Goofs for
The Aviator (2004) More at IMDbPro »

• Anachronisms: At least one of the Fokker biplanes shown rolling for takeoff in the Hell's Angels (1930) scenes had a modern opposed cylinder engine.
  
  
• Continuity: When Howard and Faith are at the nightclub, they share a chocolate sundae. The scene begins with a continuity issue involving Faith's spoon. As the sundae itself melts and re-freezes, the cherry jumps from the top to the side and back to the top with fresher fudge. Also, at one point, Faith is shown with her arm raised, eating, but, in the very next shot, her arm is on her lap.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The grounded TWA Constellation airliners shown are "Super G Constellations" with wing-tip fuel tanks, a model that did not fly until 1951. TWA would still be flying regular "Constellations" in 1946, when the scene was supposed to have taken place, as all Lockheed Constellations were grounded from July 12 until August 23, 1946.
  
  

• Anachronisms: In the early scene when Hughes takes Hepburn on a flight over LA, the first aerial shots briefly show a couple of obviously modern buildings as well as part of a freeway.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The first time we see Pan-Am's headquarters, a close-up of the upper portion of the Chrysler Building shows several cellular telephone antennae.
  
  
• Continuity: The posters outside the viewing room where Howard locks himself change when he leaves. Before he leaves, the Scarface (1932) poster is on the left and the Hell's Angels (1930) poster is on the right, but by the time he's gone they have switched.
  
  
• Continuity: When the model of the Hercules is brought out to promote the plane's construction, the propellers are turning in the wide shots, but not in the close-ups.
  
  
• Anachronisms: In 1928, Hughes orders "10 chocolate chip cookies" - which were not invented until 1933.
  
  
• Continuity: During the brawl in the nightclub, the violin player is standing/sitting between shots.
  
  
• Continuity: As Hughes steps out of his plane just before meeting Hepburn on the beach and he buttons his coat, his tie is outside the coat. In the next shot of Hughes, the tie is tucked in under the buttoned coat.
  
  
• Anachronisms: In the Pantages Theatre premiere sequence, posters for The Women, a mid-1939 release, are quite visible. On the soundtrack we hear an announcer praising the newly discovered Ava Gardner. Ava Gardner did not enter films until 1941.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The Honolulu clock behind Brewster shows the time is 9:30, 3 hours earlier than the time on the Los Angeles clock (12:30). Based on Brewster's line about Harry S. Truman being Vice President, the scene takes place between January-April 1945. Until the Hawaii-Aleutian Standard Time Zone was changed to its present 3-hour differential in 1947, Hawaii was a half-hour behind the West Coast.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: In a shot with the Hercules aircraft in the background, a painter is seen applying paint to the nose-area of the aircraft with a paint roller. The roller passes past the section that he is supposed to be painting.
  
  
• Anachronisms: Howard Hughes refers to the Lockheed "F-80" when he's talking to Noah and Odie about working with jet engines. Since this conversation took place the same day as the flight of the Spruce Goose, 2 November 1947, then he should have called it the "P-80", as the Air Force did not discard the "Pursuit" designation until 1948.
  
  
• Miscellaneous: In the closing credits, Kenneth Welsh's name is misspelled. It appears as Kenneth Walsh
  
  
• Continuity: When Howard is lying in the hospital bed, the pillow changes positions between shots.
  
  
• Continuity: The overhead shot of the H-1 just before Hughes takes it off for its test flight show the airplane with its short wings (used for setting pure speed records), whereas the in-flight shots portray the airplane with its long wings (used for cross-country races and setting cross-country records).
  
  
• Continuity: When Hughes is checking the control panel mock-ups for the Hercules, his hands are on/off the controls between shots.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Hughes is staring at his hands in the projection room he raises them to be illuminated by the light of the projector in a close-up, but in the subsequent long shot, although his hands are still in the light, there are no shadows of the hands on the screen.
  
