Goofs

When the helicopter that brings Mr. Lasky aboard circles the ship, there are aircraft parked at the rear of the ship obscuring the landing area; yet once the helicopter lifts off after dropping Mr. Lasky off on the ship, the captain orders the air boss to "continue fixed-wing recovery." This would not have been possible with those parked planes in the way, and there's too short a time between when the chopper gets clear and when Commander Owens' plane lands to move the planes on the deck. Furthermore, if they had been in the process of landing planes when Lasky arrived, those planes would have already been out of the way to begin with.

The missile loadout on the F-14s change during the dogfight with the Zeros, with missiles disappearing and reappearing between shots, most notably with the Sidewinder that fired at the second Zero being visible on the Tomcat after it had been fired.

When Captain Yelland is in his tropical white uniform at the very end of the movie on the bridge, as they pass the Arizona Memorial, his highest medal (ribbon) on his uniform is the Distinguished Flying Cross. Several minutes later when he is saluting the Admirals coming aboard, he has the Navy Cross and Silver Star above his Distinguished Flying Cross.

When Mr. Lasky's helicopter lands, Corsair 412 (the one that later lands in the barricade) can be seen parked on the deck behind the helicopter, even though it's supposedly still in the air waiting to land.

One of the jets takes off to fight for Pearl Harbor, taking off from the right hand side, whilst a jet waits for its turn on the left. A few seconds later, the camera angle switches, showing the first jet taking off "again."

When Mr. Lasky first arrives on board the Nimitz, he is met at the hatch into the island by the XO, CDR Thurman. CDR Thurman has his cover on, on the flight deck, during flight operations. As the XO, he should know that covers are never worn on the flight deck during flight ops. The hat could get blown off his head and become FOD, or Foreign Object Debris, and possibly get sucked into a jet intake and cause major damage to the engine and maybe cost some sailors their lives.

Before the storm, the carrier Captain orders the destroyer escorts back to Pearl because "there's no need for them to go through THIS." In fact, no carrier battle group can send its destroyers back for any storm at all, because these escorts form the main defense against submarines, which are the most dangerous threat against the carrier (and which are not affected by any weather conditions).

"The Jack Benny Program," to which the crew listens on Saturday, 6 December 1941, did not air on Saturdays but rather on Sundays. The content of the show is correct for the Sunday Dec 7, 1941 broadcast, but would have been broadcast in Hawaii the following week due to the recording of the show being shipped to Hawaii by boat.

There would never have been two Zeros in the air the day before the attack. Any such "scouting" could really give the attack force away. No Japanese aircraft were in the air until sunrise on Dec. 7th.

Commander Owens, at Lasky's insistence, tells the Japanese pilot what is going to happen. He references the six Japanese aircraft carriers as, "The Kongne, Kongna, Shokaku, Zuikaku, Hiryu, Soryu."

In reality they were the Akagi, Kaga, Soryu, Hiryu, Shokaku, and Zuikaku.

CAG's helicopter, taking himself and the two survivors to the desert island, takes off from the aircraft carrier. Minutes later, he appears to be seen in one of the debriefing rooms when Captain Yelland is addressing the crew. However, that is not James Farentino who plays the CAG, but another actor who resembles him.

When Commander Owen climbs out of his aircraft after landing on the carrier near the beginning of the movie, the sleeves of his flight suit are rolled up. While this technically violates Navy regulations, which state that sleeves must be down during takeoff and landing, aviators commonly push their sleeves up to keep their arms cool.

After the "transit," the executive officer calls the commanding officer "Skipper," a major Navy faux pas; it is a derogatory word for a C.O., as a "skipper" is the master of a small pleasure boat or fishing boat. Ditto, later, when the unruly sailors have a senior chief and a chief master-at-arms surrounded, the latter also says it, and CDR Lasky, too. In fact, you will hear it more in this movie than from all the collected episodes of Gilligan's Island (1964).

