sleeve blue shirt, who's holding up a hose at the bottom right corner of the screen. This is only visible in the fullscreen version. (00:51:20)
Visible crew/equipment: Immediately after the accident, when Swigert is struggling to close the hatch, as he pulls the hatch away, just before he says that he can't get it to seal, a camera is briefly visible sitting in the tunnel through to the LM. (00:52:25)
Visible crew/equipment: Just after the moment has passed when they acknowledge the venting of the oxygen, there are a few shots of Houston Mission Control; on the left, you see a boom pole with microphone in shot as the camera passes Dr. Chuck, the Flight Surgeon. (00:54:20)
Continuity mistake: When Lovell is writing the gimbal conversions, as Haise says the computer is up, Lovell is clutching the left side of the paperwork and writing with his right hand. In the next frame with the camera closely showing the conversions, Lovell's left hand is now holding the paperwork at the bottom (the left side of the paperwork is now clear of his left hand). (01:01:00)
Continuity mistake: Just before Gene Kranz draws a circle on the chalkboard to indicate the Earth, the erased circles from previous takes can be seen. He then draws a hasty, sloppy unclosed circle, but subsequent shots a few seconds later show a neater, closed circle. (01:07:30)
Visible crew/equipment: During the moon landing daydream sequence, Lovell is shown performing the typical low-gravity moon walk. The thin wires used to facilitate the hopping effect can be seen at the top of the frame, and stand out against the light metal finish of the lunar lander. (01:13:30)
Continuity mistake: At the beginning of the "Failure Is Not an Option" scene, Gene writes "45 hrs" on the chalkboard. In the close-up as he writes it, the front of the 4 is curved into the spine, and the 5 is written with a flat top and flat back leading into the curve underneath. Then, Gene puts a period after "hrs." When the shot cuts wide, the 5 looks more like an S and the top of the five is curled back under. The spine of the 4 has become much longer as well. When Gene walks back to the board at the end of the scene, the front of the 4 is more angular than curved, and the 5 still looks like an S but the curl under the top line is gone. And, once the shot changes away from Gene writing it, the period after "hrs" disappears for the rest of the scene. (01:15:50 - 01:17:45)
Revealing mistake: In the final 1/2 hour there's a scene in which Kevin Bacon is drifting weightlessly in the lunar module, with a roll of duct tape floating nearby. Just during the last couple of seconds of this shot, suddenly he & the roll accelerate to the right. As everyone now knows the zero-g scenes were photographed on-board an aircraft which flies free-fall arcs for up to about 20 seconds before having to level off. The sudden acceleration on the set means that shot was filmed just as the plane was leveling off from a dive. (01:53:40)
Visible crew/equipment: Just after Lovell secures the hatch for LM jettison, and Swigert states "Okay, pyro batts look good, I don't think we're gonna have to tie those other batteries," there is a visible bearded crew member wearing glasses and a hoodie on the lower right hand side of the screen. This is only visible in the fullscreen version. (02:01:00)
Continuity mistake: During the re-entry sequence, there is a shot of all the condensation from the control panel pouring over the astronauts. The next set close up shots of the men's faces show them to be completely dry. (02:05:55)
Continuity mistake: After Houston reacquires contact with the spacecraft following re-entry, Gene Kranz sits down in his chair, obviously full of emotion. The camera then cuts to a wide shot of Mission Control before panning in on Ken Mattingly. Before the camera zeroes in on Ken, watch the top left corner of the screen and you can see Gene sit down again. (02:09:20)
Chosen answer: Aquarius was most likely going to splashdown in international waters; since the U.S. Coast Guard only has jurisdiction within American waters, the Navy would have to rescue them.
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