  
• Anachronisms: When the Spruce Goose first gets airborne, two members of the crew stationed behind the cockpit can be seen briefly exchanging a high five.
  
  
• Anachronisms: When Howard is in the hospital, Trippe sends a flower arrangement that contains Gerber Daisies. Gerber Daisies are a hybrid and were not bred until after the 1950s.
  
  
• Anachronisms: Near the end of the film, when Hughes and others are in the tent beside the Spruce Goose, the ceiling fans are of a modern style not invented in the 1950s.
  
  
• Anachronisms: There are references to both Ava Gardner and Linda Darnell well before either became a movie actress.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The dialog places the scene where Hughes shows Frye and Gross the XF-11 on Christmas Night 1944, but the plane's insignia is of the post-World War II USAF, a red bar in the center of the white bar; it should have just the white bar. And the star on the left boom is pointing in the wrong direction.
  
  
• Continuity: At the premiere screening of Hell's Angels, in the first wide shot after the film ends, Dietrich is seen to be one of the first to applaud, but on the close up of him, he is shown as being hesitant and watching others to see if they start applauding.
  
  
• Continuity: In the first scene where they are filming "Hell's Angels", Hughes puts his hand up in the air in a close-up, but then it's down by his side when they cut to the wide shot.
  
  
• Continuity: In the restaurant scene with the indoor snowfall, snowflakes on Howard's shoulders appear and disappear between shots.
  
  
• Continuity: When Howard does his first (and last) flight with the Xf-11, you can see a very wide runway from the cockpit view before takeoff. But from the outside view (probably made with 3d studio) you can see a narrow runway.
  
  
• Anachronisms: Whilst Katherine Hepburn and Howard Hughes are dining in the Coconut Grove, she states "Haven't you heard? I'm being labeled box office poison..." At this point in "The Aviator" it is 1935. Katherine and a list of other stars including Mae West and Joan Crawford were not listed as box office poison until 1938 by a board of film distributors.
  
  
• Continuity: When Hughes is dining with Senator Brewster in the hotel, his jacket seems to vary between being buttoned and unbuttoned. Before he rises to leave, he buttons it, but when he stands up, it is unbuttoned again. Then when he walks into the hallway (in what appears to be a differently coloured jacket) it is buttoned up again.
  
  
• Continuity: When Hughes leaves the hotel room after his dinner with the senator, he is wearing a different color suit.
  
  
• Boom mic visible: When Howard is in the hospital after his plane crash, a boom mic is visible on the door.
  
  
• Anachronisms: When in the Coconut Grove, an assistant tells Hughes that all the color cameras in Hollywood are being loaned to Cecil B. DeMille at Paramount so he can't have additional cameras for "Hell's Angels". DeMille left Paramount in 1925 to establish his own studio where he remained until 1928 when he joined MGM. He didn't return to Paramount until 1932 for "Sign of the Cross". The color cameras referenced in "Aviator" would have been for the color sequences in "King of Kings" a 1927 film made by DeMille for Pathe-DeMille, the name of his studio during the "Hell's Angels" filming.
  
  
• Continuity: In the frontal shot of the Hercules, the pilot's and copilot's cockpit windows are open. The next shot is from the side of the Hercules and the windows are closed.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: During the filming of "Hell's Angels", as one of the SE5a scout biplanes taxis past, the fact that it is a reduced-scale replica is obvious due to the oversize pilot's head. Also, same shot, you can see his modern microphone attached to the helmet.
  
  
• Continuity: When Howard rolls out the "Spruce Goose" at the dinner party, the plane's eight engines are shown with propellers spinning, then seen from a different angle they are not spinning, and then back to a head-on shot they are spinning again.
  
  
• Continuity: In the Coconut Grove when we first see Errol Flynn, the waiter brings out Howard's "usual", which includes 12 peas. The first shot of the dinner plate shows 12 peas. The shot of the dinner plate after Jude Law steals a pea still shows 12 peas. The amount of peas does not change until the third shot of the dinner plate showing that there are now 10 peas.
  
