Other mistake: When the Japanese planes take off for Pearl Harbor, some of the 3 man torpedo planes only have a pilot.
Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970)
Directed by: Richard Fleischer, Kinji Fukasaku
Starring: Martin Balsam, Joseph Cotten, Jason Robards, So Yamamura
Factual error: When the Japanese planes attack the airfield, none of the American planes have numbers or letters, just a star.
Factual error: In a scene where the USS Arizona blows up, a Kingfisher aircraft is seen toppling from the catapult on Arizona's number 3 turret. On the morning of the attack, Arizona's two aircraft were on Ford Island undergoing maintenance.
Trivia: The code for successful surprise (and the movie's title) "Tora! Tora! Tora!" was a shortening of the words totsugeki (attack) and raigeki (the Japanese term for torpedo bombers), and was originally spelled "To ra, to ra, to ra!" Those two shortened words were interpreted by American radio operators, who happened to intercept them, as the Japanese word for "tiger"; hence "Tora! Tora! Tora!"
Trivia: Just before the attack starts, there is a scene where the Navy are performing their start of day ceremony. Watch the sailor who rings the bell. After he has finished he walks backwards and stumbles as he walks into a small raised item.
Trivia: The crash landing of the B17 was real. During the filming, one of the bombers could not lower its right landing gear due to a broken jackscrew, so the producers rushed a crew to the airport to film the bomber's crash landing. They foamed the edge of the runway, and foamed another pilot's back with a hooded raincoat on while sitting on the edge of the runway. He called elevations to the pilot in the plane, and everything went OK until the wingtip hit a runway light which spun the airplane around.
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.