Tora! Tora! Tora!

Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970)

5 mistakes since 20 Apr '17, 00:00

(7 votes)

Factual error: When the female civilian pilot is teaching a student, they are shown flying in a Boeing Stearman biplane. The actual plane in that event was an Interstate Cadet S-1A, a high wing monoplane. The instructor was Cornelia Fort who later became the second WASP. She was killed 21 March 1943 while ferrying an aircraft, becoming the first female pilot killed in WW2.

Factual error: The camera cuts to an actor's wristwatch just before the attack. The watch is a Caravelle, which was not sold by Bulova until about 1960.

Continuity mistake: When Admiral Kimmel is chatting with the naval officer and General Short about how to counter a Japanese attack, you will see a table in the background near the window that is set up with the leaves fully extended and chairs in front and at both ends. When the camera pans to the window towards the end of the scene, the table has been compacted and the chairs moved.

Other mistake: When the message center in DC sends the warning as a telegram a young boy is setting next to the window, waiting I assume to deliver other post. After the attack on Pearl Harbor the same young boy delivers the same message.

Character mistake: Immediately before the attack, when the flag is being raised on the flagpole, the young seaman who previously rang the bell steps backwards and trips over the concrete step behind him.

Trivia: The code for successful surprise (and the movie's title) "Tora! Tora! Tora!" was a shortening of the words totsugeki (attack) and raigeki (the Japanese term for torpedo bombers), and was originally spelled "To ra, to ra, to ra!" Those two shortened words were interpreted by American radio operators, who happened to intercept them, as the Japanese word for "tiger"; hence "Tora! Tora! Tora!"

More trivia for Tora! Tora! Tora!

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