  
• Continuity: When Faith Domergue crashes her car into Howard and Ava Gardner's car, even after two crashes there is no significant damage seen on either car.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: During the test flight of the Hughes H-1 racer, as Hughes pulls the plane up over the runway, a shadow on the ground reveals a plane with fixed undercarriage - the H-1 had retractable landing gear.
  
  
• Continuity: When Howard is washing his hands at the Coconut Grove, the one where he cuts his finger, the overhead shots of his scrubbing his hands vigorously has inconsistencies in the splashes on the sink: first spotted with dirty splashes, then no splashes on the sink and then lightly spotted with dirty splashes.
  
  
• Miscellaneous: When Hughes is starting up the Hercules for its first flight, he asks for the speed, which is given to him in miles per hour. Both air and water speed are measured in knots. The gauge on the control board is at the correct number of mph given (about 70), but is the label reads knots per hour, which would not be equivalent to the mph.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): When first in the Coconut Grove, Howard orders a "milk with the cap still on". When Howard receives the milk there is no cap on it.
  
  
• Factual errors: Glenn Odekirk ("Odie") was not aboard the Hercules on her maiden flight because Hughes wanted no doubts that he was at the controls. Professor Fitz was also not on board. Those on board were Hughes, Radio Operator and Electrician Merle Coffee, Flight Engineer Don Smith, Flight Mechanic John Glen, James McNamara, and various reporters.
  
  
• Anachronisms: In the Coconut Grove Errol Flynn is portrayed as an established and successful movie star. The scene is set prior to September 13, 1935 (the date given in a scene soon thereafter), but Flynn was virtually unknown until "Captain Blood," which was released in December of that year.
  
  
• Factual errors: When the speed is read out during flight it is given in miles per hour. Aviators always refer to speed in knots. The speedometer is labeled in knots also. (They made sure to do it twice so we didn't miss the error.)
  
  
• Continuity: As Howard enters the tent at the end of the film, he raises his arms to clasp Noah and Odie on their backs. But in the next shot, his arms are down.
  
  
• Continuity: The shot of Howard and Ava talking near the end is spliced with a shot of them over Howard's shoulder with her mouth open, then back to the first shot, and her mouth is closed.
  
  
• Continuity: As Howard enters the tent at the end of the film, he is carrying his hat. When he's talking to Noah and Odie in the next shot, his hat is on his head.
  
  
• Factual errors: In the film, the Hercules is not only airborne, but flying over boats and above the newsreel cameras filming it. In fact, the Hercules was airborne for about 20 seconds, and was never more than 70 feet above the water.
  
  
• Factual errors: In the film, the witnesses inside the Hercules are seated and separated from Hughes as he was at the controls. Newsreel footage showed that people were actually standing in the cockpit, with James McNamara steps away from Hughes.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When we see Ian Holm sitting in the Hercules his head barely comes over the back of the seat. In reverse shots the head and shoulders of Professor Fitz are clearly visible - obviously a stand-in.
  
  
• Continuity: When Professor Fitz tells Hughes there are clouds in Oakland, the sky behind Fitz is blue, but the sky behind Hughes is white.
  
  
• Continuity: Errol Flynn reaches out for Katharine's hand twice as Hughes introduces them.
  
  
• Continuity: Errol Flynn has a drink in his left hand when he approaches Katharine and Hughes's table, but the drink is gone when he kisses her hand moments later, then later appears on the table, even though we don't see Flynn put it there.
  
  
• Continuity: The lamp shade Errol Flynn removes off the lamp sits flat on the table, then leans on its left side, then sits flat again.
  
  
• Continuity: The shots of Hughes flying the speed-test plane show him in an open cockpit, but the cockpit is clearly closed in the shots of the plane actually flying, then the cockpit is open again when Hughes lands in the beet field.
  
