Das Boot

Stupidity: No U-boat commander is going to "finish off" a ship that is dead in the water and is on fire from stem to stern. He exposes his boat and his men to mortal peril by surfacing, brightly lit by a full moon and the fires burning on the sinking ship, making them a sitting duck for the destroyers that might well be still in the area. He also wastes a precious torpedo for absolutely no net gain.

Continuity mistake: At the end of the first attack by the destroyer - where she misses the U-boat and throws her bombs further away - the boatswain makes 22, then 23 strokes on the slate of the Control Centre,thus counting the number of depth charges used against the boat. A few seconds later, in a shot from another angle, with the slate in full view, we see only 22 strokes. (01:03:30)

More mistakes in Das Boot

Captain: I'm sorry.
Lt. Werner: Is it hopeless?
Captain: It's been 15 hours. He's not going to pull it off. I'm sorry.
Lt. Werner: I asked for it. 'To be heading into the inexorable... where no mother will care for us... no woman crosses our path... where only reality reigns... with cruelty and grandeur.' I was drunk with those words. Well, this is reality.

More quotes from Das Boot

Trivia: All the actors were fluent in English and dubbed themselves in the English version.

More trivia for Das Boot

Question: During the film one of the officers was holding a bottle of Becks beer. Was the label on the bottle age/era appropriate?

Answer: The label is absolutely correct, but at this time Beck's Beer was only for export and not regularly available in Germany.

Answer: I compared a clip of the scene to a vintage postcard from 1940 which had a photo of a bottle of Beck's, and it looks completely accurate in the film as far as I can see regarding the label, foil on the neck and bottle shape of the 1940s.

Sierra1

More questions & answers from Das Boot

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.