Factual error: The "whaling boat" is too small to function as such. It isn't large enough to hold a fin, let alone disassemble a humpback whale.
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)
Ending / spoiler
Directed by: Leonard Nimoy
Starring: William Shatner, George Takei, Leonard Nimoy, Walter Koenig, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, Nichelle Nichols, Catherine Hicks
The crew get the whales back to 23rd Century Earth. The whales answer the probe which leaves the planet. The weather on Earth clears up. Kirk is demoted to Captain and he and the crew get a new Enterprise.
H.R.H. The King Of The Internet
More mistakes in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
More quotes from Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Trivia: The aircraft carrier that Uhura and Chekov find is actually the USS Ranger, standing in for the USS Enterprise. The Enterprise was at sea during filming.
Question: What exactly was Scotty's reason as to why giving the Company boss the formula for the one inch glass wouldn't alter the future? He gave a brief response, but I honestly can't think of any reason why it wouldn't do any future damage.
Chosen answer: Scotty says "Why? How do you know he didn't invent the thing!" If the man was in fact the inventor, this would only cause a slight causality loop problem - he "invents" it because they gave it to him, but they only know it because he "invented" it. However, since Sulu said earlier in the movie that it was about 150 years too early for transparent aluminum, it would seem they do know this, so it wasn't a smart thing to do. Of course, the real flaw in the plot is that they need the tank to be transparent at all.
Answer: The crew is resigned to the fact that their mission forces them to alter history in some fashion or another. McCoy just wants to acknowledge the gravity of their actions before they go ahead and do it, and Scotty's response is a cheeky way of reassuring him, "Hey, maybe it won't be that bad."
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.
Answer: They only give him a schematic of the molecule. The man even says, "It would take years to decipher the matrix", or something like that.