Goofs

Paul Girard arrives at the aircraft carrier and is greeted by sailors in "winter blue" uniforms, but when he leaves that evening everyone is wearing "summer whites".

At the end of the meeting convened by the President in which Colonel Casey, Senator Clark and others are arguing whether or not the plot is real, the pictures on the right end of the mantel in front of which Colonel Casey is standing change several times.

When Paul Girard visits Admiral Barnswell on his ship at Gibraltar, he arrives in full daylight and demands the admiral's statement immediately. When he returns to shore it is fully dark. Since his business is urgent, this must not be long after sunset, and hence in Washington it should still be afternoon. Yet at the same time, Ellie is cooking dinner there.

During the conference between Paul Girard and Admiral Barnswell, Barnswell's head is tilted to his right in the face shots and to his left in the rear shots.

When Senator Clark is driving in the desert outside of El Paso looking for the "ECOMCON" base, in a medium shot he can be seen with his left arm hanging outside the vehicle, resting against the driver's door. When the car stops and Clark looks around, a close-up shows him to have both arms inside the car and both hands on the steering wheel. The next shot is a medium shot as he begins to drive off and his arm is again hanging outside the car, resting against the door.

General Scott is wearing his Medal of Honor (MOH) ribbon over the right pocket of his uniform coat. The MOH ribbon is never worn in that location. It is supposed to be worn along with the recipient's other ribbons above the left pocket (in the topmost position). He is also wearing the MOH ribbon upside-down.

Several officers, including General Scott and Colonel Casey, sometimes wear their service hats or overseas caps indoors. This violates military custom, which requires headgear to be removed while indoors except while participating in ceremonies.

They enlisted men at "Site Y" wear uniforms with a "U. S. Air Force" tag over the left shirt pocket but wear U. S. Army rank insignia.

Site Y appears to be staffed by units of US Army Special Forces. The patch worn on the Green Beret is known as a flash, which is in the shape of a shield, and identifies the individual Special Forces Group. It is mistakenly worn upside down in the film. All Special Forces officers in the movie are wearing the Special Forces Crest on their flashes. Only enlisted personnel wear the crest on the flash, officers wear their rank.

The second time we see Admiral Barnswell, during his phone call with the president, he's aboard his aircraft carrier eating dinner and enjoying a bottle of wine with his meal. In 1964, when this movie was made, alcoholic beverages were strictly forbidden aboard U.S. Navy ships. Ship sick bays did carry a small quantity of brandy for medicinal purposes, but it could only be consumed on orders from the ship's medical officer. This ban on alcohol would have extended to everyone on the ship, including the Admiral.

The Preakness has never been run on a Sunday, however a poster in the first airport scene shows "PREAKNESS FIRST SUNDAY RUNNING MAY 18th" In this film's hypothetical "future" it has been moved to a Sunday.

When Pres. Lyman tells Gen. Scott "All you have to do is wait a year and nine months for something called an election", he has the time frame wrong. One year and nine months from May would be February. He should have said "Wait a year and six months", which would have placed it in November, the correct month of the next election. However, it's likely he was referring to the primary season, which generally begins in February. After all, Scott would hardly be running unopposed.

Colonel Jiggs Casey is the director of the Joint Chief of Staff. In the real life the director of the Joint Chief of Staff is a three star officers, either a Lieutenant General or Vice Admiral. However, this movie was set "in the future" and things could have changed.

While it is obvious that the group of reporters at the press conference at the end of the film contains both male and female reporters (and he even takes a question from a female reporter), the president repeatedly refers to them as "gentlemen". However, this was not unusual at the time the film was made.

In the Blue Lake scene, the placard describing the Secret Service's filming of the boat shows the time to be 0615 hours (6:15 a.m.), yet the bright sunlight indicates it is actually much later in the day.

When the President and Gen. Scott have a conversation over video both are shown with the video monitor to their side while turned slightly to see the screen. The image for both though shows them sitting and facing forward, as if the cameras were located with the monitor and they were facing directly towards it. Even if the cameras were located somewhere else, their video images should have shown them looking off to the side.

When the President has a video conference with General Scott he is seated to the side of the television. While this might work well for the viewing public, the "camera" on the television is facing straight outwards, which means that the President would not have been visible to Scott.

When Senator Clark is stopped by the helicopter at Site Y, there is an X in the sand next to his car, which was obviously there to mark where the car should stop and the helicopter should land.

Near the end of the scene where General Scott addresses three other members of the Joint Chiefs with his back to the camera, the officer on the left suddenly changes position and all three officers freeze while Scott finishes his statement and walks off camera. It's clear that the other three officers are images on a rear projection screen.

When the President walks into his bedroom, the camera pulls back and its shadow is seen on the wall to the left.

When "Jiggs" and the Secret Service man are following someone down a dark alley into a parking garage, you correctly see "Jiggs" shadows grow larger as they walk toward the end of the alley, but when the 2 men turn the corner, there is another man's shadow there which moves just slightly.

Jiggs and Senator Clark are at Dulles Airport in Virginia. Jiggs leaves the airport and there are palm trees outside. It looks more like the outside of LAX, not Dulles. Moments later Jiggs and the Secret Service agent are driving down the National Mall towards the Capitol Building, which is twenty-five miles from Dulles by road.

About 46 minutes into the movie, Kirk Douglas' character is using a big screen to zoom in on a map where he suspects "Site Y" is located, near El Paso, Texas. Just across the Rio Grande from El Paso is Juarez, Mexico. "Ciudad Juarez" (City of Juarez). But the map is misprinted. It reads "Cuidad Juarez". Cuidad is not a word. (Cuidado means careful or caution).

When Paul Girard takes the boat back from the ship to the shore landing, the sign says " US NAVY Solamentere para US", which is Spanish for "US Navy Only for USA". The Spanish abbreviation for USA is "EE.UU."