  
• Continuity: The sky alternates between sun and shade during the speed-test run.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: Timing Hughes during the speed-test run, Odie says "347" (miles per hour) then "352", yet, both times, his stopwatch is at 18 seconds when he clicks it.
  
  
• Continuity: The close-ups of the stopwatch timing Hughes isn't the same stopwatch that Odie is holding.
  
  
• Continuity: Odie has his finger on the reset button of his stopwatch during the speed-test, then at the crown.
  
  
• Factual errors: Odie tells Hughes that there is enough fuel in the H-1 for two runs. Just after takeoff, the fuel gauge reads "43". Going into the first run, it's at "30". Going into the third run, it's nearly at "10". The H-1 doesn't drain that much fuel that quickly, nor would the gauge needle drop from "10" to "0" in a second, stalling the engine.
  
  
• Continuity: As Hughes crashes into the neighborhood, a pair of glasses on a kitchen counter fall down twice.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: Hughes flies the H-1 without goggles, yet his eyes are not affected. Even with a windscreen, the wind should have caused his eyes to water.
  
  
• Continuity: While Hughes asks Ava if she wants to go to Paris, two guys with blue suits pass behind them three times.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: While shooting the dogfight, a plane clips the camera mounted on Hughes' plane, and brown film spews out. Brown is the hue of undeveloped color film. "Hell's Angels" was shot in black and white; the hue of undeveloped black and white film is either gray or blue.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The "Hell's Angels" screened at the premier is not the master - which the real audience saw - but the 1989 restoration of the film, as evidenced by the blue-hued dirigible scenes.
  
  
• Anachronisms: Luddy shoots Hughes with a Bolex reflex camera, which was not manufactured until the 1950s.
  
  
• Anachronisms: Robert Gross's eyeglasses are too thin and modern for the time period.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: One of the SE-5As planes that Hughes and Noah walk past has an air-cooled cylinder engine instead of its original water-cooled V8 engine.
  
  
• Continuity: As Hughes approaches Mayer at the Coconut Grove, the men with Mayer switch positions.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: As Howard gets the idea to build a single-wing plane out of the bi-plane, Odie smashes the support holding up its upper wing with a beam. But the upper wing is already broken, with a covering laid over the joint.
  
  
• Continuity: When Hughes starts to shout "Oakland!", the shadow of the tower behind him and Dietrich changes.
  
  
• Continuity: When a model Hercules is shown at the party, it passes by two ladies in red twice.
  
  
• Continuity: Hughes's top speed on the last run in the H-1 is 352 MPH, yet going into the run, the speedometer needle is at 410 MPH, then it is at 352 when the needle pops out.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: Lighting screens are reflected in Katharine's glasses while she's in the car heading to the set.
  
  
• Continuity: The Spruce Goose flies over a group of boats, which disappear in the next shot. Moreover, the plane is flying lower in the shot.
  
  
• Factual errors: The real Hughes had brown eyes, but Leonardo DiCaprio's blue eyes are not covered with brown contact lenses.
  
  
• Continuity: As Hughes and Dietrich first talk on the "Hell's Angels" location, the same two men pushing a klieg light walk behind them twice.
  
  
• Anachronisms: At least two of the Feds who trash Hughes's office are smoking filtered cigarettes before filtered cigarettes were introduced.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: The singer at the Cocoanut Grove is at the microphone until we cut to a wide shot, and he's now stepped away from the microphone and swinging his arm. He is clearly not singing, yet we still hear him singing.
  
  
• Continuity: When Katharine and Hughes drive up to the Hepburn estate, it is sunny. When she gets out of the car moments later, the sky is overcast. When we zoom in on Hughes as Luddy shoots him, the sky is sunny again. When she gathers the clan and introduces them to Hughes, the sky behind them is blue, and the sunlight reflecting off of the roof is a yellow-orange, indicating that the sun is beginning to set. When we cut back to Hughes, the sunlight is the same as it was when we first cut to him as he was being shot by Luddy.
  
