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Final countdown 1980

Film Poster[1]

Synopsis[]

It is 1980 and the USS Nimitz puts to sea off of Pearl Harbor for routine exercises. After encountering a strange storm and losing all contact with the US Pacific Fleet, nuclear war with the Soviet Union is assumed and the USS Nimitz arms herself for battle. However, after encountering Japanese Zero scout planes and finding Pearl Harbor filled with pre-World War II battleships, it is realized that the storm the Nimitz went through caused the ship to travel back in time: to December 6th, 1941. Written by Anthony Hughes <husnock31@hotmail.com>

Errors and Explanations[]

Internet Movie Database[]

Incorrectly regarded as goofs[]

  • 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.[2]

Movie Mistakes[]

Corrections[]

  • Senator Chapman demands some dry clothes aboard the carrier, and is given a khaki naval uniform, which fits him adequately. But Chapman, played by Charles Durning, is a rather portly fellow. No one that overweight is going to be doing duty on a carrier deployment. The ship's stores wouldn't have uniforms that large.
    • Not everyone "that large" is over weight. I know plenty of people who are large stature and in great shape. Corrected by Greenman37
  • Right before the end credits, you see the black limo driving down the pier, away from the Nimitz. Though she is supposedly docked in Pearl Harbor, the pier in question is actually "Pier 12" at Norfolk Naval Station and if you note the direction the chauffeur is headed, the occupants are about to get very wet... he is heading the wrong way... off the end of the pier!
    • The limo is simply heading toward a less congested portion of the pier so it can turn around safely. The camera pans away long before it runs out of room to do so. Corrected by John W Rosa
  • The F-14 shoots down a Zero with a Sidewinder missile. The Sidewinder is a heat seeker designed to home in on jets. The Zero's air-cooled piston engine would not have been hot enough for the missile to lock onto.
    • There are a number of different models of the Sidewinder missile. Testing of the seeker head is done on deck before takeoff using a special flashlight type device that it can scan. The Sidewinder missile could lock on to a car engine, or even a dark colored tent on a hot summer day. Anyway, point being, at that close of range, the seeker head could have easily tracked the Zero engine.
  • In the scene where the two F-14s are refueling, the shots from the plane's cockpits are actually of KC-135s - not the KA-6Ds which are shown taking off from the carrier and which would be the real aircraft which would refuel Tomcats. The successive shots keep switching from KC-135 to KA-6D and back again. The KC-135 is an Air Force aircraft that could not be launched from a carrier.
    • The cockpit view during refuelling certainly does NOT show a KC-135 Stratotanker. They are based on the old Boeing 707 and are 4-engined and considerably bigger. The shots DO look like the underside of the KA-6D Intruder - engine exhausts/nozzles in the right place close to the body, plus four underwing racks/pods/tanks.
  • When Senator Chapman (Charles Durning) is landed on the Nimitz, he asks his assistant, "what kind of machine was that that they picked us up with?" He is referring to the helicopter. Yet helicopters, although primitive, existed in the early 40s, and most people in America were familiar with autogyros, which had been around since the late 1920s.
    • If the Senator knew anything about autogyros, it would be obvious to him that this was not an autogyro (they can't hover). The 1st single main rotor helicopter did fly in 1939, but the 1st production helicopter was not produced until 1942 (see: Sikorsky website). As the events in the movie happen in late '41, it is quite reasonable that the Senator would be unfamiliar with helicopters. Corrected by J I Cohen [3]

Sources[]

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