Das Boot

La Rochelle, (occupied) France, in late 1941: The adventurous, naive German war correspondent Leutenant Werner volunteers to go aboard U-96 and experience life as a crew member on a German U-boat hunting allied convoys in the North Atlantic. Little does he know the "adventure" is going to be a nightmare trip: After sinking three cargo ships, the U-boat is relentlessly hunted down by enemy destroyers, dropping endless rounds of depth charge and making the U-boat crew go through hell. Escaping narrowly, U-96 (already on its way back home) is re-assigned to sneak through the heavily guarded Straits of Gibraltar, virtually a suicide mission. The U-boat is discovered, attacked and sent to the bottom of the Straits. However, unbeknownst to the enemy, the crew manages to survive and repair the vessel underwater. U-96 resurfaces and finally makes it home. Having just arrived, however, allied fighters air-raid the port. Half of the crew gets killed (Werner among the survivors) and the boat is sunk in the dock - this time for good.

Revealing mistake: In one scene just before the attack on a big Hunter the young captain (Jürgen Prochnow) is sitting with his charts. Beside him he has got a glass of beer standing. The sub lurches heavily right and left in the hard weather, but the surface of the liquid stays the same.

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: The full sized mock up of the U boat was rented by Steven Spielberg for use in the first Indiana Jone's film.

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.