  
• Continuity: When Ava smacks Hughes, the flowers in the vase he knocks down fall on the left side of the fireplace. When we cut to the wide shot, the flowers are now strewn in front of the fireplace and on the rug.
  
  
• Continuity: After Dietrich introduces himself to Hughes, everything to their right disappears when the shot changes.
  
  
• Continuity: After Hughes yells "Oakland!", he passes behind Dietrich, then passes him again in the wide shot.
  
  
• Continuity: The positions of Hughes's arms and Frye's head as they talk about Hughes buying TWA.
  
  
• Continuity: The angle of the sketch of the Hercules on the back of the photo that Hughes hands to Odie changes.
  
  
• Factual errors: The film implies that Hughes re-shot "Hell's Angels" for sound. In fact, he re-shot the dialogue sequences only, tweaked the plot, and replaced Greta Nissen with Jean Harlow.
  
  
• Factual errors: When Hughes first meets Dietrich, he refers to "those sons of bitches" in Houston who are overseeing his father's company regarding how Hughes is spending his money. Hughes was declared an emancipated minor on his 19th birthday, and, from then on, answered to no one.
  
  
• Factual errors: The hearings were chaired by Michigan Senator Homer Ferguson, not Senator Brewster. Brewster did testify at the hearings, and was questioned by Hughes himself.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: Light screens are seen reflected in Robert Gross's eyeglasses.
  
  
• Continuity: Hughes's left hand is hanging up the phone as he points his right index finger up to acknowledge Katharine as she walks into the office. In the next shot, his left hand is rubbing his forehead, and the finger is down.
  
  
• Continuity: The right-side half of the soap holder on the bathroom sink as Hughes vigorously washes his hands is straight in one shot, then is lined up against the faucet in the next shot.
  
  
• Continuity: As Hughes confronts Roland Sweet, you see the face of the thug in the car behind Hughes. When we cut back to Hughes, the thug's face is completely dark. When we cut to Hughes again, the thug's face is visible again, and lighted differently from the first time we saw him.
  
  
• Continuity: Hughes is holding a pen and notebook as he asks Ava what she thinks about the new name of his airline. But we don't see the the pad or notebook anywhere when we cut to a wide shot of them moments later as he fetches her wrap.
  
  
• Continuity: As Frye tells Hughes about the airline route bill that Brewster is pushing on Trippe's behalf, Hughes removes his hat. In the next shot, the assistant walking behind them has the hat, and Hughes has the drawings for TWA's new logo. It's clear that Hughes exchanged the drawings for the hat, but we never see the assistant with the drawings to begin with.
  
  
• Anachronisms: Senator Brewster's eyeglasses have non-reflective coating, which was not available then.
  
  
• Continuity: The static shot of Odie and the others watching Hughes zip by them during the speed test was clearly shot on a sound stage.
  
  
• Factual errors: Hughes writes in his notebook with his left hand as he asks Ava what she thinks about the new name of his airline. Archive photos show that the real Hughes wrote with his right hand.
  
  
• Continuity: At the lunch with Brewster, the garnish on Hughes's fish, the garnish next to the fish, and the potatoes and the asparagus on the plate move from when Hughes is served the meal to when he begins to eat.
  
  
• Continuity: Before the man throws the crumpled-up paper ball at Errol Flynn, a couple passes between them, disappear in the next shot, then reappear as Flynn turns around in reaction.
  
  
• Continuity: After Ava shaves Howard, she instructs him to rinse off his face. The water in the sink has drained, and the faucet is off. But as his hands move under the faucet, it is running, and there is water in the sink again.
  
  
• Continuity: After Hughes crashes the XF-11 and is laying on the ground, the left leg of his trousers is undamaged. As the Marine picks him up moments later, it's in tatters, and his left calf is now exposed.
  
  
• Continuity: As Hughes lifts off in the XF-11, there are yellow and white stripes on the runway that weren't there a moment earlier.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: As Hughes runs his hand across the H-1's body the first time, you can see the sheet above his index finger bend in a bit, which shouldn't happen.
  
