Goofs for
Midway (1976) More at IMDbPro »

• Anachronisms: "Strawberry 12's" co-pilot is shown eating Graham Crackers from a box. The artwork and brand "Honey Maid" was from a mid-1970's era box.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: While officially sanctioned kamikaze attacks did not begin until late 1944, more than 2 years after the battle of Midway, there are reliable reports of this tactic used earlier, including at Midway.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: In virtually every shot of the flight deck looking up at the fighters and bombers overhead attacking the U.S. ships, the anti-aircraft guns show the red paper caps of the blanks rather than pointed bullets.
  
  

• Continuity: During the Japanese bombing of Midway you clearly see, briefly, battleship masts in the background. (Recycled footage from _Tora. Tora. Tora. (1970)_.
  
  
• Anachronisms: Admiral Nimitz's office at Pearl Harbor includes a Navy Department flag (blue with the department seal in the center). The setting is 1942, but that seal wasn't adopted until 1957, and the flag not until 1959.
  
  
• Continuity: Ensign George Gay is shot in the right hand and arm. But, when he is swimming in the water, he is favoring his left arm, and reaching for his flotation device with his right hand. Later, when he is in the water watching the attack, the wounds are gone.
  
  
• Continuity: Ensign George Gay flies a torpedo plane but when his plane crashes, stock footage of a Grumman Hellcat is used to depict the crash.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: During some of the shots showing Hornet's torpedo squadron, the planes in the background have no torpedoes loaded.
  
  
• Factual errors: When some of the torpedo squadrons are shown, the planes are actually Vindicator dive bombers.
  
  
• Continuity: In the shot of the Japanese plans about to attack Midway for the first time it clearly shows torpedoes slung beneath the planes, not bombs. In the immediately preceding scene the Japanese officers discuss whether their remaining planes should be armed with torpedoes (to attacks ships) or bombs (to attack Midway).
  
  
• Continuity: When Tom Garth lands his plane after the attack on the Japanese carriers, his face is blackened from the fire in the cockpit. When the crew takes him out of the plane and places him on the stretcher, his face is dirty, but not blackened.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: Just before the gunner on Ensign Gay's plane is shot, the spots where the "bullets" will hit the plane can be clearly seen. The skin of the plane is rough and slightly discolored in those spots.
  
  
• Factual errors: The jeeps owned by the U.S. Navy are shown with the I.D. letters "USA", this was the army's designation. The Navy jeeps were lettered with "USN" (US Navy), they are portrayed correctly in "Tora! Tora! Tora!"
  
  
• Anachronisms: When the cockpit of one of the planes catches fire, the pilot pulls out a fire extinguisher. It is a more modern one, not a fire extinguisher that would have existed in the 1940s.
  
  
• Continuity: The actor portraying the radio operator aboard the Soryu search plane trying to radio back the location of the Yorktown is also in the group of Japanese sailors aboard the Hiryu watching the other three Japanese carriers burn. These two events are supposed to be happening simultaneously.
  
  
• Errors in geography: When USS Enterprise returns to Pearl Harbor at the end of the film, southern pine and oak trees surround the port. The landscape clearly is not Hawaii, but Pensacola, Florida, home port of USS Lexington at the time.
  
  
• Anachronisms: As we pan along the Akagi's flight deck before the launch of the Midway strike, telephone poles and lines are clearly visible at the top of the frame.
  
  
• Errors in geography: As planes are taking off from Midway, mountains can be seen in the far background. There are no mountains on Midway, as it is a small atoll only 2.5 miles square miles.
  
  
• Factual errors: When the Yorktown is under attack, the carriers are shown shooting at the Japanese with Quad 40mm and 20mm. At this time Enterprise, Yorktown and Hornet were still armed almost "as built." Their armament was composed of 5"/38s, 1.1" and 50 cal. water cooled.
  
  
• Factual errors: Tom Garth tells his father that hes been assigned to VF-8 (Fighter Squadron 8). When his dad (Capt. Garth) sees him reporting to the USS Yorktown he is shocked and says he wasn't supposed to ship out for a week. This can't be since VF-8 was assigned to the USS Hornet and would have shipped out before the elder Garth did.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The telephone poles are Radio Aerials and the footage is from I Bombed Pearl Harbor. The Aerials would be lowered for flight operations.
  
  
• Continuity: As Torpedo Sqn. 8 turns to attack the Japanese carriers, it can be clearly seen that they have no weapons underneath the aircraft.
  
  
• Miscellaneous: In the beginning of the scene where USS Enterprise and USS Hornet are leaving Pearl Harbor, it has a shot panning across Pearl Harbor showing an aircraft carrier marked "3" (meaning CV-3 USS Saratoga). But it is not a Lexington class ship (the class of ship that the USS Saratoga belonged to) it appears to be an Essex class carrier that someone has changed the number on (probably CV-9 USS Essex).
  
  
• Factual errors: In all the overhead shots of the carriers, angled flights decks are clearly visible. Angled flight decks weren't added until the USS Midway's refit, and Japanese carriers were never retrofitted with them.
  
  
• Continuity: When Tom Garth takes off from the aircraft carrier to attack the Japanese, he's taking off in an F4F Wildcat, but when he returns from the attack, burned and shot up, he lands in an F6F Hellcat.
  
