Trivia for
Thirteen Days (2000) More at IMDbPro »

• The 1960s' vintage F-8s shown in the film are all real aircraft that were used by the Philippine Air Force.
  
  
• Although the F-8 aircraft used in the movie are real aircraft once used by the Philippine Air Force, they were, in fact, nonfunctional at that time. During the filming of the movie, the planes were actually being towed.
  
  
• The aircraft shown carrying the President to Connecticut is an actual VC-137 (Boeing 707) Presidential aircraft used by President Kennedy. The 707 shown wasn't in service until a month after the Cuba crisis though. At the time another 707 with a different color scheme was used.
  
  
• The destroyer Joseph P. Kennedy was loaned to the movie company by the Battleship Massachusetts Foundation in Fall River, Massachusetts. In addition to being named for a Kennedy brother killed in WWII it was actually part of the Cuban Blockade. The ship was towed to Narragansett Bay for filming. The ship is normally on display in Fall River.
  
  
• Steven Culp also played Robert Kennedy in Norma Jean & Marilyn (1996) (TV).
  
  
• The second movie about President Kennedy in which Kevin Costner stars as someone other than Kennedy. The first was JFK (1991).
  
  
• Christopher Lawford is a real-life nephew of JFK.
  
  
• 'Steven Culp' and Dylan Baker did their undergraduate study together at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, VA.
  
  
• In the early briefing scene where Arthur Lundahl, director of the CIA's National Photographic Interpretation Center, shows a map of the missiles' range, the town of Oxford, Miss., is one of the targets. All other targets were major US Cities. This was not an error. It's not clear whether the joke started with the Kennedy's or the CIA, but in any case President Kennedy was still smarting from the previous month's riots in Oxford, which put him at cross-purposes with a recalcitrant Governor Ross Barnett of Mississippi and U.S. Army generals whose hesitation to dispatch troops to northern Mississippi bordered on insubordination. Kennedy was said to have quipped "Can they hit Oxford?" when told about the missiles.
  
  
• President Kennedy very frequently set up recording machines during meetings at the White House. Much of the dialogue from the movie is taken directly from Kennedy's tapes.
  
  
• After Kennedy leaks the Lippman column to the press, and the representative from Russia is on the television expressing his concern, Kennedy ('Bruce Greenwood') struggles with his tie and clearly mouths an expletive which gets overdubbed as a sound of frustration to maintain the PG-13 rating. In his next line, he mouths that the representative is, "? fucking killing us," and again his line is overdubbed to remove the curse.
  
  
• According to the film maker commentary, Bruce Greenwood and 'Steven Culp', who portray John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy, respectively, would engage each other in arguments off screen in their Kennedy personas to help keep in character.
  
  
• (February 1, 2001) First film to be screened at the White House by President George W. Bush and Laura Bush. In attendance at the historic screening were members of the Kennedy family, members of Congress and personal friends of the President and First Lady.
  
  
• In Boston, Kevin Costner's attempt at a Boston accent is so notorious that a "Kevin Costner accent" is an accepted slang term for a non-Bostonian's unsuccessful attempt at a Boston accent.
  
  

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