Factual error: It is not possible that Pitt could have gone up to the ship when it was already blasting off. There was literally fire in the tunnel.
Ad Astra (2019)
Directed by: James Gray
Starring: Brad Pitt, Tommy Lee Jones, Liv Tyler, Ruth Negga
Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.
Suggested correction: It was a bit confusing, but what I saw was a shower of sparks or hot particles and some fumes, and no fire in the tunnel until he was through the hatch. The makers may have been influenced by seeing vapour prior to a rocket launch, and then some rockets use a shower of electric sparks to ignite the engines. It was implausible, but no fire in the tunnel.
Factual error: Pitt and the other astronauts fight at zero gravity during the take off. However, they are under acceleration, so they wouldn't be able to move.
Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.
Suggested correction: It's a bit confusing but the initial launch acceleration seems to have been short, acceleration stops, they float. Then the captain shouts to get back in their seats 'We're staging." A quick cut of a first stage booster falling away, then there's a sudden and momentary impulse, which kills the female astronaut when she hits the bottom of the chamber head first. Then there's no acceleration and they float and fight. So not obvious error.
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.
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.
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.
Trivia: The title is Latin and translates to "to the stars". The title credits fade that wording in English into the title.
Roy McBride: Can I have a blanket and pillow?
Flight Attendant: Certainly, that will be $125.
Roy McBride: Why go on? Why keep trying?
Roy McBride: The zero G and the extended duration of the journey is affecting me both physically and mentally. I am alone. Something I always believed I preferred. I am alone. But I confess it's wearing on me. I am alone. I am alone.
Question: How did the monkeys get onto the space ship and why were they so aggressive?
Answer: On the way from the Moon to Mars, the Cepheus interplanetary vessel receives an automated distress signal from a Norwegian bio-medical space station (that studies and conducts experiments on Earth animals in the deep-space environment). Apparently, a couple of very powerful and temperamental adult baboons escaped from their cages and killed everyone aboard the space station, feeding on their bodies. When the Cepheus answers the distress signal and arrives at the space station, the baboons attack and try to eat Captain Tanner and Roy McBride, also.
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.
Question: The Lima produces surges that disrupt electronics. Why isn't the Lima affected?
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.