Corrected entry: When the Orlando finally gets a shooting solution on the Stingray and the admiral calls to gloat, he is quite surprised when Dodge informs him he's already fired his torpedoes. In reality, the sonar officer on the Orlando would have been screaming "Torpedo in the water!" as soon as the first torpedo left the Stingray.
Corrected entry: How did Admiral Graham know how the Stingray got past the Orlando in Charleston? Did Dodge tell the Admiral that they pretended to be a fishing boat on top of the water? Admiral Graham specifically stated that "the weather was the deciding factor." How would he know this unless he knew the exact tactics involved? Generally the weather doesn't affect the submarines underwater.
Correction: Graham did not know how the Stingray got to Charleston. He was making a very flimsy excuse.
Corrected entry: This movie appears to take place in 1996. The first production Seawolf-class submarine was launched in 1998.
Correction: COs are usually assigned as part of a precomissioning crew so its not unlikely that Dodge would have found himself being posted to a vessel still being built. The Seawolf was itself launched in June 24, 1995, and was commissioned in July 19, 1998. Meaning Dodge was set to oversee the final stages of his submarine being built.
Correction: The First Seawolf Class, USS Seawolf SSN-21, was launched in June of 1995.
Corrected entry: When Graham is on the Orlando he is a flag officer. Although he has command of the task force in the exercise he can not take over command of the ship he is on. In Navy Regulations the Captain or Commanding Officer of the vessel has sole discretion over operation of such vessel and can not be overruled by a flag officer. Even if he is removed from command the first officer would maintain the authority until the ship returned to port.
Correction: As you can see, Captain Knox did attempt to protest. But attempting to overrule a flag officer in this situation could cause harm to his career (in which case he would never make admiral and might be removed from command), especially with an officer like Graham on the promotion board. So he acquiesced. See also at the end Admiral Winslow told Graham to forget about a third star. Violating this regulation is probably the reason.
Corrected entry: The qualification badge of Lt. Lake's uniforms through most of the movie is that of a surface warfare officer. At the end of the movie she finally wears the correct qualification badge, the submarine warfare badge or commonly called "dolphins."
Correction: Submariners cannot become "qualified" until they have gone to sea on a submarine. Once at sea, Lake could have been awarded her Dolphins, and been authorized to wear the insignia. Until then, she wore her previously authorized Surface Warfare insignia.
Correction: Not only did she not have enough time to qualify while they were out, she is wearing the enlisted sub pin, her SWO pin is gone, and she has fewer ribbons than the beginning of the movie.
Corrected 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.
Correction: The military salute is intended to be the same for all services. In reality, the Navy and Marines have similar salutes which differ slightly from those is use by Army and Air Force personnel. Stepanek's childhood allowed him to learn proper Naval policies and protocols, including the art of saluting which he intentionally undermined just enough to manipulate BUPERSMAN into issuing separation orders. With new-found respect for his father, he executes a sharp salute that any sailor would recognize as proper form. The palm is angled inward so that it is visible in the right eye's periphery. My company commander taught us that a good Navy salute starts was a motion that looks like you are throwing scrambled eggs at your face. By default, this will always expose the back of the hand to the recipient.
Correction: His hand is still tilted too much.
Corrected 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.
Correction: When first reporting to a duty station or when summoned to a superior's office, a salute indoors is appropriate.
Correction: No one in the Navy salutes without a cover on. It is never done, no matter what you are doing.
Character mistake: When Pascal gives his mutiny speech he refers to comsubpac, the Submarine Command for the Pacific fleet. He should have said comsublant. It seems to be a common theme of mistakes seeing as the museum sub they used for the Stingray is kept at a pier in San Francisco. Most of the scenes at dock are filmed there and at sea in nearby waters. Its possible that the original script was based on a west coast 'war game' and later got changed after a number of scenes were already filmed. (01:01:00)
Suggested correction: He says "comsublant."
Corrected 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.
Correction: 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.
Correction: The running depth of a torpedo is not determined by the depth of the tube launching it, but by the guidance program on board the torpedo. Also, modern torpedoes do run well below the surface since striking the side of a ship may not result in sufficient damage. Instead, torpedoes run beneath the ship and detonate below it in order to create a pressure wave to "break the back" of the target. That said, (and setting aside the fact that the SS-161 was decommissioned in 1930), it's unclear if the 1958 refit would have equipped the Stingray with "modern" torpedoes, but it is certainly possible. And, yes, the movie does depict a hull strike for each of the fish.
Corrected entry: When the stingray is trying to evade the Orlando by going between the rudders of an oil tanker, after Lt. Lake takes the control ("Balls to the walls, boys"), there are two different sets of actors at the rudders and the camera goes back and forth between the two sets of actors.
Correction: I just watched this scene again and I've seen a total of 3 actors in front of big "steering wheels" which coincides nicely with the submarines 3 control surfaces (forward diving planes, rear diving planes and rudders). One of the actors is seen only once where he directly responds to a rudder order and the other 2 are the actors playing Jackson and Spots at the boat's diving controls.
Correction: In a normal situation sure, but in this scene there are 2 things that potentially limit the Orlando's ability to hear the Torpedoes. First the Stingray is running at flank speed, thereby creating as much noise as she is capable of producing, between the Orlando and the torpedoes potentially covering the weaker sound emissions from the torpedoes. Second the Orlando is running on the surface at high speed, as evidenced by her bow wave and the foaming water around her, creating a lot of noise herself in the form of water breaking around her, thereby degrading the efficiency of her sonar. In short it's possible that the Orlando missed the Stingray's torpedoes.