Goofs for
The Right Stuff (1983) More at IMDbPro »

• Continuity: The footage of the Sputnik launch and the Vostok flight of Yuri Gagarin was actually the launch of Soyuz rockets.
  
  
• Factual errors: The Air Force did not ask Chuck Yeager on October 13, 1947, to break the sound barrier the next day. He had been flying the Bell X-1 (which he had named the "Glamorous Glennis") since August and had made 8 previous powered flights. When he actually broke the sound barrier on October 14, it was by accident. The target speed was Mach .97, but at speeds just under Mach 1, a shock wave made the Machmeter read low.
  
  
• Anachronisms: A bottle in the bar has a bar code on it.
  
  

• Factual errors: The launches of Sputnik and Yuri Gagarin took place from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, not from Star City (which is near Moscow).
  
  
• Factual errors: The close-up of John Glenn's rocket eight seconds before launch is reversed.
  
  
• Factual errors: The separation of John Glenn's capsule from the Atlas is actually a separation of the capsule and launch escape tower from the MA-3 test (conducted in April 1961).
  
  
• Factual errors: The separation of Alan Shepard's Mercury capsule and his Redstone rocket is actually footage of an Atlas first stage dropping away from the main stage. The main stage of the Atlas went on with one engine, the center engine. The Redstone was one stage only.
  
  
• Continuity: When Shepard is landing on the aircraft carrier in his first scene the view from his POV shows a level approach, but when we cut to Shepard himself we can see by the ocean outside that the aircraft is in a steep turn.
  
  
• Continuity: When Yeager agrees to fly the X-1, he rides up to the bar at twilight. When he enters, the sky through the windows is bright blue, and all throughout that scene behind every character. When he leaves, he rides off after his wife in the twilight again.
  
  
• Continuity: Mis-matched shots when "real" footage is mixed with fictional as Shepard leaves the van heading for the Redstone rocket.
  
  
• Factual errors: Jack Ridley died in 1957, hence would not be around in 1963 to talk to Yeager about the upcoming NF-104 flight.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: When Yeager makes the first supersonic flight, we see the plane's Machmeter going offscale because it only reads up to Mach 1. Although this seems completely silly because the plane was always intended to fly supersonically, it is in fact what happened.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: In the X-1 test flight, immediately before Yeager says, "Mach point-nine-one," the thread guiding the X-1 model is visible.
  
  
• Anachronisms: When the B-29 carrying the Bell X-1 is taxiing out for what will be the first Mach 1 Flight (October 1947), a T-34 Mentor is visible from the flight station. This aircraft entered service in 1954.
  
  
• Anachronisms: As the B-29 carrying Yeager and the X-1 taxis as it prepares to take off and launch the X-1, a Beech T-34 can be seen in the background. The scene takes place on October 14th, 1947, but the first flight of the T-34 wasn't until December 2nd, 1948.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: Towards the end of the movie when Chuck Yeager ejects from the NF-104, you can see the Cessna that carried the stunt man in the upper part of the screen.
  
  
• Continuity: Chuck Yeager doesn't appear to age at all over the 16 year span (1947-1963) that the film covers.
  
  
• Continuity: The "Glamorous Glennis" painted on the Bell X-1 switches sides at least once during its famous flight. It should be on the plane's right (starboard) side.
  
  
• Factual errors: The real NF-104 had a large rocket engine at the base of the tail above the jet engine. The aircraft used in the movie seems to be a stock F-104.
  
  
• Factual errors: Yeager's NF-104 flight was portrayed as an unplanned, spur of the moment thing. Both his autobiography and the book this movie is based on imply that the flight was well-planned and the control tower would have known about it.
  
  
• Anachronisms: When the footage of Gagarin in space is shown, the soundtrack is of another Russian cosmonaut, Alexei Leonov, saying that the Soyuz spacecraft is ready for the merging with Apollo (which took place in 1975).
  
  
• Continuity: When Yeager is setting the speed record at Mach 2.5, close shots show his aircraft cutting through bank after bank of clouds; yet shots from the ground show him streaking through a clear sky.
  
  
• Continuity: When Grissom leaves the motel room to talk to the press, he buttons his suit jacket twice.
  
