Character mistake: In the scenes in San Diego, all the scenes outside the sub are taking place during daylight hours. Immediately after the crewman relays the message about the mysterious telegraph transmission, the scene shifts to the sub. The commander asks what time it is in Melbourne and is told it is 1500 hours (3PM). But if it were that time in Melbourne, it would be 10PM in San Diego, and thus not during daylight hours. (01:33:30 - 01:38:05)
On the Beach (1959)
Ending / spoiler
Directed by: Stanley Kramer
Starring: Gregory Peck, Fred Astaire, Anthony Perkins, Ava Gardner
... "This is the way the world ends Not with a bang but a whimper." The last of humanity all die. Either by radiation poisoning or hopefully by the suicide pills issued by the government. Captain Towers sails away to ditch his nuclear sub while Moira watches him from a hilltop. The last scene shows a Salvation Army banner, the message now directed at the movie audience: "THERE'S STILL TIME BROTHER"
Guy Holladay
More mistakes in On the Beach
Morgan: They pushed us too far! They didn't think we'd fight, no matter what they did.
Julian Osborne: And they were wrong. We fought. We expunged them. And we didn't do such a bad job on ourselves.
Trivia: Ava Gardner was not impressed with Melbourne which she regarded as a sleepy little backwater, but her supposed quote that it was "the perfect place to make a film about the end of the world." was a journalistic invention by a sub-editor on the Sydney Morning Herald.