  
• Continuity: As Katharine blots her face with the handkerchief on the golf course, a group of people walk up the slope to her left in the opposite direction, but there is no sign of them or the slope in the next shot.
  
  
• Continuity: When Errol Flynn reaches Hughes and Katharine's table, he takes a final drag off of his cigarette, then exhales. When Flynn kisses Katharine's hand moments later, he is clearly exhaling the cigarette smoke.
  
  
• Continuity: Errol Flynn's cigarette moves from his right hand to his left hand as Hughes and Katharine stand up, then back to his right hand as they leave.
  
  
• Continuity: Errol Flynn holds a drink in his right hand and a cigarette in his left hand as the man behind him hits him with the crumpled-up paper ball. As he turns around to react in the next shot, the drink in now his left hand, and the cigarette is in his right hand.
  
  
• Continuity: As Hughes tells Dietrich "but it all makes good sense to me", the action behind them changes.
  
  
• Anachronisms: As Hughes and Dietrich walk on the "Hell's Angels" location, the pilots are clearly carrying parachutes on their backs. "Hell's Angels" is set in World War I when parachutes were unavailable to pilots.
  
  
• Continuity: When we first see Louis B. Mayer, his arms are down. When he turns around after Hughes taps him on the shoulder, he has a drink in his hand.
  
  
• Continuity: When we first see Louis B. Mayer, the bar that he and his party are gathered at is to his left. As he talks to Hughes, the bar is now to his right as evidenced by the drink he sets down while talking to Hughes.
  
  
• Continuity: As Hughes talks to the cigarette girl at the Cocoanut Grove, the same couple walk up to the table behind him twice.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: Louis B. Mayer's mouth movements doesn't match his vocals near the end of his talk with Hughes.
  
  
• Continuity: As Hughes complains about the airplane footage, his arms are moving in a circular motion in one shot, then his left arm is down in the next shot before he moves it again.
  
  
• Continuity: Hughes inspects a rudder while talking to Dietrich, but neither he or Dietrich are in the shot when we cut to a frontal view of the plane, even though we still hear Hughes talk.
  
  
• Continuity: We cut to a frontal view of the plane whose rudder Hughes is inspecting with Dietrich, then to a shot of Hughes and Odie at the propeller, but we never see Hughes and Dietrich walk around to the front of the plane.
  
  
• Continuity: In the projection room with Dietrich, Hughes jots down notes with his right hand. When he is at Ava's house much later in the film, he jots down notes with his left hand.
  
  
• Continuity: As Hughes is on the phone ordering Reel 10 to be re-run, his right index finger is pointed. When he orders chocolate chip cookies in the next shot, the finger now touches his thumb in an "OK"-like gesture.
  
  
• Continuity: As Dietrich breaks the bad news regarding the cost overruns on "Hell's Angels", Hughes runs his hands through his hair up either side of his head, then stops. In the next shot, his hands have met on the back of his head, with the the fingers interlocked.
  
  
• Continuity: The mink on Katharine's right shoulder before and after Hughes hands her the steering wheel of the plane.
  
  
• Continuity: When Hughes is burning his clothes, his fringe appears in the close ups and disappears in the wide shots.
  
  
• Continuity: The sunlight as Hughes taxis down the runway in the H-1 changes radically.
  
  
• Continuity: Hughes puts the drawings for TWA's new logo down on the table to free his hands. But as he chews out the assistant who gave him the drawings, we cut to a close-up of the mock TWA logo, and Hughes is holding it with his left hand. In the next shot, his hands are empty again.
  
  
• Continuity: As Hughes orders Frye to dig up dirt on Brewster, a man in a full brown coverall suit appears behind Fyre that wasn't among the workers until then.
  