  
• Anachronisms: When the astronauts are introduced to the media for the first time, in one reverse-shot where the reporters are snapping pictures and hollering, we can see in the window in the upper right hand area a modern-day Alameda County Transit bus (despite the fact that this is supposed to be Washington, D.C., in 1959).
  
  
• Continuity: When Yeager takes up the NF-104, the actual pilot seen in the plane as it's taking off is wearing a different helmet and oxygen mask than in the close-ups.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: During the fiery re-entry of John Glenn's capsule, you can see the wire the model is riding when it hurtles straight down from the side view.
  
  
• Continuity: Commenting on the launch and recovery of Ham the chimpanzee, Chuck Yeager is seen wearing his flight suit with the insignia of a Colonel (eagles). Immediately subsequent to this, Yeager is seen at a party at his home where he wanders outside to look up at the moon; on the collar of his class B uniform is the insignia of a Major (gold oak leaf).
  
  
• Factual errors: When the seven astronauts are at a bar that has an underwater view of the pool outside, Deke Slayton can be seen being chased by several girls while waving at the astronauts inside the bar. Deke Slayton couldn't swim.
  
  
• Factual errors: During the second funeral sequence, Gordo Cooper is wearing decorations on his service dress uniform denoting service in the Korean War. In reality, Cooper was the only member of the "Original Seven" who was not a combat veteran.
  
  
• Continuity: When Alan Shepard is shown receiving the NASA Medal from President Kennedy at the White House, the first shot shows him already wearing the medal before Kennedy presents it to him.
  
  
• Factual errors: When Alan Shepard is shown landing on the carrier before being asked to join the program, there is an S-3 Viking and an A-7 Corsair II shown on the flight deck. The S-3 wasn't in service until 1974 and the Corsair II in 1965. Additionally, Shepard is flying a A-4M. The M variant did not enter service until 1971, more than 10 years after Shepard became an astronaut.
  
  
• Factual errors: After the first manned Mercury flight on 5 May 1961, Alan Shepard is seen stepping from an SH-3 Sea King helicopter onto the recovery aircraft carrier. The SH-3 would not become part of the Navy's operational inventory for another month (June 1961; albeit either in gloss gray or midnight blue colors) and the white over gray color scheme on the SH-3 seen in the movie would not become standard on Navy helos until approximately 1967, six years later. In reality, Shepard stepped from a UH-34 Seahorse (Marine variant of the Sikorsky S-58), number 44, painted in field green with white Marine lettering and numbers.
  
  
• Factual errors: Whene Chuck Yeager started his Bell XS-1 plane to break the sound barrier, he started his flight by only flipping 2 toggle rocket chambers switches. Not all 4 which in seen in the movie.
  
  
• Factual errors: In the end scene where Col. Yeager is ejecting from the NF-104, the Koch fasteners on his parachute harness are not attached to the risers on the ejection seat. This would be fatal when he separated from the seat post-ejection as he would not be attached to the parachute.
  
  
• Factual errors: When Glenn is about to start his re-entry, the dialog makes quite clear that Glenn must line up his capsule exactly right before he fires his retros, yet the shot right after firing shows the capsule is clearly "tumbling" as it starts its re-entry. Such tumbling, in actuality, would lead to a burn up.
  
  
• Factual errors: When Chuck Yeager's flight in the NF-104 ends in an uncontrolled flat spin, he is shown attempting to restart the jet engine. While doing so, a shot of the instrument panel is shown as he feverishly tries to manipulate the controls. The shot centers on what are actually the landing gear indicator lamps flashing on and off, which would have nothing to do with the operation of the engine.
  
  
• Anachronisms: Just before John Glenn goes into orbit, President Kennedy is shown giving a speech, and Pancho's Happy Bottom Riding Club is shown burning down. That fire happened 10 years before, in 1952.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: A scene at Gus Grissom's house as he is about to start his flight takes place in the summer, but there are no leaves on the trees the photographers are climbing.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: During Chuck Yeager's 1953 attempt at Mach 2 in the silver Bell X-1A, the wire suspending the model is clearly visible just behind the cockpit canopy.
  
  
• Factual errors: The stock footage of Grissom's capsule landing was of a Gemini, not Mercury, spacecraft.
  
  
• Factual errors: Durings Glenn's Flight, he reports seeing "Fireflies" around his capsule directly to mission Control. In reality Glenn was over the Pacific and out of radio contact with mission control at the time of this observation. The information was relayed to Mission control by teletype from Conton island control station in the south pacific.
  