  
• Factual errors: When the last Japanese carrier is being attacked, Japanese anti-aircraft fire destroys a bomber which explodes in mid-air. The bomber is twin engined (attacking aircraft are all single engined) and German markings are visible on the wingtips. It's unlikely that German bombers took part in the battle of Midway and certainly not attacking allied Japanese shipping.
  
  
• Anachronisms: Some of the Jeeps in this movie have one piece windshields. These Jeeps were not produced until after WWII.
  
  
• Factual errors: Kamikaze attacks did not happen at the battle of Midway. Kamikaze attacks, beginning in 1944, followed several very significant and critical military and strategic defeats for Japan, its decreasing capacity to wage war along with the loss of experienced pilots, and the increasing industrial capacity of the United States as well as Japan's reluctance to surrender at near the very end of Pacific War.
  
  
• Factual errors: When footage shows the American fighters returning to the carrier deck, after the successful strike on the three Japanese carriers, they still have their bombs.
  
  
• Anachronisms: In the final scene where a crowd has gathered at the dock to welcome Admiral Spruance and Enterprise back to Pearl Harbor, many of the extras are dressed in contemporary clothing not found in 1942.
  
  
• Factual errors: At one point Admiral Nimitz says, "It's times like these I miss the flatlands." Nimitz was born and raised in Fredericksburg, Texas, in a part of the state known as the Texas Hill Country. According to his US Navy biography, Nimitz left high school in 1905 to enter the Naval Academy. Annapolils was probably the first time in his life that the future Fleet Admiral saw anything resembling "flat lands."
  
  
• Factual errors: The movie clearly shows an Iowa Class Battleship. There were no US Battleships at the battle of Midway and the Iowa Class Battleships came out after the Battle of Midway.
  
  
• Anachronisms: During the Coral Sea sequence, a US flag with 50 stars is shown prior to the Japanese air attack on the US carriers. At the time, there were only 48 states.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: In the overhead shots of the carriers the island is on the port side and the angled flight deck on the starboard side. This is backwards and due to film reversal.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: There were over 20 scout planes sent to look for the Japanese fleet and a large grid was used to plot their movement. The path of the plane that first spotted the Japanese fleet ("Strawberry 5") was circled - before its report was radioed in.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: Most of the key officers in this movie are not sporting regulation Navy haircuts. Officers are expected to set an example.
  
  
• Continuity: During the Coral Sea battle, a crewman shouts that two "Kates" are heading for the bow of the American carrier. However, the two aircraft shown, clearly have a crew of one. The "Kate" (Nakajima B5N) had an elongated canopy to accommodate a crew of three.
  
  
• Continuity: The final climatic battle takes place on the open sea, but since shots from "Tora, Tora, Tora" were used in this sequence, land based shore facilities can be seen in the background.
  
  
• Factual errors: The majority of U.S. torpedo bombers used at Midway were of the type called "Devestators" and the torpedo carried was clearly visible. Most of the scenes used "Avengers" and the torpedo was carried internally and not visible until they were dropped. Some "Avengers" were flown at the battle of Midway.
  
  
• Factual errors: A title card late in the movie lists as June 6, 1942, which was the last day of the Battle of Midway and the day the Hiryu was hit. In fact, all four of the Japanese carriers were hit all on the very same day which was June 4, with the Hiryu being hit late in the afternoon, not two days later.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: The scene where two fighters are taking off from Midway are P-40s. This is a reused scene from Tora! Tora! Tora!
  
  
• Factual errors: When Admiral Pearson very reluctantly agrees to help Captain Garth with his family problems, he says, "We're even", meaning that by his taking this action all debts between them have been squared. In response, Captain Garth says "Aye, aye, sir." Any navy man knows that this is incorrect; "Aye, aye, sir" does not mean simply, "Yes, sir." It means 1) I hear the order, 2) I understand it, and 3) I will carry it out to the best of my ability." Since Admiral Pearson is not issuing an order in this case, the proper response is simply, "Yes, sir."
  
  
• Anachronisms: Several Grumman F6F Hellcat fighters appear in the movie. This type did not see combat until 1943, the year after this movie takes place.
  
  
• Continuity: Tom Garth manages to extinguish the cockpit fire and himself while wearing his pilot leather gloves, only to raise his burned arms in a dramatic gesture, but without gloves on his hands.
  
  
• Factual errors: In the discussion at the bar between Tom's father, Captain Garth and Tom's Commander at sea, Commander Jessop, there was mention of Japanese or Oriental intrigue or secret betrayal and the mention of the responsible person as "Madame Butterfly," which is clearly wrong because she was betrayed by the US Navy in early Japanese-American relationships. The proper name for the screenwriter or the script person to have required was the oriental master spy, "Mata Hari." She used guile and sex to betray and this was the person offensive to US affairs of presence, not "Madame Butterfly."
  
  

• Factual errors: SPOILER: When Matt Garth crashes on the flight deck at the end of the movie, it is actually footage shot during Korea, showing a SB2C "Helldiver" striking the ramp before turning into an F9F "Panther" jet fighter bomber as it explodes.
  
  

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