It is unclear why Cdr. Owens, aboard the helicopter which just rescued the Senator, knows his name, as witnessed by his facial reaction to hearing the Senator's name. However, Cdr. Owens has some expertise on the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, including the collateral damage that resulted. Mr. Laskey even reads a portion of Cdr. Owens' manuscript about the Senator and the impact that his disappearance/death had to U.S. politics of the time.

In the 74th minute, the senator demands of the captain to speak with Pearl Harbor control. The captain asks, "Wouldn't you like to speak with them with some clothes on?" (the senator was wearing a robe). If the aircraft carrier had visual communication capabilities, considering they are in 1941, these would not work. Hence, it would not matter what the senator was wearing as he would not be seen by anyone who was not on the aircraft carrier. However, the Captain may have been making a sarcastic comment against the Senator's lack of modesty or sense of self-importance.

When we first see the yacht that the Zeros later destroy, there are two bow ropes attached to it, and they are both taut. The yacht, supposedly in the middle of the ocean, was tied up to something.

When the Japanese pilot seizes the M-16 of the nearest Marine, he hits the man in the chest with it; as he does the gun visibly bends, indicating it's a prop made of rubber.

(At about 1:30): When the "storm" appears for the second time and the Captain argues with his officer about what to do next (whether to outrun it or not), the view out of the bridge window clearly shows a landscape beneath the storm "eye," when they are supposed to be in the middle of the ocean. You can even make out tiny cars running in the distance on the left side of the window.

Sunrise on December 7, 1941 in Hawaii was about 0630 and when the planes are being loaded with their weapons and the helicopter is dropping off the Senator, shadows indicate it's closer to mid day and not early in the morning.

The barricade is rigged and raised before the Nimitz goes through the time storm for the first time. But in all the shots of the ship going through the storm and emerging from it until the A-7 actually lands in it, the barricade is not seen.

During the first discussion after the transit, with department heads, the small compartment for the meeting is the ship's television (CCTV) station briefing room, not suitable for a Commanding Officer and his department heads to meet. More than likely, the ship's actual C.O. spaces were off limits.

When the carrier is returning to Pearl, it's actually an older carrier, USS KITTY HAWK (CV63), as evidenced by the signal flags on the inboard yardarm---NZFF.

The DVD-edition's English subtitles incorrectly refer to CDR Owens as "Kag" (he is the "CAG", Commander Air Group) and CDR Thurman as "Ex-O" (he is the XO, Executive Officer). This also occurs on streaming services, as they contain the same subtitle data from the DVD releases.

Surely the photo of Pearl Harbor taken by the reconnaissance aircraft would be in color, not b/w.

Throughtout the movie, ship's clocks vary by hours in scenes where closeups are interspersed with wide shots.

The pictures of Pearl Harbor supposedly taken by the Nimitz's reconnaissance aircraft are identical to historical photos of the actual attack, including torpedo splashes in the water, even though the photos are supposed to have been taken the day before the attack.

When the movie was made, the Nimitz was based in Norfolk, Virginia---it did not make it into the Pacific until seven years after the movie was made. Principal photography took place at Naval Air Station Key West, Naval Station Norfolk, and off the Florida Keys, over two five-week periods in 1979. Scenes at Pearl Harbor consisted of mainly stock footage with most of The Final Countdown (1980) exteriors shot on the Nimitz while at sea, and at dry-dock for interiors. During operations, an emergency landing took place with the production crew allowed to film the recovery of the aircraft on the Nimitz; the sequence appeared in the final film.

During the first appearance of the Senator's yacht (time mark ~32.00) purportedly in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, a lighthouse can be clearly seen in the background of the shot.

As the Japanese pilot takes rounds from the Marines M16s, a brown wire or thin cable bundle (for the squibs?) can be seen running from the bottom of his right trousers leg and along the floor.

