Plot[]
In the near future, the Navy develops a fighter jet piloted by an artificial intelligence computer. The jet is placed on an aircraft carrier in the Pacific to learn combat manuevers from the human pilots aboard. But when the computer develops a mind of its own, it's the humans who are charged with stopping it before it incites a war... - Written by austin4577@aol.com [1]
Errors and Explanations[]
Internet Movie Database[]
Audio/visual unsynchronised[]
- When the UCAV is first taken for a test run, Lt. Ben Gannon is heard to say "Let the schoolin' begin!" right before the fighters break formation, yet on the screens in the command center showing facial shots of each pilot you can clearly see his mouth is not moving.He could be a ventriloquist - after all, the ability to throw your voice could be a useful skill for a combat pilot.
Character error[]
- An elite combatant would not fire a missile in a close-quarters situation, especially when other weapons are available. Anyone with just moderate training would know how to choose the right weapon for the right job. An alternative weapon may not have been sufficently powerful for the task!
- Survival training must not have been a high priority for these elite pilots. Breaking radio silence over enemy territory to relay unimportant information and drawing attention to oneself while attempting to evade are just a couple of the errors these aviators make. These 'errors' could be part of a ploy to confuse the enemy.
Errors in geography[]
- The USS Abraham Lincoln is located in the Philippine Sea. The three Talons and the EDI fly westwards, to Myanmar. It is daylight in the Philippine Sea but night-time in Myanmar. Although it is conceivable that they were flying from dawn westwards to where it was still just before dawn, there were a lot of people and traffic on the street, which would have indicated that it was early evening in Myanmar. Maybe there are a lot of early risers or night workers in Myanmar?
- The hi-rise bilding that is blow-up by the bomb is supposed to be in Rangoon Burma. But since scenes of the movie were shot in Thailand and they had a Thai staff, the building was actually CGI-ed in on the west side of the highway leading from downtown Bangkok to the old airport at Don Muang. Watch the cars on the nearby highway. They are driving on the wrong side of the road. Thailand follows the British style of driving on the left. Although they were (and likely because they were) a British colony, Burma followed that style for decades, but a few years ago (in a statement of independence) they flipped the entire roadway system to drive on the right. They could have switched back for some reason by the time this film is set.
Factual errors[]
- When the Talons are about to get catapulted off the Lincoln early in the movie, one is shown with the yellow chocks around the wheels, and steel chains and hooks still attached holding it down to the deck to prevent movement. This is not the standard configuration for a jet just seconds from being catapulted airborne. They could be testing a quick release system.
- When Lt. Gannon dives towards the building from many miles up, it is impossible not to black out from the ascent and the descent. Either he has higher than average G-tolerance, the Talon has some sort of enhanced super efficient anti-G device, or both.
- In the war game scenario at the beginning, the planes are getting heckled by both Anti-Aircraft Artillery and Surface-to-Air Missiles. SAMs are only useful when the planes are flying above 500 feet, however, so they should have been no problem. Likewise AAA does not criss-cross as shown, for fear of destroying each other.This could be a deliberate attempt to give the 'defenders' an unfair advantage.
Miscellaneous[]
- Lt. Wade's punch put co-ords are given as 38 54 45N, by 127 31 22E. However, this point is about 40 to 50 miles from the Korean border. No the 12.2 miles that EDI states later on.EDI could be lying.[1]
Movie Mistakes[]
Corrected entries[]
- In one of the scenes where the jets are taking off from the carrier, a sailor on the flight deck is standing directly behind the jet blast (in front of the jet blast deflector). When the jets take off, the sailor walks away from the jet blast deflector. The sailor should have been burned to a crisp. It's hard to tell the depth but the sailor is behind the blast deflector. To prove this further, when the camera angle changes to the front while the Talons are talking off, you can see that there is nobody standing in front of the blast deflector (s).
- Ignoring the weight-to-volume ratio problem of a blimp full of jet fuel, how are pilots supposed to keep the nozzle in the hose when making a constant turn? Real tankers fly a racetrack pattern, straight down while fueling, turn, and straight back. And it would be an impressive blimp that could move fast enough to refuel a jet. Aircraft have to maintain 100-150 miles per hour to maintain their altitude. EDI is capable of hovering, and so can fly at any speed, and his flight computer is more than advanced enough to adjust his flight path to track the camelhump. Talon-1 seems to be capable of hovering aswell, as during the refuel sequence heat haze can be seen below the aircraft. Plus given the futuristic nature of the film, it can be assumed that the auto pilot in the Talons is advanced enough to handle a refuel without pilot intervention.
- If the Talons and EDI are so Top Secret projects, how comes the admiral already has a miniature of each on his desk? At no point in the movie does anybody say that they are Top Secret.
- After Wade is struck down, she crawls to a body of water and begins to drink. She attempts to clean the blood on her face and gets pretty much all of it off. She hides when the Korean women show up, and in the next shots, her face is bloody again. It's not consistent with the wound on her face as it is smeared over her cheek. GalahadFairlight Just because she cleans the blood off her face, that doesn't negate the fact that the wound isn't healed and is still seeping blood.
- In the scene near the end where they are running for the border, they are being attacked by a helicopter. In the close up shot of the helicopter, you can see into the cabin through a crack between the door and the body of the helicopter. This crack would not exist in a properly equipped, functioning helicopter. Helicopters with pressurised cabins are almost unknown - doors are designed to be opened and closed quickly and often have a few millimeters 'give'.