  
• Continuity: As Hughes finishes shaving as he talks to Katharine, there is still foam on his chin. As he moves to rinse his face, the foam is gone.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: As Hughes wipes the blood off his hands in the Cocoanut Grove bathroom, it is obvious from the spots on the towel that it is make-up and not actually emitting from the cut on his finger.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Katharine's reaction when Hughes pushes the yoke to her tells us that she knows nothing about flying, yet he doesn't give her a basic rundown of the instruments and controls. In addition to pulling back on the yoke to avoid the mountain, she would have needed to use the elevator pedal.
  
  
• Factual errors: Because Hughes has been in the projection room for weeks, he should be dehydrated, yet not only does he produce enough urine to fill dozens of milk bottles, the urine is clear; it should be dark yellow or amber.
  
  
• Plot holes: Hughes has cellophane wrapped on the yoke of the plane he flies Katharine in, yet the stick of the H-1, the yoke of the XF-11, the yokes he has to choose from for the Hercules, the yoke and the throttles of the Hercules, and his cars' steering wheels on have nothing wrapped on them.
  
  
• Continuity: The "fog" surrounding the model of the Hercules as it taxis up and down the runway changes radically.
  
  
• Continuity: The two models who present the Hercules are at the curtain as it parts. In the next shot, they are standing several feet from the curtain, near the middle of the runway.
  
  
• Continuity: As Hughes stands at the doors to his office, the ice cream carton he holds has shifted to his left hand, and the spoon, which had been against the carton, is now in his right hand.
  
  
• Continuity: The ice cream spoon Hughes holds against the carton as he enters his office is in the carton when he defies Katharine and answers the phone.
  
  
• Factual errors: Hughes is shown ordering 40 Lockheed Constellations on Christmas Night 1944 after being pitched by Frye and Gross. In fact, in 1939, after Hughes bought 25% of TWA at Frye's behest, he requested a 40-passenger transcontinental airliner with a 3,500 mile range from Lockheed; in the movie, Frye and Gross pitch a 60-passenger craft with a 3,000 mile range.
  
  
• Factual errors: The propeller tips on the XF-11 are painted. Archive photos show that the first XF-11 didn't have paint on the propellers tips, but the second XF-11 did.
  
  
• Continuity: The sunlight when Hughes is in the cockpit of the XF-11, taxis down the runway, then takes off.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): A main plot point is that Hughes is mysophobic, yet he engages in behavior that someone who suffers from mysophobia would not: he makes incidental contact with various characters; he opens the doors of public places with a bare hand; he turns the public restroom faucets on with a bare hand, and uses their towels; Katharine and Ava complain about his womanizing; Ava refers to his "filthy gym shoes"; he shares the same sundae and spoon with Faith; he shakes hands with Brewster before their lunch; he leaves food in the projection room half-eaten and exposed to ants; he shakes hands with people as he walks out of the hearings.
  
  
• Continuity: The handkerchief folds in the breast pocket of Trippe's dress jacket as he talks to Hughes at the Cocoanut Grove.
  
  
• Continuity: Hughes has small hands with slender fingers, but the right hand that reaches for the Cocoanut Grove bathroom door is broader with beefier fingers.
  
  
• Continuity: Even though there is no sign that Trippe has had his office redecorated since Brewster was there, the Sydney, Honolulu, and Los Angeles clocks have been replaced by clocks representing New York, London, and Paris.
  
  
• Plot holes: How did Faith know exactly where Hughes and Ava were going, and when they would arrive?
  
  
• Factual errors: When Hughes asks how long can the Civil Aeronautics Board keep TWA's planes grounded, Frye replies until the CAB completes its investigation into "the Redding crash". According to Wikipedia, there wasn't a commercial plane crash in 1945 or 1946, and there wasn't a crash involving a Constellation until 20 October 1948. The last TWA crash up until that time was the one which claimed the life of Carole Lombard in 1942.
  
