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When the submarine rises in the waters of Norfolk and you see Norfolk in the background, there is one blatant problem. There are NO mountains in Norfolk. Most of Norfolk, Virginia, is below sea level. See more...

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Down Periscope (1996) - 13 corrections

Directed by David S. Ward, starring Bruce Dern, Kelsey Grammer, Lauren Holly, Rip Torn, Rob Schneider (add more)

Genres: Comedy

Comments made in brackets are corrections from other visitors. As such, any aggressive/abusive corrections (and I get quite a few) written as if they're comments I've made myself will be ignored. To submit your own corrections for mistakes, just click the edit icon under an entry, then choose "correct entry". Some entries have "duplicated entry" after them - these are entries which were already listed on the main page, but were submitted again. I occasionally leave these online for a while, just in case they were moved in error, so don't worry about pointing them out to me.

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Entry Near the end of the movie, the Stingray surfaces to run on top as it approaches the target ship. At some point afterwards, Dodge decides to take a shot at the ship with two torpedoes. Dodge is using the periscope to get the range, etc. to the target, and then fires the torpedoes. First, wouldn't they be on the bridge (outside) if they were running on the surface? And second, wouldn't the torpedoes be running near the surface of the water if they had been fired from a sub that was on the surface, instead of what appears to be deep water? In both cases it appears as if the Stingray were submerged when they fired the torpedoes, not running on top as it showed prior to firing the torpedoes. No order was given to "dive" before this series of events. [First, it is a character choice on Dodge's part not to go topside. The time and confusion created by the move would probably not be worth the advantages (if any) of changing locations. Second, even though the Stingray is running on the surface, at least four of her six forward torpedo tubes are still submerged. Therefore, torpedoes fired underwater make perfect sense. In addition, if they were fired in "deep water" the torpedoes would pass under the target ship.]
Corrected by Guy Brigman
Entry In the scene when Pascal is being made to walk the plank, Lake seems surprised that he fell onto a fishing boat. Given her position on deck, she should have seen that the boat saw moored along side. [When we see the shot from on the deck, we as an audience cannot see the tiny ship, so it would stand to reason that she couldn't either from her position. Also, she may have just arrived on deck, as she might not have necessarily been out there the whole time.]
Corrected by Jazetopher
Entry When they're at the bottom of the ocean running silent, look behind Jackson. The gauge reads 17ft salt water depth to keel. That can't be if they're at the bottom. [On a Balao class submarine the planes station has two depth indicators. The "shallow" goes to 160 feet and is used for fine control near the surface. The "deep" goes much deeper. When the boat is deeper than 150 feet, the "shallow" gauge is isolated and vented to prevent damage. Image at: http://www.maritime.org/fleetsub/img/fig14-1.jpg The shallow gauge could be reading 17 feet with the boat much deeper.]
Time
Entry The main character's name is Tom Dodge, and this is maintained throughout the film. On the back of the DVD case (Australian version, not sure on other countries), the character is called John Dodge. [He remains Tom Dodge throughout the movie. It is not really a movie mistake if the distributors for Australia get the name wrong on the DvD case.]
Corrected by Zwn Annwn
Entry Stan Sylvesterson is talking to Jackson about Jackson playing in a basketball game against the Army. If Jackson played basketball for the Navy, he would have been at the Academy thus making him an officer by now and not enlisted. [Being at the Academy doesn't mean he passed. There is a 30% failure and dropout rate, after all.]
Entry The Stingray, the diesel sub in the movie, is supposed to be the SS-161 Stingray and is even painted as such. The real Stingray was SS-186 Decommissioned, 17 October 1945, at Philadelphia Navy Yard, Philadelphia, PA.; Struck from the Naval Register, 3 July 1946; Final Disposition, sold for scrapping in 1947. Source: http://www.navsource.org/archives/08/08186.htm [Nice piece of Trivia but since the actual Stingray no longer exists, they had to use the closest thing available. If they tried to say they used the actual Stingray, then it would be a mistake. But since they didn't, this is only historical trivia.]
Entry When Stapanak gets to the engine room you can see that the rocker arms are not moving, But yet they are moving fast up to the tanker. [When underwater Diesel/Electric Subs secure the diesel engines and run on their batteries and electric motors. Since the diesel engines are shut down, one would not expect the rocker arms to be moving.]
Time
Entry Captain Dodge, rather than talk to Admiral Graham over the radio, won a radio call-in contest. However, a ship's radio operates on a different set of frequencies than cellular phones, which was presumably the mistake made. Besides, the radio was manufactured, presumably, for the 1958 refit - it would not have had the electronics to be carried as a cell phone conversation. [The 'radio call-in' contest is not really taking place, as shown by Dodge's statement just after the "We just won free tickets ..." was said, which is, "Nitro, you want to get me Admiral Graham now?" He is just messing with Nitro's head.]
Entry In the shot where Marty Pascal gets blown off the deck by the hose: when he falls into the water you can see two heads bobbing next to the hull. [The first mission of the crew of the Stingray was to get her back into shape. They had to to clean and repair the whole submarine. It is entirely likely the two crew members were in the water working on the hull. ]
Entry The salute that Stepanek gives his father is incorrect. A proper U.S. military salute does not show the back of the hand; it shows it palm-down, angled slightly to the temple. [Stepanek spends most of the movie deliberatly flouting regulations and customs trying to get thrown out of the Navy. Thus, he hasn't had enough practice to get the salute right. He is doing his best. (I was in the Army for eight years. It does take quite a bit of practice to give a perfect salute without thinking about it.)]
Corrected by Grumpy Scot
Entry During the beginning of the movie, Dodge is referred to as Captain by both of the admirals. When 'Captain' Dodge is meeting his crew for the first time, he introduces himself to his XO as 'Lt. Commander Dodge'. At the end of the movie, the 3-star Admiral addresses Dodge as 'Commander Dodge'. To the best of my knowledge, Lt. Commander, Commander and Captain are three different ranks. [The Admirals are addressing Dodge as the captain of a ship, not a Captain in rank (in the US Navy, all ship commanders are referred to as captain, no matter what their rank). And while it is true that Lt. Commander and Commander are different ranks, the title "commander" is interchangeable (as is the practice of calling a Lt. Colonel "colonel").]
Entry When Capt. Dodge enters the Vice Admiral's office at the beginning of the movie, he salutes. Navy sailors do not salute indoors or uncovered. [When first reporting to a duty station or when summoned to a superior's office, a salute indoors is appropriate.]
Corrected by Grumpy Scot
Entry This movie appears to take place in 1996. The first production Seawolf-class submarine was launched in 1998. [COs are usually assigned as part of a precomissioning crew so it not unlikely that Dodge would have found himself being posted to a vessel still in build.]

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