  
• Factual errors: When Yeager climbs in to the X-1 to make the supersonic flight, he never straps himself in. During the flight, Yeager (Sheppard) is shown several times with no shoulder straps visible.
  
  
• Continuity: The colors of the name Glamorous Glennis are one color when plane is on the ground, but another color when the plane is in flight.
  
  
• Continuity: After Chuck Yeager breaks the sound barrier and the plane is being towed back to the hangar, in the first shot he is seen riding on the jeep and in the closeup he isn't there, but reappears in the subsequent long shot.
  
  
• Factual errors: When Alan Shepard meets with president Kennedy after his first flight astronaut Scott Carpenter (played by actor Charles Frank) is seen in the background to the left. When Kennedy in the real life footage bends down to pick up Shepard's decoration from the ground Carpenter can also be seen among the people behind the president.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Yeager stalls the NF-104, "engine restart" sounds are heard before he actually moves the toggle switches.
  
  
• Factual errors: When Yeager bails out of his NF-104, he's ejected upwards (like in most fighter jets). The NF-104 ejected the pilot downwards (through the bottom of the plane), because due to the high profile of the rear (t-shaped) rudder the aircraft makers feared the pilot to collide with it. For the later versions of the F-104 this was changed, because otherwise the pilot could not eject in a low level flight.
  
  
• Factual errors: When Gus Grissom receives his medal by order of the President of the United States, the military guards on each side of the podium are at the position of Parade Rest. However, whenever medals are awarded, military personnel are brought to the position of Attention.
  
  
• Factual errors: There were no fatal accidents with the Bell X-1 before Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier.
  
  
• Factual errors: The stock photo of a Redstone rocket taking off during Alan Shepard's launch in the film is not the actual launch of Freedom 7. Photographs of the actual launch shows an orange crane to the right in the picture, close to the rocket. In the movie, the crane is not seen, so it must be a different launch.
  
  
• Continuity: At a press conference, the MC says "On this 50th anniversary of the Wright Brothers' first flight(Dec 17, 1903)..." and then the next scene displays the date Dec 12, 1953 when Scott Crossfield breaks Chuck Yeager's speed record
  
  
• Anachronisms: When John Glenn's flight is scrubbed, Vice President Johnson can be seen sitting in a 1965 Lincoln limousine, yet the year is 1962.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The call sign of the X-1 that crashes before Yeager's flight is "Whiskey Kilo Two." "Whiskey" and "Kilo" represent W and K in the NATO Phonetic Alphabet, which the U.S. Armed Forces adopted in 1956. Yeager's flight took place in 1947, when the armed forces used the Joint Army-Navy Phonetic Alphabet, in which "William" and "King" represent W and K.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: During some of the flight sequences, the view through the cockpit windows is clearly back projection. There are little specks of dirt on the skyline.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When the astronauts are first introduced to the public, a matte line is clearly seen when they each stand up one by one.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: During some of the failed shuttle launches at Cape Canaveral, what the ground crew are watching is clearly footage of the real events and not an actual explosion. The picture quality is noticeably different and grainier.
  
  
• Continuity: When Nurch Murch peers through the glass at Gordo, it goes from being covered in condensation to clear from one shot to another.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: The shot of the B-29 starting its engine shows a small air intake immediately behind the propeller, and is clearly painted black along the bottom half of the engine cowling and underside of the wing. However, the shot of the B-29/X-1 combination taking off for the sound barrier flight is archival footage of a B-50 carrying an X-1. The B-50 was an updated model of the B-29 with improved engines. The updated engines have larger air intakes set much farther behind the propellers. Also, the B-50 shows no black coloring, instead it's unpainted aluminum.
  
  
• Factual errors: In the press conference scene introducing the Mercury astronauts, for dramatic effect, the astronauts are not seated as they actually were. Gus Grissom sat in the center, not John Glenn. Glenn actually sat to Grissom's left, and was between Grissom and Gordon Cooper. It would have been impossible for Cooper to have stage whispered to Grissom as seen in the movie.
  
  
• Factual errors: In the press conference scene introducing the Mercury astronauts, the astronauts all raise their hands (Glenn raises both hands) to the question "Which one of you will be the first into space"? In reality, the question raised was whether they were confident they would return from space.
  
  

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