  
• Continuity: Numerous goofs in the scene at the Hepburn table: As Mrs. Hepburn tells Hughes about their artists' colony, there is a bowl of food next to the vase while she is handed a bowl from Katharine, but she doesn't take it as she is holding a knife and fork. As she asks Hughes about his politics, the bowl next to the vase is gone, the drinking glass and the plate of sliced bread before Hughes are now spaced apart, and he holds a bowl of carrots, even though he doesn't have a plate. When we then cut to Katharine, she is holding a bowl toward Mrs. Hepburn. When we next cut to Katharine, she is handing Mrs. Hepburn a bowl of string beans from Luddy. When Mrs. Hepburn asks Hughes about Roosevelt, she passes the string beans back to Katharine. When we cut to Hughes's reaction, Mrs. Hepburn now holds the bowl of food that we can't make out, and there are now carrots on Uncle Willy's plate. In the next shot, Mrs. Hepburn's right hand is empty. In the next shot, Katharine is passing the string beans to Luddy. When Hughes complains about the dog, the bowl of carrots Mrs. Hepburn holds is half-full. As Katharine and Luddy react to the dog, he holds the string beans with his left hand. In the next shot, his left hand reaches for the dog under the table. In the next shot, his left hand holds the string beans again. When Dr. Hepburn asks Hughes "Don't you like dogs?", there are carrots on Hughes's plate. When we next cut to Mrs. Hepburn, the bowl of carrots is full. In the next shot, the level of carrots has changed, and the carrots on Hughes's plate are gone. When Dr. Hepburn asks Hughes "A bad experience, with a dog?", a bowl is passed across him. When Hughes answers Dr. Hepburn's question about a Doberman, he is holding the string beans when he should be holding whatever was passed across Dr. Hepburn. When Dr. Hepburn asks Hughes if he reads, Hughes is handling a fork and a napkin. When Uncle Willy reacts to Hughes's use of "snuff", Hughes is leaned over to his right as he looks at Uncle Willy, then, two shots later, he is upright and holds just the napkin. When we cut to Hughes after Mrs. Hepburn says "Flying magazines?", his hands are on his lap, and the plate that was next to the vase before is now near it. When Katharine mentions the plane Hughes is building, Luddy, a glass up to his lips, responds with "Oh, really?", but his lips don't move. We then jump-cut to Luddy, and his arm is down, the glass gone. When Hughes reacts to Dr. Hepburn telling him that he's a urologist, there is a fork and vegetables on Hughes's plate that weren't there before. When he reacts to what Mrs. Hepburn says, the fork and vegetables are gone. As Hughes says "Well, that's because you have it", his plate is gone, and the drinking glass and the sliced bread are in the same spot they were when we first saw him. When Hughes gets up, his plate is there again, there is a red pitcher between himself and the lady which should have been in the shots of Hughes from Dr. Hepburn's point-of-view, and there is a candle holder near Katharine and Mrs. Hepburn which we should have seen in the shots that involved them.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: Various people and events in Hughes' life, and events in the lives of the real-life characters he interacts with have been altered or omitted to fit the dramatic narrative.
  
  
• Factual errors: It is not certain that Hughes had any of his germ phobias, prior to either the Cash of the XF-11, or the congressional hearings, which shook him. Both of these events took place well after most of the events in the film. In particular locking himself in a room to screen films, giving extremely particular food orders, etc. are traits most associated with his period in Las Vegas, much later than the period covered by the film.
  
  
• Factual errors: Most biographies of Hughes indicated that "toolco" (which owing to its' patents had at various times a 90% market share for petroleum drill bits) was such a gusher of cash, that the apparent financial crunches the movie implies never took place.
  
  
• Factual errors: At the Hepburn house, Hughes mentions that the Hepburn family "doesn't care about money", because "they have always had it". At this point Hughes could have made a statement that implied that they all should be concerned about those that do not have money. However, it is implied that Hughes either made it all himself, or did not in fact come from "money". In fact, the Hughes Tool Company was large and wealthy enough that he was comfortable going to Hollywood to make films, and get into aircraft, and airlines. Hughes was far wealthier than the Hepburn family, and did come from wealth.
  
  

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