In the shot just before the yacht is blown up you can see the boat is anchored/tethered at both ends (and possibly also in the middle) with very large cables presumably to keep it in place when it blows up. You can also see the cables in the following aerial shot.

When the Zeros (actually disguised T-6 Texans) strafe the yacht, a small, round device is clearly seen hanging under the belly of one. That's actually a movie camera. It was used to film flyby shots.

In the first five minutes, as Lasky is flown by helicopter to the Nimitz, reflections in the crewman's visor show they are not in the air, but on the ground, with crew visible. This is obvious particularly as they comment on the Russian trawler.

When Captain Yelland tells Commander Owen to drop Senator Chapman and Laurel off on "this deserted island," he points to the island of Ni'ihau, the small, private island off the coast of Kauai. Later, when the commander and Laurel are sitting on the beach of this island they see the Japanese task force fly overhead. The attack force didn't fly over Ni'ihau, as they were coming the north and Ni'ihau is west/northwest of Oahu.

In the background of the shot just before the yacht explodes---you can see a marker pole/triangle indicating rocks/land---when they are meant to be in the middle of the open sea with nothing else around.

The Nimitz was between the Japanese fleet and Pearl Harbor, and had launched an Alpha strike to attack the fleet. The strike planes are said to be nine minutes away from the Japanese planes. Yet immediately after the strike was called off, the Japanese planes are shown attacking Pear Harbor, and at the same time, the second storm hits the Nimitz, whose faster jets were not back yet. The Japanese planes were too far away for this to have happened simultaneously.

When the Nimitz is passing the Arizona memorial at the end, Captain Yelland is shown on the bridge with open ocean visible in the windows behind him. The Arizona memorial is in Pearl Harbor, surrounded by land on all sides so no open ocean should have been seen in the background there. NOTE: This is most likely because the bulk of the movie was shot with the Nimitz off the Atlantic coast and in the Caribbean.

It should have been very obvious to Senator Chapman that something was out of place once he met the Nimitz's executive officer, Commander Thurman, who is African- American. The armed forces would not be integrated until 1948, so there would be no way there could be an African-American line officer in any capacity on a ship in 1941. However, this could have been ignored or addressed off camera.

Also, black sailors were not uncommon. Doris Miller (aka "Dorie" Miller to his shipmates) earned a Navy Cross for his actions at Pearl Harbor aboard the USS West Virginia on December 07, 1941. He was killed in action in 1943 aboard the USS Liscome Bay. A future Ford class aircraft carrier will be named for Mr. Miller.

Senator Chapman had never HEARD of a helicopter in 1941, even though they had been in development in various countries around the world since 1920, and were in fact drawn by Leonardo Da Vinci in the 1500's. The first successful AMERICAN helicopter, designed by Igor Sikorsky, was flown two years previously in 1939, in Stratford, Connecticut, and was of great interest to the Armed forces at the time, So Chapman, as head of the Armed Forced Committee WOULD have been aware of it.

Radar shows one contact at 130 miles, which turns out to be the yacht. However, on the first view of the yacht, there is a freighter on the horizon.

Once the ship returns to port at the end, there is one dead Japanese and casualties from the on-board Marine Det. These would have to be explained and handled before anyone would be allowed to leave the ship, civilian or not.

After the Japanese planes attacked the yacht, USN protocol would be to fire on them so as to prevent a second attack as had happened. Capt. Yelland was derelict in his duty by failing to order the Zeros splashed after the first attack. He failed to do so even after the second attack that destroyed the yacht. In reality, once the planes fired on an American vessel, the Tomcats would have splashed them.

The Radio Operator at Pearl Harbor, while speaking to Senator Chapman, says "As we have no aircraft carrier Nimitz and no Captain Yelland I suggest, asshole, that you stop impersonating some other asshole and get off the air! You're wasting our time!" The Pearl Harbor radio operator may indeed have known there was no carrier named for Admiral Nimitz but he would never have known there was no Captain Yelland.