- When Gannon and EDI are attacked over Russia, Gannon calls the approaching fighters SU-37 Terminators.The NATO-names for Soviet/Russian aircraft always begin with the letter "F" to designate fighters (Fulcrum, Fishbed, Flogger,.) and "B" for bombers (Badger, Blackjack,.). Rlvlk Sukhoi Su-37 Terminator is the correct designation.(http://www.milavia.net/aircraft/su-37/su-37.htmhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sukhoi_Su-37.)
- Who designs a military fuel tanker - presumably unmanned - that can't shut the fuel feed off in the event that the hose develops a leak, or worse, some idiot decides that he wants fuel badly enough to shoot the nozzle off? In pretty much all movies, let alone science fiction thrillers, a suspension of disbelief is required. 99% of movies with car chases would result in the vehicle being totalled, yet movie goers continue to see movies with chase scenes because they are an escape. Besides which, who is to say the fuel feed sensor didn't malfunction?
- In the scene in which the plane flies directly toward the ground to deliver the bomb on a building in Rangoon - Myanmar (Burma), after dropping the bomb and pulling up to fly horizontally through the city streets, the streets are lit up like Christmas trees. Fact is that Rangoon hardly ever has power and if they have, there are hardly any (street)lights. The same counts for the massive traffic jams in the streets; (see link http://www.innwa.com/dev/_gallery/pictures/rangoon_street.jpg For picture) This film's set in the future. Rangoon may have expanded their infrastructure.
- The Captain of the aircraft carrier is wearing the insignia of a US Navy Lieutenant. The two silver bars he's wearing on his collar would be a captain in the Air Force, but a Navy captain should have eagles, like Sam Shepard wears the first time we see him. Zwn Annwn In one sense you are right, in another you are wrong. The commander of a naval vessel is called "Captain", no matter what rank he/she is actually. A person could be a Naval Lieutenant and still be called "Captain" if he/she commanded a vessel. However, Naval Lieutenant's would never command an aircraft carrier, so the commander is probably an O-6 (captain/colonel).
- Going hypersonic is a good plot device, however Stealth fighters operate by avoiding detection on radar and also by people simply looking up and seeing them. Therefore, a "stealth" plane which flies at supersonic speeds is useless. The sonic boom will give them away every time. For example, the F117-A stealth fighter cannot go beyond the speed of sound, and usually flies at night. Andreas[DK] This is simply incorrect. The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter can do Mach 1.8 and has stealth capabilities, so why wouldn't a far more futuristic fighter be able to do the same? And in regards to the sonic boom, it is correct that this would reduce the plane's "stealth" but here the planes can use their tremendous speed to catch the enemy by surprise. And since the movie is set in the future you can argue that scientists have invented a plane design that doesn't generate a sonic boom (they have already been able to reduce it significantly in our time).
- When E.D.I. goes AWOL, it shows the DNA opening up and closing, just in a different direction. Only problem is, DNA does that ALL THE TIME. It frequently has to make R.N.A, and to do this it must open up and then close again later. Even if it changed directions, nothing should have gone wrong. Andreas[DK] E.D.I. is a quantum computer, it doesn't have DNA like organic creatures. Instead it has some kind of unknown inner structure that happens to look like DNA but you can't assume that it works in the same way.
- The distances the planes cover in the movie are amazing. The new F/A-22s are supposed to have a combat radius of 900 miles, yet here we see carrier aircraft, which are limited in fuel b/c of weight, b/c of the limited runway, flying to Central Asia, North Korea and Alaska. And the location of the carrier is always given as the Philippine Sea. Plus, EDI should have the worst range of them all, since vertical takeoffs and landings burn up a ton of fuel. This film is futuristic and it's aircraft are like nothing seen today. Therefore the usual restrictions don't apply.
- During the scene where EDI takes off from the aircraft carrier for the first time, there is a shot of the operator standing nearby. In real life, the operator's ears would not be able to handle the tremendous sound coming from the aircraft's engine. He was not wearing earmuffs. Unprotected eardrums wouldn't shatter with one takeoff. The "muffs" are for carrier workers constantly facing such noise.
- Assuming that there is the possibility of an unmanned aerial refueling blimp over enemy airspace that American military aircraft can use, the fuel that spills out of the broken hose would not stay there in a combustible fog. It would fall towards Earth and dissipate in the air. Any liquid can form a fog at the right air temperature, pressure, and humidity. Strange forces are at work here, with the broken hose and two futuristic aircraft flying nearby.
- Those planes are supposed to be stealthy. Have a look at their jet pipes, they are not protected against heat seekers (infrared) and how did those Russian fighters find them, they are supposed to be invisible to stealth. The Russians were able to find them, because they were given E.D.I.'s unique heat signature to locate and destroy him.
- How could Gannon (Talon 1) possibly have been chosen for such an exclusive squad? He doesn't follow a single order given throughout the entire movie, and for such delicate operations they are obviously designed and assigned to, you'd expect them to take someone more reliable. Lt Gannon was obviously an excellent pilot and a team player, as witnessed by the opening training sequence. He must have been selected on these merits. The actions he took against his orders were to either accomplish an important mission or to save innocent lives.
- After E.D.I., when Lt. Gannon and Capt. Cummings talk in his office, the captain lights a cigar. Later on, his cigar is off. SexyIrishLeprechaun Cigarettes have chemicals that keep it burning. Cigars do not contain this chemical and thus stop burning after a while.
- In the the first combat scene with E.D.I. Talon 2 quotes how fast they are going, but when they reach Mach 1 nothing happens. When you reach Mach 1 (Speed of sound) there is supposed to be a sonic boom but in this case nothing happens. James King III Many modern jets (and certainly the advanced Talons) do not make sonic booms due to their construction- their wings and body break up the sound waves.[2]
Sources[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 IMDB entry tt0382992
- ↑ https://www.moviemistakes.com/film5166/corrections