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Anachronisms (1) |
Character error (1) |
Continuity (2) |
Factual errors (7) |
Revealing mistakes (1)
Anachronisms
In the first shot of the experiment that Michael Merriman is performing, with the two hemispheres of beryllium surrounding a core of plutonium held slightly apart, he measures the gap between the hemispheres with a dial caliper - but the dial caliper was not developed until after the war.
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Character error
At the party, Dr. Schoenfield (John C. McGinley) is wearing his Captain's bars 90 Degrees off. They should be parallel to the lower edge of the shirt collar not the edge that touches his neck, as is shown.
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Continuity
At the end in the movie, right before the countdown for the bomb dropping, the man with sun tan lotion on his face puts his goggles on. In the next shot, about 3 seconds later, his goggles are around his neck.
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At the beginning of the movie, when General Groves is slicing the Pentagon cake, there are no flags on it. But in the next scene when his aide is walking with him down the hallway, there is an obvious miniature flag on the piece the aide is carrying.
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Factual errors
It was actually Neddermayer who proposed the implosion theory.
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The experiment that Michael Merriman is performing, with the two hemispheres of beryllium surrounding a core of plutonium and held apart with a screwdriver, is what was called "tickling the dragon's tail". The movie mistakenly assigns that nickname to the "drop" experiment that Merriman did a bit earlier in the movie.
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The telegram to Oppenheimer states that Dr. Jean Tatlock committed suicide 5 January 1945. She actually committed suicide a year earlier, in January 1944.
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In one view General Groves is shown wearing the Good Conduct ribbon. This was unlikely because he was a West Point graduate so had no enlisted service of the required 36 months as an enlisted soldier.
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The sequence of the Trinity explosion is reflected on one of the scientists. We see 1] a reflection of an initial explosion, then we see a 2] large wind blast flapping his cheeks, then finally 3] we see the reflection of the mushroom cloud. In actuality the blast wave took about 40 seconds - much longer than the 2-3 seconds in the movie - to travel (and it does not go through leaded glass).
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In the opening scenes Lt. Col Boris Pash is seen wearing the silver oak leaves centered on the epaulets on his Class A uniform. (They remain there several scenes later in the security office) where they are listening to Oppenheimer talking to Jean Tatlock and the Lt. Col. is playing darts. This is a correct location for a General's single star. It was planned that way by the services so a General officer's distinction would be instantly recognizable at distance and no other officer's rank is located there. The costumer got a full Colonel's rank correct as well as a Major, and a Captain's; but a Lt. Colonel's oak leaves are never worn there.
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When the Santa Fe passenger train carrying Gen. Groves is stopped in the middle of nowhere to receive a motorcycle courier-delivered message, the train is being pulled by a type of diesel locomotive that was not in use in the early 1940s. The color scheme was right for Santa Fe passenger trains of that time but was never used on that type of locomotive.
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Revealing mistakes
When General Grove's plane is turning around in the hanger near the end of the movie there is an "N" number on the tail. "N" numbers are present day registration numbers of private aircraft. There were no "N" numbers on World War II military aircraft.
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